27th April 2012

SOUTH SOMERSET: Some like it very hot!

By Marion Draper

AFTER years of making his hot sauce for family and friends, Maurice “Mo” Ricketts from the tiny hamlet of Compton Durville, South Petherton, finally went public this year and has been testing the market in local outlets with a favourable response.

Colmers in South Petherton was the first place to give the suitably named “Mozown” hot pepper sauce a go and now it is in Our Shop in Hinton St George, The Trading Post at Lopen and local food champion Jo Mills at the Seavington Village Store and Café has set up a food tasting with Mozown and the Sausage Shed, on Thursday, May 3rd, from 10 am until 2pm.

Mo said he had been making his sauce, which he describes as “essential seasoning for the relief of apathetic food” for decades, delivering it to friends in any bottle to hand and has been badgered for years by them all, to try it out commercially.

He said: “Basically it is a West Indian style sauce, we have a family connection, and over there everyone has their own version of a hot sauce that they use on a daily basis.

“I have made mine from a recipe I’ve known since childhood really, it goes particularly well on grilled chicken, pork and sea fish and, of course, sausages and can also be used as a marinade. It’s not a jokey sauce like some you see on the shelves. It is made from basic healthy ingredients, all sourced through our local greengrocer.

“The trouble at the moment is that it’s an unknown quantity as we are starting out and we don’t know what quantity we will need. I have dumbed it down just a little for the public but it is still hotter than your average sauce and importantly it has taste, it doesn’t just blow your socks off and nothing else.”

Mo’s wife Caroline, who is a nurse, has been drafted in as chief onion chopper. She said: “It’s all about stages in life, we haven’t really had the time up to now to think about it, with various family commitments.

“We started in January and the first thing we had to do was get our kitchen inspected. We both cook and are always careful what we eat, making things from scratch with local produce. The idea of buying soups to me is ludicrous.

“The sauce has many uses and our daughter’s friends at college use it for their chili con carne, rather than going out to buy chilies which are quite expensive. So it’s useful to keep in the cupboard.”

The sauce comes in PET plastic bottles which can be recycled as part of the doorstep collection, and a friend Marcus, at Bond Design did the labelling.

Mo said: “The local bush telegraph is great, I went and saw Jo at Seavington after talking to a chap who is involved in the shop. It was already in Colmers in South Petherton which is a really good nichy kind of shop, I trialled it there and it went well.

“Then I was at the Lord Poulett Arms in Hinton one evening with my friend who designed the label and there were bar snacks around so we asked Michelle the landlady, and ripped a bottle open to let people try it. Later a guy who had tried it there, asked her where it had come from and said he must have it at Seavington.

“I had already thought about Hinton village shop and after going to meet Jo, I called Ivan at the Sausage Shed and said Seavington would like to have your sausages - would you like to come along to a taste testing?

“Apart from anything else it’s fun and really nice that everyone has been so enthusiastic about the sauce. We are working on a sweet chilli sauce now, which will be ready soon.”

PICTURE: A WARM FEELING INSIDE - Mo and Caroline Ricketts with their family recipe hot sauce

SOUTH SOMERSET: Some like it very hot!

Comments

Add new comment