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Caribbean mango pepper sauce

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A cooked Caribbean hot sauce of ripe mango, habanero and other hot peppers, onion, garlic and citrus, blended smooth or left chunky.

Glossy orange Caribbean mango pepper sauce in a ceramic bowl with ripe mango, habanero and lime.

Overview

Caribbean pepper sauce is a family of hot sauces made from fresh hot peppers, salt, acid and aromatics, and cooks on the islands make it in many households. Mango is one of the fruits that cooks add. It softens the bite of Scotch bonnet and habanero peppers and gives the sauce a fruit aroma and a rounder sweetness.

The formula in this record is cooked and then blended. No culture, brine or resting period, so this record does not treat it as a fermented sauce.

Sources for this section

Background

The author's account is personal. He recalls vendors who sold a signature pepper sauce to children on the islands, and says the vendors reinvented what is known as pepper sauce there. The page offers no dated source for the practice or for mango's place in it, and it names no single island as the origin of this formula.

Commercial production is a later step. The author says the sauce was to be launched commercially; a 2017 reply on the same page states that it was not being manufactured for sale at that time.

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Method and heat

The method is a short simmer followed by a blend. The peppers, onion, garlic, mango and vegetables cook together with the citrus, salt and ginger, then the mixture cools and is puréed. The simmer is the only cooking step given and does not say what it changes in the flavour or colour of the sauce.

Heat is the variable to manage. The author advises a first batch with about four habaneros, so the cook can judge the heat before making a larger one. The sauce is mild when first tasted, and the author describes a delayed heat, so tasting after cooling is the practical check. Banana pepper and red bell pepper give body and a milder pepper note. Mustard is optional.

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Storage and results

No official shelf life is given or canning instructions, and this record does not supply one. Reader comments are not guidance. One reader kept a batch in the fridge for more than eight months and reported that it lost some of its heat. Another reported mould after two to three weeks in the fridge; the reply suggested that a used utensil might have been the cause.

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Variations

The research brief lists pineapple, guava and other fruit variations alongside this one. Each fruit changes the sweetness, acidity and aroma, so each is a separate formulation rather than the same sauce with a new name. This record keeps to the mango version the source gives.

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History

The recipe comes from a personal account of Caribbean island pepper-sauce vendors, who sold sauces of their own making. The page gives no dated source for a mango version.

Ingredients

Yield 4 cups · Scaling: the source gives one batch of about 4 cups; scale the peppers in steps, since heat builds unevenly from one batch to the next.

Ripe mangoPeel and dice.
1 large
Habanero pepperDice.
10 peppers
10 to 14 in the source; the author suggests starting with about 4 in a first batch.
Banana pepperDice.
2 peppers
Red bell pepperDice.
1 pepper
OnionDice.
1 onion
GarlicCrush.
2 cloves
44 mL3 tbsp as recorded
Orange juiceFresh-squeezed.
237 mL1 cup as recorded
Lime juiceJuice.
2 limes
15 mL1 tbsp as recorded
GingerCrushed; the author used bottled ginger.
15 mL1 tbsp as recorded
Mustard (optional)
15 mL1 tbsp as recorded
Optional; the author left it out of the batch described.

Method

  1. Peel and dice the mango; dice the habaneros, banana peppers, red bell pepper and onion; crush the garlic; squeeze the orange and lime juice.
  2. Put all the ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil.
  3. Cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
  4. Let the mixture cool.
  5. Purée in a food processor or blender, or leave it chunky for texture.

Conditions

Yield4 cups

Places

Caribbean

Documented preparation · Region evidence

One recipe from a Caribbean-focused blog; the page describes island pepper-sauce vendors in general and names no single island for this formula.

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