Recipe for Pepper Plant Chunky Garlic sauce

January 2, 2024 1:30 AM

Does anyone have a recipe for making Pepper Plant Chunky Garlic Sauce from scratch?

Pepper Plant Chunky Garlic Sauce is my mostest favoritest condiment in the universe. I live in Germany now, so I can only get it when I visit the west coast of the US (I've never seen it on the east coast. I know Trader Joe's has a partnership, and it's sold under the name Chunky Garlic and Jalapeno Hot Sauce, but this is pretty recent, as far as I know). I was in the US recently, and brought back 3 bottles, and I'm tired of hoarding!
I'd like a recipe that is reasonable approximation to the bottled stuff. The ingredient list is pretty simple:
- brined jalapeno puree (jalapenos, salt, white vinegar)
- "spices" (I can taste a little Ancho or Poblano pepper. Maybe a touch of cumin)
- dried onion
- dried garlic
- dried minced garlic (to make it chuuunky)
- olive oil
- xanthan gum

My assumption is that fermentation would probably be involved. So advice on that front would be helpful too.
Thanks!

posted by Cat Pie Hurts to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Best answer: Not a recipe, but as you mentioned, "brined jalapeno puree" strongly suggests that the sauce has a fermented pepper mash base, and the color is red, so they're using ripe, red jalapenos, which can be a bit sweeter and mellower than green jalapenos. So that's probably a reasonable place to start. This page from Serious Eats has good information. Pay attention to the notes about tasting the peppers you use before fermenting them (or before buying a whole peck). Jalapenos, even more than other types of hot pepper, have a wide range of flavor and spicyness.

Another tip: If you're going to start fermenting hot pepper mash in a mason jar (by far the most popular container for this sort of thing), don't use Pickle Pipe-type silicone lids. In my experience--and a lot of other folks', apparently--they don't do a good job of excluding outside air and can lead to mold and other problems. Use a traditional water airlock.
posted by pullayup at 6:55 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

Amazon has it in gallons.

Ingredient list there has only "garlic," once. (The regular Pepper Plant sauce uses dried garlic.)

You might try their own blend for the "spice."
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:12 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

I love this sauce too! But I've made a few fermented hot sauces and while you will be able to make a good hot sauce yourself, it will be very hard to match the flavor. There's a lot of subtlety in the specific ingredients, particularly the fermentation process.

FWIW the #1 thing that makes that particular sauce so good is it's quite salty. Nothing wrong with that, just noting it. I used to think that the salt from the fermentation was enough for a sauce; not so! Add more salt.
posted by Nelson at 8:23 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: @pullayub: Thanks for the advice! I've never seen red-ripe jalapenos here. Maybe I'll buy some and try and ripen them in a bag or something. They're a lot more expensive here (about €2 for 100g), so I may actually just try and grow some this year. I'm ordering some fermentation supplies today; I'll keep away from those silicone lids.

@snuffleupagus: Next time I'm in the US, I may try and figure out how to get a couple of gallons home :).
Unfortunately, I can't get any of this in Germany.

@Nelson: Given the cost of jalapenos here, I'm probably going to spend a ton in experimentation :). Even if I can get a reasonable approximation, I'll be happy.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 1:28 AM on January 4