Butterfly Bakery of Vermont -Smoked Onion Salsa
Bitter: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Sweet onion, robust onion, earthy, fresh
Texture: Chunky with nice onion and vegetable bits
Recommended: Yes
Ingredients: Lester Farm tomatoes, Honey Field Farm maple wood smoked onions, Familiar Farm green jalapeno, Dutchess Farm cilantro, salt.
Just yesterday I mentioned that Butterfly Bakery of Vermont makes pasta sauce in addition to hot sauces and mustard, but I neglected to mention they also make salsas. Since Butterfly Bakery of Vermont uses maple wood smoked onions in a variety of their hot sauces including of course one of their most popular sauces their Maple Wood Smoked Onion Hot Sauce I thought a salsa that made use of those smoked onions would be a good place to start.
I’ve mentioned it before that one of my biggest turn-offs for most commercial salsas is the inclusion of completely unnecessary adulterants like starches, extracts, and artificial preservatives. As expected from Butterfly Bakery of Vermont the ingredients list on this salsa couldn’t be any cleaner – tomatoes, smoked onions, jalapenos, cilantro, and salt. Interestingly there’s no vinegar which most salsas have, though perhaps the tomatoes are acidic enough it’s not needed here. The smoke and onions come through as the predominant elements in the aroma of this salsa and it has a pleasantly chunky texture with lots of nice large onion pieces.
The flavor of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont Smoked Onion Salsa reminds me a lot of sauteed onions with an underlying layer of smoke. When you cook onions past the point of just sweating them but before they brown and become caramelized so that they’re at that stage where sweetness develops but some of the original onion flavor remains is the taste that comes to mind. The tomato flavor is second to the onions but they do bring the acidity that any salsa needs, though with the predominant onion flavor and the smoke element I’d say that this is darker and earthier than many salsas. The smoke also adds a bitterness that plays well against the sweetness of the tomatoes and onions and the cilantro adds that necessary freshness.
The one element I do wish there was more of is the jalapeno. There’s not much pepper flavor in this salsa and the heat level is as close to none as you can get while still having some chile peppers in the mix. The salsa is tasty as it is but some extra pepper flavor and heat would be welcome. I’d personally love to see Butterfly Bakery of Vermont release some hotter salsa flavors – maybe a salasi-fied version of Taco Vibes Only with a prominent reaper and serrano element in the mix would be fun.
Even with the lack of heat I’m happy to recommend Butterfly Bakery of Vermont Smoked Onion Salsa. Mild salsas can still be tasty and the big onion flavor in this makes it stand out from many other salsas on the market. I also of course appreciate the clean ingredients list as this salsa is all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
