UMPY'S HOT SAUCE
How Did It All Start?
I’m possibly just like you – a curry-loving person that loves to cook & puts hot sauce on pretty much everything! I’ve been this way since a 5-week stay in Thailand back in 2002 gave me one hell of a heat tolerance, and I’ve never looked back. I’ve always wanted to learn how to make sauce but never got round to it, until lockdown happened and my preferred supplier upped his prices. I decided I didn’t want to pay them. My sisters then bought me some fermentation jars & lids, and one gave me some chillies she had grown in her garden. In October 2022 I made my first ever batch of hot sauce - it was rubbish & the house smelt of chillies for days! Somehow I am still married.
Who Helped?
A friend then put me on to a Facebook group entitled “Fermented Hot Sauce Society” which was a game changer. It not only contains a wealth of knowledge based articles, but is also a vibrant community of sauce makers from all over the world, many of whom were more than happy to help a newbie.
Within 9 months I had refined my base recipe to achieve the consistency I wanted & had experimented with a few flavours. I gave them out to some friends who pretty-much all suggested I start a business making & selling my sauces.
What Do The Council Think?
In October 2023 I did just that and registered with Bromley Council as a food business. I now hold a 4/5 food hygiene rating and received zero action points pertaining to my cooking methods, cleanliness, sanitisation and storage. Given that I do all this from the kitchen in our home, a 4/5 rating is superb! I take food safety & hygiene extremely seriously & I’m glad the council endorsed this.
So How Do You make It?
There’s a few different methods of making hot sauce. Whilst I follow one process, I’ll start by saying that I have nothing against other processes of production – to each their own. Also, I don’t want to bore you with a whole load of jargon that sounds like something out of the Big Bang Theory, so I’ll just use some key words and if you’re that intrigued you can Google them. Fair?
All my chillies, garlic, peppers, onions & carrots go in to a fermentation jar to which I add a brine, formed of boiled softened water and 3.5% non-iodised rock-salt. All the ingredients are weighted down to sit beneath the brine level, thus removing the potential of mould growth and creating an environment for the lactobacillus bacteria to basically convert their sugars to lactic acid. This creates an acidic environment that preserves the ingredients and, quite frankly, makes them taste awesome. I ferment for a minimum of 30 days.
After this, it’s over to the blender. I separate the brine and blend everything up, adding fruit where appropriate. Then some brine gets added & blended. Then vinegar & lime juice joins the party. All blended again, the mixture goes in to a stock-pot where I pasteurise the sauce then "hot-bottle" it. Finally I test the PH to ensure it's good to go. Again, run a few searches if you want a bit more of an explanation on any of this.
Once cooled, on go the labels & voila – you have sauce!
Umpy's? Please Explain!
“Umpy” is short for “umpire”. I am in to, no, am borderline obsessed with the AFL - Australian Rules Football (Aussie rules). It’s a bizarre thing for a non-Aussie to say, but there you go.
The sport is fantastic and I consider myself fortunate enough to have been exposed to it. I never played the game myself, but instead I trained to become a field-umpire and enjoyed the catharsis of blowing whistles at angry Australians of a summer weekend! Last year I had to retire though due to being too old, knackered & about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.
I miss it though, I miss it bad! Therefore I decided to keep the legacy going by branding my sauce as “Umpy’s”. Those that know will spot a Sherrin (AFL Football) in the letter “P” of my logo & that the 4 flamed heads are in the configuration of AFL goalposts.
Yep, that’s a few minutes of your life you will never get back, but hey, you asked!
Finally, Who Are You?
I’m a Hampshire boy, Southampton born & Fareham raised. In 2005 I moved to London where I met & married my awesome better half. We now live in Bromley and have 2 very cute tortoiseshell cats named Nemi & Cat Le Tizz. I love Football, Aussie Rules Football, Ice Hockey, play in a punk rock band, have a season ticket at Bromley FC & haven’t eaten any animal products for the last 15 years. Occasionally, I can be found in the pub. I am pushing 50 but people say I look a lot younger.
I love the graphics on your labels!
Jack Tucker has designed and realised all of my artwork that you see on this site & my bottles, including the creation of my logo. He's seriously good. Hit him up at https://www.instagram.com/jacktuckerdesign/