Anyone here make their own hot sauce?

[sirhrmechanic]

So this year, the antler-rats didn't eat my entire pepper crop... because I grew them on the deck in containers. Fewer plants, but an utter bumper crop of peppers despite the rain! Habaneros, cayenne, and coming ripe are a lot of thai and carolina reapers. Also jalopenos and some other 'green' varieties that I have been making poppers with for weeks, but not making sauce with those.

The Habaneros -- more than a pound -- are definitely ready to process into hot sauce, something I've never made. There are some good-sounding recipes on the interwebs (chilipeppermadness has some good-looking stuff). But as this community never disappoints when it comes to 'food' stuff... So who makes their own? Who's willing to share some recipes? Hot, hotter, hottest? Sweet hot? Wierd combinations? Pepper blends? Aging? Straining? Pressing? Tips?

Oh and I suspect there will be enough made for some bottle swapping, too...

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[dustingaunder]

I have a pile of habaneros and Trinidad scorpions. I need this also.

 

[Necessary 3vil]

I’m fuck’n following for recipes….

 

[Deleted member 204596]

I always look at a whole bunch of recipes and make my own. Every Sunday is smoking sundays and I make a sauce of my own. It’s not always about scorching hot, but about flavor.

 

[Deleted member 204596]

I also make cowboy candy that is fresh jalapeños cooked down and jarred.

 

[Maggot]

@Sean the Nailer

There can be but one.

 

[hlee]

My wife makes salsa. We roast the peppers, tomatillos, and tomatoes. There really isn’t a recipe. Lots of guess and check. And garlic.
Cilantro?
Salt to taste.

A bit of vinegar can kill some of the heat if you go overboard on the peppers. It adds a bit of sweetness too, so try not to go over.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

This is a whole 'rabbit-hole' (see what I did there?) that you can lose yourself in.

Start off with the premise of 'fridge pickles', to-which you can make a small amount of sauce for your own immediate use, and taste.
Then you can begin to look at how you want to change/improve flavours and profiles.
Some peppers you may want more of, some you may want less.
Some you might prefer to keep 'wet' whereas others you might prefer to 'dry'. There are some that when dried, the flavour of it completely changes.
Then lets talk about smoking, and if so, what wood would you use (I did it again) for which flavour profile?
Finally, lets talk about 'heat'. That are many out there, whom are in a "Race To The Heat" and that's all fine-and-dandy. For them.
Myself, not-so-much.

We're not even going to entertain the idea of adding sugar/sweetness to 'hot sauce' because to do such would be to ketchupize it.

And yes, there are yet more 'processes' that can be involved, but it all depends on what direction you are trying to take your project to.

I just did another harvest of our plants, (24, but iirc there are 16ish different 'types' that we grow here) and the haul was 3 lbs 11 ozs after washing, stemming, and splitting. For a grand total this year so-far of only 16 lbs.

A few years back, we had a HUGE bumper crop (for our growing venue) and had over 64 lbs in the end. And that is before adding any of the rest of the magical ingredients.

So yeah, it truly does depend on what you want to do, what you want to get out of it, and how much of that do you want?

Not a simple answer, nor is it an easy one. It has taken me a LOT of years to get to the level I'm at, and I'm not even thinking of suggesting that I'm at the top of my game. I'm simply happy with what I've/we've accomplished here, and absolutely happy with what we create. It is mostly me that does the cooking/processing of it, as My Lady is chased out of the house by the aroma of it all. But she helps me tend garden and harvest and water and whatnot. Though there are a few certain plants that she can't touch, because she 'tastes' them instantly when not wearing gloves. Kinda wild, eh? (True story) She can't go near them.

But I digress, and I truly hope you (et al) can glean that there actually IS a lot to it, and it mostly depends on 'what you want'.

I am not a 'spin-and-spill' person, who must throws it all in a blender and sloshes some vinegar into it, to make it the right liquid consistency and call it good. So many bottles of so many different kinds in the market, are. Fast production with the lowest process costs and the fewest ingredients.

