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This was the first one: Finger Lime Hot Sauce.

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SmokinAussie

Smoke Blower
Joined
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Location
Gold Coast, QLD, Downside Up Land.
G'Day Bruces! :emoji_sunglasses:

Well since you fellas think I only wanna melt my face off, here's the one I did first several months ago with some Aussie Finger Limes.

Just what is a Finger Lime anyway?

Well it's an Aussie native lime and it's bloody amazing. You'd be hard pressed getting these in the US. I'm hard pressed getting them here, but I scored a pack of them and did this......

It started with my Aquaponics garden. I've been growing Jalapenos and Trinidad Scorpions in one of the beds. Most of the Scorpions fell of before being ready. But ONE was perfect.

P_20260207_110256.jpg


The Japs were easier but going small batch I only needed one Scorpion.
Some of the base ingredients.
P_20260207_111357.jpg


2 large onions.
All the Japs
The Scorpion. ( I wore gloves. Just smelling it when I cut it was enough. NOT putting my tongue anywhere near that farker.)
Full head of cold smoked garlic ( which I regularly put in the pooper on shutdown).

Then this magic ingredient.
P_20260207_113115.jpg


The Finger Lime is a very different beast to a Key Lime as you can tell here. These are not readily squeezable like any other citrus. They have little balls like caviar that you have to push out of the fruit. It's a lot of work. So much so that a larger supplier in DownSide Up Land has invested a few Million bucks in getting those little pearls out of the finger limes and are shipping them in little packets all over the world to restaurants like Noma and Alinea, where of course you have been waiting six months for your reservation.

Even here in DownSide Up Land, these are $100 Aussie Peso's a Kilo.

So these ended up in Hot Sauce.

P_20260207_113701.jpg


All that went into the pot with what I'd measured the amount of vinegar required. I went with White wine vinegar 4.5%.

For the record I was shooting for Tabasco color but a little thicker.

It looked like this, but tasted good.
P_20260207_115257.jpg


I needed more color so... Went to get the color with this.
P_20260207_141139.jpg


On the pooper, but only one of these ended up in the sauce. The rest are in EVOO, getting more delicious.
So fast track it to the next morning I did the final blend, balanced it to the right pH to be shelf stable and added enough salt. Nothing else.
P_20260208_125726.jpg



P_20260208_131054.jpg


And so it joins my collection of sauces.
P_20260208_131228.jpg


So how is it?

I'm quite pleased. Scoville scale I got no idea but it's about a 3 to 4 outta 10 on a regular persons scale, but the LIME is amazing, which is what I wanted.

So then I went out to a Pub to see some friends. I took a bottle of the sauce, ordered some Wings and they were so terrible that the only thing you could eat them with was the hot sauce. Lot's of it.
P_20260208_184205.jpg


Frozen supermarket wings in a Gastropub? I'm gonna have a go at that place, but the sauce was amazing and I gave that bottle to my friends, hoping I can make some more soon.

It really was better than I ever hoped for.

Cheers.

Bill
 
NOPE!!!
Not trying it, I'm a big puss with anything over Hab's in a limited amount. Jap's are fine, sometimes Serrano's, but they can get pretty hot for me. When I was younger, I'd have been all over it though, it sounds amazing.

I never heard of finger limes, so I googled them, shocked that we can get them right off Amazon.
 
G'Day Bruces! :emoji_sunglasses:

Well since you fellas think I only wanna melt my face off, here's the one I did first several months ago with some Aussie Finger Limes.

Just what is a Finger Lime anyway?

Well it's an Aussie native lime and it's bloody amazing. You'd be hard pressed getting these in the US. I'm hard pressed getting them here, but I scored a pack of them and did this......

It started with my Aquaponics garden. I've been growing Jalapenos and Trinidad Scorpions in one of the beds. Most of the Scorpions fell of before being ready. But ONE was perfect.

P_20260207_110256.jpg


The Japs were easier but going small batch I only needed one Scorpion.
Some of the base ingredients.
P_20260207_111357.jpg


2 large onions.
All the Japs
The Scorpion. ( I wore gloves. Just smelling it when I cut it was enough. NOT putting my tongue anywhere near that farker.)
Full head of cold smoked garlic ( which I regularly put in the pooper on shutdown).

Then this magic ingredient.
P_20260207_113115.jpg


The Finger Lime is a very different beast to a Key Lime as you can tell here. These are not readily squeezable like any other citrus. They have little balls like caviar that you have to push out of the fruit. It's a lot of work. So much so that a larger supplier in DownSide Up Land has invested a few Million bucks in getting those little pearls out of the finger limes and are shipping them in little packets all over the world to restaurants like Noma and Alinea, where of course you have been waiting six months for your reservation.

Even here in DownSide Up Land, these are $100 Aussie Peso's a Kilo.

So these ended up in Hot Sauce.

P_20260207_113701.jpg


All that went into the pot with what I'd measured the amount of vinegar required. I went with White wine vinegar 4.5%.

