​Stocking up on sauce bottles!

There's a definite trend in modern TV cooking and in magazines to use exotic and spicy sauces to liven up recipes, and many of our customers have mentioned that they are making their own sauces to switch up their cooking and add plenty of fresh flavours.

You may not realise that we have our own sauce bottle category of glassware at Wares of Knutsford and we're constantly developing it to meet customer needs. We already have a wide variety of sauce bottles in different shapes and sizes.

Sauces are very easy to make in most instances and they can be very satisfying too. You can create sauces in every colour - from classic red tomato to rich green chimichurri. The more you experiment, the better you will become, and the resulting sauces also look wonderful lined up in your pantry for the best effect.

Recipes to try

These are some of our favourite savoury and sweet sauce recipes. Gather your glass sauce bottle collection and prepare to fill them with homemade treats!

Fiery fermented hot sauce

Take around a pound of your favourite chilli peppers, chopped, a small sliced carrot, a halved garlic glove and a tablespoon of salt. Pack the peppers, garlic and carrot into your wide-necked glass jar and combine the salt with 2.5 cups of filtered cold water. Pour the salt water over the peppers and seal the jar. Check on it every few days - unless you have an air-release lid - and it should be ready after about a week. At this point, pour out the brine and pulse the peppers in a food processor until they are smooth, adding a little of the brine and white vinegar to taste. Sieve the sauce through a muslin cloth into your glass sauce jar and then store it in the fridge. This brightly coloured and powerful sauce tastes great with meat and vegetable dishes alike.

Wild garlic pesto

Who can mistake the smell of wild garlic when you're out in the countryside? This ingredient makes a fantastic pesto, and the bright green colour will look wonderful in your pantry. Use a bunch of wild garlic, a quarter of a cup of toasted walnuts, the same measure of grated pecorino, a dash of sea salt, lemon juice and pepper and around half a cup of good-quality olive oil. Food process all of the ingredients except the olive oil, then when they are smooth, slowly add the oil bit by bit until you reach your desired consistency. Pour it into your sauce bottles and keep the pesto in the fridge. It tastes wonderful stirred through pasta for a quick supper.

Pumpkin butter

Fruit butters are very popular in the US in particular, where they are used to top breakfasts, fill cakes and spread over bread. Despite their name, these sauces don't actually contain butter. They are simply cooked very gently with spices to create a thick consistency. This pumpkin butter will help you to use a seasonal glut from your garden or allotment. It's also easy to control the amount of spice and sugar. This pumpkin butter would make a wonderful gift in a pretty glass jar with a homemade sourdough - the perfect autumn treat.

To make it, gather 400g of pumpkin puree (your own or canned), half a cup of apple cider, half a cup of maple syrup, a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice, a cinnamon stick, 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract and a tsp of salt. Combine everything into a pan over medium heat and bring the mixture slowly to a boil. Lower the heat and stir until the mix thickens, then remove, before removing the cinnamon stick. Let the pumpkin butter cool for an hour and then place it into your glass sauce bottle.

Making sauces into gifts

A selection of sauces in beautiful glass presentation bottles make a wonderful gift; either as favours at a wedding with a handmade theme, or for Christmas. Yes, we know, but it's never too early to start! You can adjust your sauces to suit all tastes and make use of seasonal fruit and vegetable gluts as well.

Tips and techniques for creating great sauces

You can have a lot of fun making fresh sauces in the kitchen once you get started. Here are some of our favourite tips for achieving a professional finish:

1. Use only the freshest and best-quality ingredients.

2. Use your own home-made stocks for gravies 3. Create a simple roux with flour and water to thicken sauces or use cornstarch or agar agar 4. Master the art of the pan sauce, using meat juice, red wine, aromatics and seasoning - simple and delicious 5. Learn to make emulsions with butter and egg yolks, adding the ingredients very slowly for a thick and glossy finish 6. Taste as you go!

Which sauces are you tempted to try this season? Please share your photos with us on social media and tag Wares of Knutsford and we'll be delighted to share them!