What is pepper sauce made of? Let's talk about it!
This won't be a long blog, but it will be a good one!
Pepper sauce is not the regular "hot sauce" that's made of simply chili peppers and vinegar. The key difference that makes pepper sauce what it is is the unique mixture of ingredients. Pepper sauce is made of not one pepper but typically more than one kind of pepper. It also includes fruits and vegetables that can be different for different cultures. In Trinidad we use a mix of peppers along with vegetables like chayote (in the squash family), and citrus like lime and our mango sauce uses fresh mango fruit and our pineapple sauce uses fresh pineapple fruit. Other seasonings may also be added depending on culture styles. The peppers, vegetables, and fruits are blended together including the seeds and made into a nice blended sauce. So as you can see it results in a very different kind of hot pepper sauce.
I've met some people that hear the word "Trinidad" and immediately associate our Trini pepper sauces with the Trinidad Scorpion Pepper. While that pepper is native to Trinidad, it's not one that we typically use in our pepper sauces. Could we? Sure. But WAWM® does not make any sauces with the scorpion pepper.
Remember, every family and culture that makes pepper sauce will make their own variation resulting in different flavors and colors of sauces. Colors of sauces will also change with seasons due to the varying colors of the peppers.
I hope you enjoyed learning about Trini pepper sauce! Enjoy!