Last year I had the unbelievably good fortune to spend a couple weeks in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, it was only in the last few days of my trip that I discovered a sauce there called “Lizano Salsa” (Lizano Sauce, pronounced like “Liz-Ah-No”, so you can pronounce my Insane in the Brine version as “In-Sah-No”!).
It was developed in Costa Rica in 1920 and it turns out it’s so popular there (kind of on par with how we might think about A1 or Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, or HP in the United Kingdom), that it’s probably a bit odd I didn’t see it sooner. But I’m so glad I did discover it! With that first whiff from the bottle, even with its reminiscence to Worcestireshire, I knew this was something special. I put it on everything for my last few meals.
Lizano Sauce has such a beautifully balanced blend of sweet, spicy (though not crazy hot), sour, and – in particular – umami flavors, that I instantly felt that you could put it on basically anything. It’s fantastic on fish, as a BBQ sauce alternative, on all kinds of meat from roasts to burgers, wings and as a chicken marinade or glaze, hot dogs, pork chops, lamb, to soups and stews, tacos, pizza, grilled cheese… honestly the sky is the limit here people!!
From the first moment I had it, I thought to myself: I MUST make an easy copycat version. And in this recipe I think we have just that! Yes, you can order Lizano online. The ingredients on the label appear to be just slightly different between the Costa Rican Spanish-label version and the English import version (or made-in-America version, if that’s what it is), so honestly I’m not sure which you would end up with if you ordered it. However, I think you should strongly consider making this version; it’s delicious and only takes about 15 minutes once you have gathered all the ingredients. You can double my recipe (or more) to make a bigger batch.
Just like homemade Worcestirshire Sauce (of which there’s a recipe in my newest cookbook!) or homemade Sriracha (of which I have an easy fermented version) or any number of sauces we can make at home, it is going to be extremely difficult to make an identical product. These store-bought products can be so good it is hard to make something “better” per se as well. My goal with these sauces, then, is to make something very reminiscent to the original but not an identical twin; it should simply be delicious, a bit unique, and reasonably easy to make.
Lizano has a strong umami flavor and also utilizes some interesting ingredients for this purpose such as vegetable paste and hydrolyzed vegetable protein. I thought long and hard and did some market research to try to figure out how to introduce this flavor into my sauce, and I found an amazing solution with the product Better than Bouillon Vegetarian No Beef Base (or the Better than Bouillon Seasoned Vegetable Base, a very similar product which has even more of the veggies used in Lizano), which are available in mainstream supermarkets. You may sub other non-meat bouillon products for this sauce, but I only have experience using the Better than Bouillon product and love the outcome.
With all that said, here’s my “copycat” recipe and I really hope you’ll give it a try. This is going to be one of the most versatile sauces you’ll ever have.
Yield:
10 oz. sauce
Equipment:
- Knife & cutting board
- Blender
- Measuring cups & spoons
- Gram scale (not required)
- Small saucepan
- Small bowl and small whisk or fork
- 10 oz. storage bottle
Ingredients:
- 1 cup water (240g)
- 1/4 cup sugar (50g)
- 2 TBSP molasses (40g)
- 2 TBSP Better than Bouillon Vegetarian “No Beef Base” (50g), or the Vegetable Base
- 3 TBSP white vinegar
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp ground celery seed (you can ground your own seeds with a mortar & pestle or spice grinder if you only have whole seeds)
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt (optional or to taste, there’s already salt in the Better than Bouillon and you may find the sauce is salty enough as is)
- 2 red jalapenos, seeds and ribs removed (more or less peppers to taste; the original sauce has a nice kick and is hotter than Worcestirshire Sauce but isn’t crazy hot), or sub with 2-3 tsp cayenne powder
For the thickener:
- 1 TBSP corn starch dissolved in 1.5 TBSP cold water
Instructions:
1.) After removing the pepper seeds and ribs, chop the jalapenos into small pieces. Add to the saucepan along with all the other ingredients (except the thickener). Stir over high heat until a low boil is achieved, then cover and simmer on low for ten minutes.
2.) Meanwhile, place the 2 TBSP corn starch in a small bowl and then add the 2 TBSP cold water. Whisk well and quickly so all the starch is distributed into the water.
3.) After the allotted time, give the sauce some good stirs and then transfer all of it to blender and blend on high around a minute. Then return the sauce to the saucepan. Heat again on high until a medium boil is achieved. Make sure the corn starch is mixed well into the 1.5 TBSP cold water (it can separate if waiting too long; just whisk back together), then add to the sauce and whisk in with rapid motions for about a minute. Once you see the sauce visibly thickening, remove it from the heat. (FYI the final texture is more like a gravy than a typical hot sauce, on account of the corn starch process.)
4.) At this point, you can transfer the sauce to a clean storage bottle, or blend it again for about a minute before bottling. This will give it an even smoother consistency. Either way, note that the sauce will further thicken as it cools in the fridge, so it doesn’t need to boil down and reduce in the thickening step for very long.
Enjoy!
(Note: If you want to water bath can this for storage at room temperature until opening, you can do so.)
Let us know what you think and what you put this on, in the Insane Facebook group!