For the record I was shooting for Tabasco color but a little thicker.

It looked like this, but tasted good.
P_20260207_115257.jpg


I needed more color so... Went to get the color with this.
P_20260207_141139.jpg


On the pooper, but only one of these ended up in the sauce. The rest are in EVOO, getting more delicious.
So fast track it to the next morning I did the final blend, balanced it to the right pH to be shelf stable and added enough salt. Nothing else.
P_20260208_125726.jpg



P_20260208_131054.jpg


And so it joins my collection of sauces.
P_20260208_131228.jpg


So how is it?

I'm quite pleased. Scoville scale I got no idea but it's about a 3 to 4 outta 10 on a regular persons scale, but the LIME is amazing, which is what I wanted.

So then I went out to a Pub to see some friends. I took a bottle of the sauce, ordered some Wings and they were so terrible that the only thing you could eat them with was the hot sauce. Lot's of it.
P_20260208_184205.jpg


Frozen supermarket wings in a Gastropub? I'm gonna have a go at that place, but the sauce was amazing and I gave that bottle to my friends, hoping I can make some more soon.

It really was better than I ever hoped for.

Cheers.

Bill
G'day! That looks epic mate. Finger limes are so hard to come by, so pairing a fresh score with a home-grown scorpion is top tier.
 
NOPE!!!
Not trying it, I'm a big puss with anything over Hab's in a limited amount. Jap's are fine, sometimes Serrano's, but they can get pretty hot for me. When I was younger, I'd have been all over it though, it sounds amazing.

I never heard of finger limes, so I googled them, shocked that we can get them right off Amazon.
Nice, but at around $3.50 US per, that would have to wait for something really special.
 
Nice, but at around $3.50 US per, that would have to wait for something really special.
I don't know, a regular lime can be a buck a piece out here at times in some stores. And 3 of them isn't a pound.
 
Finger limes are a very different thing, hard to get even in Downside Up Land and also expensive.

When I scored these for 15 Aussie shekels, I ran out the store like I stole them, and was determined not to waste any.

@forktender the Finger Lime has these little pearls of lime that are hard to get out of the rest of the flesh and they pop in your mouth. They have become very sought after for mixology creations as they float about the glass not revealing a flavor until you pop them.

I've been on the hunt for more of these since and not found any. I bought a small Finger Lime tree that will take 5 years or so to produce anything.

Meanwhile regular limes are dropping off the tree's all about the place here.

Cheers!

Bill
 
Finger limes are a very different thing, hard to get even in Downside Up Land and also expensive.

When I scored these for 15 Aussie shekels, I ran out the store like I stole them, and was determined not to waste any.

@forktender the Finger Lime has these little pearls of lime that are hard to get out of the rest of the flesh and they pop in your mouth. They have become very sought after for mixology creations as they float about the glass not revealing a flavor until you pop them.

I've been on the hunt for more of these since and not found any. I bought a small Finger Lime tree that will take 5 years or so to produce anything.

Meanwhile regular limes are dropping off the tree's all about the place here.

Cheers!

Bill
Bill, I found them on Amazon of all places, I included a link in my previous post. I want to order some just to try after reading your post about them.
I had never heard of them before. Now I need to figure out what to use them in. I'll Google up something that appeals to me.

Thank you for introducing us to them, they sound very interesting.

Dan.
 
NOPE!!!
Not trying it, I'm a big puss with anything over Hab's in a limited amount. Jap's are fine, sometimes Serrano's, but they can get pretty hot for me. When I was younger, I'd have been all over it though, it sounds amazing.

I never heard of finger limes, so I googled them, shocked that we can get them right off Amazon.
Haha, completely understand, Hab's can definitely pack a serious punch! Serranos are a nice sweet spot for daily cooking. Have you ever tried making a homemade hot sauce with Serranos, or do you prefer buying store-bought?
 
Haha, completely understand, Hab's can definitely pack a serious punch! Serranos are a nice sweet spot for daily cooking. Have you ever tried making a homemade hot sauce with Serranos, or do you prefer buying store-bought?
@Mafrito

My name is Dan,
I was on vacation when you joined the forum, welcome aboard, you're gonna love the people here. It is the friendliest forum that I have ever been on.
Where are you from? Or where was your avatar photo taken? It looks like a place that I would love to visit.

I have never made hot sauce, although I would like to try a fermented hot sauce using them.

I can buy them at one of our local Mexican stores they are inexpensive there compared to our local supermarket. I completely love Mexican food, so I'm in the Mexican stores weekly for fresh Carnitas, salsas, and tortillas that they make daily, along with several fresh made cheeses.

I just watched a video on how to make fermented hot sauce last night on Instagram, it looks so easy. Which gives me no excuses, I just need to buy the peppers and a few Ball Jar air locks.

I remember my Noni making fermented Calabrian chili sauce when I was a kid.
What I remember most was it would run us kids out of the house while she was chopping a big bowl full of chilis. They didn't seem to bother her. But then again Noni was one tough lady.
 
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