• BY DIANNA WRAY
• Originally published February 19, 2011 at 10:33 p.m., updated February 19, 2011 at 10:33 p.m.

• Sweet to heat"Sweet Ed's Salsa" is available at the following locations:

  Ganado Grocery, 305 West York, Ganado

  Shell-Highway 111 convenience stores

  Convenience stores in George West and Three Rivers

  For more information and to order Sweet Ed's ...

• SHOW ALL »

Sweet to heat"Sweet Ed's Salsa" is available at the following locations:

Ganado Grocery, 305 West York, Ganado

Shell-Highway 111 convenience stores

Convenience stores in George West and Three Rivers

For more information and to order Sweet Ed's Salsa, go to www.sweettoheat.com.

Ed Sralla is a quiet-looking man with a long rancher's mustache. The kind that twirls at the end.

He's also the maker of one of the finest salsas in Texas.

Last week, the Edna native won first place at the Fiery Food Challenge Awards Dinner in Irving for "Sweet Ed's Salsa," a sweet salsa made with serrano peppers from a recipe Sralla has been working to perfect for the past 40 years.

It all started in 1963, when an aunt handed Sralla two bags of jalapenos, noting that maybe he could use them to make salsa. She gave Sralla her recipe and he settled in, trying his hand at salsa making.

"I didn't like the first one. It wasn't spicy enough, or sweet enough, so I started messing with different ingredients, trying to get it right," Sralla said.

Over the years, he adjusted amounts of sugar, ketchup, vinegar and garlic, striving to get the right blend of ingredients. He didn't like the way jalapenos tasted, so one day his wife, Mary Jane, came home with bags of serrano peppers.

"I liked that. You don't really taste it at first, but then you feel the heat," Sralla said.

He became known for his salsa, making it for every family occasion. When the couple visited their son in Detroit, they would bring gallons of the stuff, Sralla said.

"I've probably made more than 100 gallons of that stuff in our kitchen over the years," Sralla said.

When they went to Dallas, Mary Jane's brother would ask them to bring the salsa, "Ed's sweet stuff," Mary Jane remembered, smiling. Ed has never been known as "Sweet Ed," he said, but when their son, a lawyer, suggested they try making the sauce professionally and marketing it, the name seemed like the right fit.

Sralla signed a non-disclosure agreement with a company in San Antonio and soon found himself standing over a huge vat of his salsa, tasting it to get the right blend.

He entered the salsa in the Fiery Food Challenge in 2009 with high hopes, but came in third.

"They all said it wasn't hot enough," Sralla said, explaining the loss.

When he entered the competition this year, Sralla made sure no one would complain about the heat of his salsa - more than 200 pounds of serrano peppers went into the batch he entered into the contest.

Winning was a wonderful feeling, Sralla said.

"It felt pretty good," Sralla said. "I've been working on this for years and all of that hard work and effort, it was good to see it pay off."

Now the couple is delving further into the world of food marketing, and the salsa - available in mild, hot and extra-hot - has arrived on the shelves of some local grocery stores.

The goal is to see the "Sweet Ed's Salsa" on grocery store shelves across the country.

Still, the thing Sralla said he loves most about doing this is seeing people's reactions to his salsa.

"I enjoy it. I love it. I love the challenge of making it and then seeing people's reaction to it. If they like it, they come back for more, and I love it when they come back."

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

    Share on FaceBook

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• 4 Comments
• •
• Favorite
• •
• Report error
  • Thank you for your submission.
    Error report or correction

    Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  

    
  • Close
• •