We are thrilled to announce the launch of 2 new Hook & Arrow hot sauces: Chipotle and Sauerkraut & Mustard. We’ve been working on these sauces for sometime now so we’re happy to finally be able to share them with the world.
While we’re excited anytime we have the opportunity to release a new product, we’re especially excited about this one. Our father’s side of the family is Polish and we have so many fond memories growing up going to our grandparents house, cooking, and eating some of the most amazing Polish foods. Our Babci and Dziadziu were always making pierogies, dill pickles, golumpki, kielbasa and other great Polish foods. These were the flavors we grew up with and helped form our love for food and shaped the way we cook at home.
With this sauce we wanted to pay homage to our family and create something with the flavors of our childhood in mind. As the name Sauerkraut & Mustard suggests, our goal for this sauce was to really capture the sour fermented flavor of sauerkraut and the pungent flavor of mustard. To achieve this we started sauerkraut and prepared mustard. But to really make these flavors shine we used apple cider vinegar and pickled jalapeños to build on the sour flavor of the sauerkraut and we added crushed mustard seeds for texture and added mustard flavor. Lastly, we added some olive oil to help give the sauce a nice texture and pleasant mouthfeel.
This is a mild sauce, the only real spice from this sauce comes from the pickled jalapenos which don’t bring a ton of heat. The goal wasn’t to make a super hot sauce but to focus on the flavors highlighting sauerkraut and mustard with a hint of heat and something that our grandparents would have been able to enjoy.
We know this sauce is not for everyone, and we’re ok with that. Some will love it, some will hate it, and very few people will likely have a neutral opinion of it. We think the best way to use this sauce is with some homemade kielbasa, but it works equally well on any sausage and especially well as a hot dog topper. Try it on a reuben sandwich too.
Chipotle peppers are smoked-dried jalapenos peppers. This is a technique that can be traced back to the early food preservation practices used in Mesoamerica. So, chipotle hot sauce is not a new thing. We’ve enjoyed our share of chipotle sauces, however, we never found one that was exactly what we wanted. Many can be too smoky or not smoky enough, too mild or way too spicy, and lacking the full-bodied, balanced flavor we sought.
We set out to make our own Chipotle that checked all of the boxes, something that has a comfortable amount of smoke, a good nuanced hot heat, and a full flavor that’s balanced by the depth as well as a hint of sweetness.
We started with a base of Chipotle peppers and to that we added some onion, garlic, salt, black pepper, fire roasted tomatoes to round out the flavor and vinegar for brightness. At this point the sauce started to come together but it still needed something else to take it to the next level. The sauce needed a little sweetness to balance it out, but instead of just adding sugar we wanted something that could bring more depth to the sauce as well. We found that a combination of raisins and sun-dried tomatoes did the trick. Both of those ingredients played so well with the flavors we were already building and gave the sauce the balance it needed.
Now we needed to get the spice where we wanted. As it stood the chipotle peppers alone were far too mild so we added ghost peppers to bring the heat. The combination of the chipotle and ghost peppers brings your taste buds on a journey. You feel the chipotle heat almost immediately and then the ghost peppers sneak up continuing to build and leaving you wanting more.
The final product is thick but pourable with flecks of charred tomatoes and black pepper. It has the perfect amount of smoke, heat and sweetness all coming together to create bold, full flavored hot sauce that is incredibly balanced.
This sauce works exceptionally well on tacos, burritos, sandwiches and pizza, but also grilled meats too, try it as a substitute for steak sauce.
We hope you enjoy these new sauces as much as we enjoyed creating them.