[snopercod]

The real secret to the homemade chili sauce (which I am still working on) is NOT to use the bitter water that you steep the chilis in. It took me years to figure that out.

I am going to try scraping the "meat" out of the chilis next time, and discarding the skins.

[Gabz]

Depending on the chiles, I will scrape the meat out of the skins. I grow one type that is just called "red chile" but they are fairly small so I don't bother scraping them. The larger ones I always scrape.

I agree with you about not using the soaking water, with some chiles. I generally use equal parts fresh water to the chile water.