Homemade Pepper Sauce – Suggestion for a serving bottle

condimentsserving-suggestion

I'm planning on making a homemade pepper sauce that I saw on Serious Eats. The recipe is straight forward, but am concerned about the best way to 'serve' this sauce. I think the traditional way would be to have a tabasco-type bottle since that controls the amount that will come out (a drop at a time). Anyone have another suggestion? I would prefer to stay away from plastic squeeze bottles since the vinegar in the sauce could interact with the plastic.

Thanks

Best Answer

I go through a lot of hot sauce, and tend to just re-use old Tabasco bottles. The main choice you need to make is what size of orifice reducer do you need. I think that the best for most thin sauces is a glass bottle with the right size reducer. You know you've got the right size when one shake of the bottle dispenses about 1/4 of the amount of sauce that you want. That way a few shakes gets you all you need, but you don't risk overdoing it (a real problem with hot sauces). There are four common size ranges that you see in thin condiments:

  • "Tiny", like in standard Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, Pepper-infused vinegar, etc. These are great for thin sauces, or sauces where you have used a strainer or a food mill to remove the solids. I like my sauces thin so they get into the cracks of the food, so I strain my sauces to remove the solids. The solids go into one jar to use as a chili paste, and the liquid goes into a bottle with a "tiny" orifice reducer.
  • "Medium", like in Chipotle Tabasco or other slightly thicker sauces. These sauces are still thin, but are chunkier or thicker than a truly liquid sauce. Medium reducers still require that the sauce be largely free of chunks, but if you are including tomato paste or thicker elements, you need a larger opening.
  • "No reducer", like in many Dave's Insanity sauces, or any sauce that has chunks or is truly goopy. By the time a sauce gets this thick, I actually prefer a squeeze bottle for precision.
  • Squeeze bottles, like Sriracha, are good for sauces that are less hot (dispensed in larger quantities), and thick enough to justify it. Most plastics are fine with an acidic sauce, but may not want to be stored quite as long.

You can order hot sauce bottles from a variety of sources, such as SKS Bottles, including with a variety of orifice reducers based on your desired sauce thickness. I prefer glass, and the small plastic reducers are meant for the acidic environment.

http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/fin18aa.html