Hot sauce
Hot sauce is a type of condiment, seasoning, or salsa made from chili peppers and other ingredients.
Other sauces use some type of fruits or vegetables as the base and add the chili peppers to make them hot.
[5] Manufacturers use many different processes from aging in containers to pureeing and cooking the ingredients to achieve a desired flavor.
Marie Sharp's is a popular brand of hot sauce produced in the Stann Creek Valley.
Other hot sauces are made from puta madre, cacho de cabra, rocoto, oro and cristal peppers, mixed with various ingredients.
Mexican cuisine more often includes chopped chili peppers, but when hot sauces are used, they are typically focused more on flavor than on intense heat.
Some hot sauces may include using the seeds from the popular achiote plant for coloring or a slight flavor additive.
The process of adobos (marinade) has been used in the past as a preservative but now it is mainly used to enhance the flavor of the peppers and they rely more on the use of vinegar.
[10] Criteria in food grading for chili sauces in the U.S. includes coloration, consistency, character, absence of defects and flavor.
Other ingredients, including fruits and vegetables such as raspberries, mangoes, carrots, and chayote squash are sometimes used to add flavor, mellow the heat of the chilis, and thicken the sauce's consistency.
Artisan hot sauces are manufactured by smaller producers and private labels in the United States.
[11] A type of sriracha sauce manufactured in California by Huy Fong Foods has become increasingly popular in the United States in contemporary times.
[12] Louisiana-style hot sauce contains red chili peppers (tabasco and/or cayenne are the most popular), vinegar and salt.
Almost every traditional New Mexican dish is served with red or green chile sauce, the towns of Hatch, Chimayo, the Albuquerque area, and others in New Mexico are well known for their peppers.
[citation needed] The heat, or burning sensation, experienced when consuming hot sauce is caused by capsaicin and related capsaicinoids.
The burning sensation is caused by the capsaicin activation of the TRPV1 heat and ligand-gated ion channel in peripheral neurons.
People with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can have gas, diarrhea, or stomach pains after ingesting hot sauces.
The Scoville scale number indicates how many times something must be diluted with an equal volume of water until people can no longer feel any sensation from the capsaicin.
A protein called casein occurs in dairy products which binds to the capsaicin, effectively making it less available to "burn" the mouth, and the milk fat helps keep it in suspension.
