Process analysis draft

                                                         Yucatan style hot sauce

First of all to make an amazing hot sauce you need good fresh produce, this is the key element to a great sauce. If you can find local organic produce, that would make it even better. If you start with a sub-par produce, you will end up with a sub-par end result. Most hot sauces that one can buy at the store are made up three basic ingredients, peppers, vinegar and salt. This style of sauce is just too plain for me, it really just tastes like vinegar and the heat level is very low, if there is any at all. The best sauces have great flavor all around, not just a vinegar taste. They also have enough heat to let you know that it is a hot sauce. The style of sauce that I like most is a Yucatan style hot sauce. This particular style of sauce originates from the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. It has the three basic ingredients that all sauces have, plus it has other added ingredients for sweetness and added flavor.  Before you can start making your own hot sauce, there are some things one must know first.
          When handling hot peppers in the home kitchen, there are a few precautions that one must make. First, and most important, is to wear latex gloves at all times when handling the peppers. When you cut a hot pepper open the inner walls are exposed and start to secrete capsicum oil. This oil is what makes peppers hot and will stick to your hands if touched without gloves. It is very hard to wash this oil off your hands, and it will transfer to any part of your body or others body that you touch. I have made this mistake before, and it burns very badly let me tell you. The second measure you should take is having a separate knife and cutting board that you use only for hot peppers. This goes back to the oil being very hard to clean off. The third measure is you must work in a very well ventilated room, as the fumes from the peppers will make you cough and make your eyes burn. Lastly one must make very sure to keep the peppers and pepper products out of the reach of small children, who make mistake the colorful peppers for a sweet treat. You should wash any item that comes in contact with the peppers with cold soapy water first, then hot water, do this at least 3 times. This should get the oil off, just be careful not to use hot water first as this will make pepper fumes come into your face, and make you cough. Now that we can safely handle the peppers, we are ready to start.
The ingredients used are: 12 habaneros, 1/2 cup carrots, ½ cup onion, 6 cloves of garlic, ½ cup white vinegar, ¼ cup fresh lime juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and black pepper to taste, and ½ cup water. You can de-seed the peppers if you would like to save them to grow, but this step is up to you, the final product will taste the same with or without the seeds. All the vegetables should be cut into small pieces, the smaller the better, as this will make blending them more easily done. You can use any color carrot that you can find, but it will affect the color of the final product, I used white for this. I prefer a sweet white onion for this recipe, as it really adds to the overall sweetness.  The vinegar used is white as I do not want to hide the taste of the peppers too much. The process is very simple to make the sauce, and can be done in about an hour and a half. After all the vegetables are cut up and your other ingredients are measured out you are ready to start.
Heat the olive oil in pot over medium heat till it starts to shimmer. Add the ½ cup onion and chopped garlic, then toss them in the olive oil and sauté them for two to three minutes till the onion is soft and translucent. Next add the chopped carrots and toss them to coat them in the oil as well. Sauté this mixture for two to three minutes till the carrots get some brown color. After some color is on the carrots add the ½ cup water to the mixture, and bring this to a boil. These should take about three to four minutes. After this comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover your pot with a lid. Simmer this mixture till the carrots become very soft, about forty to fifty minutes. Once the carrots are soft transfer the mixture into a blender, or use an emerson blender if you have one. You can add your habaneros to the mixture at this point. Blend this for about four to five minutes, till there is no pieces of vegetables left and it is very smooth. Pour the mixture back into your pot then add the lime juice, vinegar, salt and black pepper. Mix this well, and return to a simmer over a medium low heat. Simmer the mixture for ten to thirty minutes, depending on how thick you want your sauce. The longer you simmer at this point, the more it will reduce and become thicker. You can store this sauce in the refrigerator for up to six months or you can process it in a water bath canner or pressure canner. If you choose to can it for later use, make sure you follow proper canning techniques for safety reasons.
This sauce has a very fruity taste upfront from the habaneros, and has a nice sweet after taste from the carrots and cooked onion. It has a nice mild acidic taste to it, not to over powering at all. The heat level is mild but can be adjusted to be more or less hot with the addition or reduction of peppers. It pairs well with just about anything you put it on, so it really is an all-purpose sauce, but it is really goes well with pan fried potatoes or a light flakey white fish. It is mild enough that you can use it at any meal of the day, be that breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It can have a nice thin consistency to pour out of a bottle smoothly, or can be thick enough that you can spread it on a bun or piece of bread. The color can also change a lot, depending on what color of peppers and carrots you use, making it very pleasing to the eye, as well as to the mouth.
This is just one way to make hot sauce, a simple base really. There are lots of different ways to go about it; you just have to find one that works for you. You can make this sauce your own by adding whatever flavors you like, be that adding fruit, liquor, or other vegetables. You can roast the ingredients or toss them on the smoker for a couple hours for some added depth to your sauce. Also if you like a screaming hot sauce, like I do, you can sub a hotter pepper for the habaneros very easily. Once you have the experience of making your first sauce, I can promise you that you will never go back to the store bought products. They just cannot compare to the many levels and depth of flavor, and sheer variety you can come up with on your own. So go ahead and try your hand at sauce making, your only limit is your creativity!