Help me reverse engineer this sauce or find something similar...

September 30, 2016 9:16 AM

Help! My favorite go-to sauce looks like it might be discontinued or is on it's way to being discontinued.

I work at a grocery store and normally special order it by the case, but it's not longer available. Most online stores are listing it as out of stock and other local stores no longer have it on their shelves.

It's delicious and goes great on everything. Plus its low sodium, gluten free and not loaded with junk. (All of these are must-have's.)

I'd like to figure out how to make it myself or find a comparable product/recipe!

Thanks!

posted by pghjezebel to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

I've made this exact thing (spicy jalapeno ginger cranberry sauce) several times and it really does go on anything. It's the combo of tart, sweet, hot and savory that is so amazing. The recipe I just linked has cranberries in it and I have made it with and without and it's very good either way. What you want to do for the base recipe is simmer sugar in water until it melts, and then add jalapenos and ginger, and then add (or don't) whatever else you like in the way of sweet (peach is amazing in this!) or savory (tarragon and mustard is also killer). If after 15 minutes or so the sauce doesn't thicken, add a smidge of cornstarch that you have whisked into a cup with a bit of cold water in it. Whisk that into the simmering sauce. In the recipe I linked, the cranberries thicken the sauce, but you won't be adding those so you may need a thickener. Corn starch also gives sauces a beautiful shine.
posted by the webmistress at 9:26 AM on September 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Looks pretty straightforward from the ingredient list. Have you tried just giving it a shot? I think ingredient lists are necessarily in descending order by weight, but that would seem like a lot of xanthan gum (more than salt?!).

On non-preview, the pectin in the cranberries accomplishes exactly what the xanthan gum does. Don't leave it out, but anything in that general family, e.g., carrageenan, would work. (I wouldn't use plain corn starch.)
posted by supercres at 9:28 AM on September 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ginger hot sauce? I'm thinking Jamaica or the Caribbean (e.g.) in general.
posted by rhizome at 10:27 AM on September 30, 2016

I would follow the recipe for a standard jalapeno-based hot sauce (like this one) and add grated fresh ginger with the garlic and onions in step 1. If it needs sugar, I would add it at the same time as the "more salt if necessary."

This recipe uses ginger beer and looks interesting....
posted by bgrebs at 2:22 PM on September 30, 2016

Have you tried contacting the manufacturer directly? They can often point you to places which might have stock left if it is indeed going out of production, or might be able to hook you up with the last few cases of their own.
posted by eglenner at 3:43 PM on September 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Water, jalapeno peppers, distilled vinegar, can sugar, dried red chili pepper, dried ginger, xantham gum (natural stabilizer), salt, dried onion, dried garlic, spice.

I've had good success with making hot sauce, but I am not a canning expert, so please run this past the canning expert at your local state extension service.

If I were trying to recreate this sauce, I would stem, de-seed and chop in half 2 cups of jalapeno peppers. Let them soak in a little bit of sugar for an hour or so; this helps break down the peppers. Dice up (roughly) a large onion. Peel 4 or 5 cloves of garlic and crush them up a little. Grate fresh ginger to taste (maybe a tablespoon?). Add salt (go easy, if you want low-salt sauce). Add red pepper flakes (or a de-seeded and chopped red pepper, like a small wax pepper) to taste. Put everything in a small pot with a cup of vinegar (or apple cider vinegar) and bring it to a boil, then allow mixture to simmer gently for 25 minutes. Remove from heat. Run mixture through a food processor (or a food mill or a blender) until smooth.

Fill 4 oz. or half-pint jars (perhaps add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid to each jar?), leaving 1/2-inch headspace, and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes. Or let it cool and freeze in clean small jars, if you don't want to can it and omit the citric acid.

My general feeling is that if you're going to the trouble of making this sauce, why not use fresh ingredients instead of dried versions, where possible? But: 1 clove garlic = 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder; 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger root = 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger, etc.

Again, if you plan to can, then consult an extension agent and/or someone here at the National Center for Home Preservation.

I still have a ton of peppers in the garden, and now I want to experiment, thanks!
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:36 PM on September 30, 2016 [2 favorites]