what is picante sauce vs. salsa? I was buying salsa yesterday and wondered. TIA

By Amecmom on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 - 10:53 pm:

Picante is spicy, salsa is tomato/onion cilantro but not hot/spicy
Ame

By Hol on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 - 11:39 pm:

Thanks, Ame. I always wondered that, too.

By Marcia on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - 12:17 am:

Salsa can be mild, medium or hot, too. I just searched to see what the actual difference was, and came up with this on Wikipedia....

"In Spanish or Italian, salsa can refer to any type of sauce, but in English it usually refers to the spicy, often tomato-based hot sauces typical of Mexican cuisine, particularly those used as dips."



"Picante sauce is a term coined by condiment maker David Pace for his own version of salsa. Picante sauce is usually a little more pureed than salsa. Picante is a Spanish adjective that derives from picar, which means "to sting", referring to the feeling caused by salsas on one's tongue."

By Kaye on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - 01:04 am:

LOL...being from tx you don't look that up!

Picante is a type of salsa. But when people make their own, they tend to call it salsa.

The difference in spice is how hot the peppers are.

By Reds9298 on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - 10:37 am:

Thank you ladies!!!

By Hol on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - 11:01 am:

I was once on a plane to San Antonio, and I as we sat on the tarmac in Chicago, I looked out the window and saw them loading big boxes of peppers onto the plane. I told my DH that I thought it odd that the peppers were going TO Texas and not OUT of TX. Aren't they grown there? I'm sure they aren't grown in Chicago. Unless they were going to a salsa factory.