I agree. Tamarind is a good addition.
On the vinegar: Cane is somewhat softer. It lacks the subtle fruit notes of fruit-based vinegar. Lacking that, white balsamic or white wine, I'd suggest rice vinegar (the regular, not the 'seasoned'). Lacking that, go with whatever you have. A little fruit is not going to matter, with the raisins in there already. The color will be darker but that's not of consequence.
The recipe is based on my first run. I did it the evening before I left the house.
Ingredients are listed in order of weight. What I do is look at the sauce dripped onto a spoon. I judge its consistency and color, and look for any telltale bits of this or that. I taste it alone in small amounts to get the sense of sour, sweet, salt, spice, in this case fruit, as well as palate consistency.
Manufacturing processes differ and I never know the one used. But one can vary many things and still end up with a similar result. Contrary to how I usually make sauces, when tasting the original I noticed no remarkable caramelized flavors (and there is not fat listed) so sautéing to develop these flavors was out of the question. (This is typical for commercial sauces. It adds an extra step and a costly one at that. It's one of the reasons I rarely like commercial Q sauces. Pickapeppa, however, is not styled as a 'sauce' per se (though can be used as one), but more of a condiment.)
Looking at the ingredient list I start with the prominent ingredient and work from there. Because weights are the issue, I know I can start with X amount of the primary, in this case tomatoes, and work from that, knowing that I can add the vinegar in stepped amounts - i.e., a bit at a time. As long as I don't go crazy with it, it can still end up as more than the tomatoes volume-wise, but not weight-wise, keeping me in line.
Because it is likely the packer uses canned or otherwise processed tomatoes I go with those. I picked a half can out of the air to start with and worked off of that.
I worked up from 3/4 c vin to start to 1 c later. I pulled a half a small-med onion out of the air - made sense to me and a variance one way or the other would not make much difference - and started with 3 T of sugar. Tasting this as it all dissolved I upped the sugar to 6 T then decided it was too much and added the other 1/4 c of vin. (When the sauce was done I still found it a bit too sweet so cut the sugar - mentally, I have not made it again - to 4 T.
I decided on half a small mango - one needs to start somewhere - and 1/4 c raisins. The peppers were a bit of a question. The sauce has some nice kick so i looked at what I had, went small since I wasn't making a lot, and chose what I chose. The garlic in the sauce is subtle so I chose one medium clove and pressed it into the pot.
The thyme is not at all pronounced but there, so I pinched some out of its tin then added a little more. The 1/3 t is approximate.
As this gently simmered I thought of color and felt that once puréed it would be too light. The chilies would add color depth but I found it unlikely that the packer was using a substantial quantity of dark chile to cause the color and so that meant upping the raisins. Adding another T didn't make me think the color would still work out right so I went with a full additional 1/4 c raisins.
The clove amount is based on tasting in my head. I was utterly out of all clove in Shawnee (I have tons of it in Okee!) so I did not use it. The 1/8 t noted is what I think would work.
I knew I was going to purée, that's obvious, and felt that I would very likely strain to remove the solids, especially the bits of tomato and chile skin that never completely purées. When all the dried items were well reconstituted I removed the chilies, removed their stems and attached seeds, returned them and puréed the lot. Thick, I then dumped into a sieve over a bowl. The mix was the right color but, as you'd suspect, the drainings were thin. Forcing through some of the mixture, scraping the underside of the sieve periodically with a spoon to dislodge the thicker mix being forced though, I kept this up till the contents of the bowl looked right. (This is not what would happen at a packer. They likely use skinless tomato, chile powder of some type or types, possibly onion purée, etc., so that straining is either unwarranted or minimized. At home, and with the ingredients I have at hand, it is far easier to work a clone in the way I do, imo, rather than trying to replicate what the packer likely does.)
So that's how I went about it. As this represents the first run and, as noted in this description, there are a couple things I'd check when doing it again, try it regardless and see what you think. Had I time at the time it would not have been at all difficult to make some adjustments after it was completed, so I encourage you to make it as written then see what you think, making adjustments as desired. It worked out quite well. As I mentioned, I served it in a little bowl on the side of grilled flat irons (using
another clone in its preliminary run) and it worked very well dripped on the steak here and there - or a forkful of steak quickly dipped in a bit of the sauce.
And thanks for the congrats!
. Per the company's website, the ingredients are: "tomatoes, onions, sugar, cane vinegar, mangoes, raisins, tamarinds, peppers and spices." I guess what I'm looking for is a recipe that shows the ratio of the above ingredients. 