I take things in exactly the opposite direction, and then some. Hope that helps.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

An example of the previous harvest:

 

[Sean the Nailer]

(Kinda hard to add to editing after the picture, sorry for the multiple posts)

Another topic to consider on this quest, is 'at which point do you harvest'? As you can tell above, we tend to let most peppers to to 'red' while on the plant. Which is well past 'corking' on the Jalapeno's. That time makes a difference in the outcome.

 

[theLBC]

i don't make hot sauce, but i do make my own version peruvian aji sauce.
i use serranos, but you could use whatever you want.

 

[Nik H]

I grow a few varieties of peppers. I like to dry many of them and store them.

I make my own Harissa sauce in both milder and hot varieties. I also make a chili crisp that I am pretty happy with.

 

[Ronws]

I don't have any hot sauce recipes. Just one barbecue sauce recipe but not at as hot as you are talking about.

But I do like a little bit of hot sauce. So, I am following this, too.

My wife had a friend she worked with and that lady and her husband were from Mexico. We went to a birthday party she gave for her husband. She made a Mole Berde so hot that I joked that you flicked some on the bumper of your truck. If the chrome melted, it was ready. Really, just a small bit.

But she also made a pollo barbecoa that just melts in your mouth.

Good to have friends like that.

And, for a while, I would binge on the firstwefeast series called "Hot Ones." Celebrities go on there to answer 10 questions while eating increasingly hotter wings.

Surprisingly, a kooky guy like Jeff Goldblum handles it just fine, not one bead of sweat. First one to quit early because of the heat? DJ Khalid.

My favorite episodes? Dax Shepard and then one with his wife, Kristen Bell.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

So you ferment, Sean?

Sirhr

 

[Tater Salad]

I’ve made a mango habanero hot sauce in the past. One thing I found to make the sauce more flavorful was to roast the peppers instead of putting the in the blender raw. The flavor was better in my opinion.

Now I smoke the peppers over pecan wood and then finish drying them in the dehydrator. I crush them and mix with other spices to use on damn near everything.

Picked the habanero and Armageddon peppers this evening. I’ll cut them in half in the morning and smoke them for several hours at around 135 degrees.

 

[n2ishun]

I posted this up a week or two ago...

Good garden idea?

@DarnYankeeUSMC Does your wife leave the heat mats on after the seeds sprout? My Biker Billy Jalepeno seeds got here, so i filled another tray, with them, Jalafuego, African marigolds, and 2 different egg plants. I ran a germination test on a 50 cent seed pack of marigolds from Walmart...

www.snipershide.com

 

[ggmanning]

Make my own sauce for ribs and one for BBQ. Also make regular topping hot sauce with red chilis/thai chilis/cayenne/vinegar. and a blend of hot powder from dehydrated habaneros, reapers and ghost chilis. That stuff is toxic hot but perfect for adding a pinch of flavor with a touch heat to anything. We love some peppers. Wife does Habanero jelly, cowboy candy with hot jalapenos and pickled jalapenos. All have just developed over the years. Find a base you like either vinegar based or ketchup brown sugar for us depending on the food intended. Then add blends of peppers you like until its right. Our peppers...even the super hot reapers are a little different in heat and taste every year. I take my base sauce and then start adding the pepper varities to taste and heat. Always make the sauces with heat and simmer and I make a bunch of each for the year.....too hard to reproduce in small batches.

 

[iceng]

Stacks of simple recipes out there. I used to grow and make sauce, but havnt done it in a few years.

Lime juice, garlic and vinegar are the moat used. If you want to refine the capsaicin, you can do it easily at home. Be aware its possible to make 2mil+ scoville heat oil, which is not friendly. Ive done it.. once.. never again.

Pro tip.. mix "regular" bell peppers (capsicums) to bulk up via volume, adds a nice sweet natural flavor, and brings the heat down so you can cook with it, and not have family members / friends complain. Still plenty hot, just makes it enjoyable.

 

[Major Wader]

I like a southern style vinegar pepper sauce, so I just use kosher salt and a vinegar mix that's about 50/50 white vinegar and cider vinegar, then let the mix sit for a few years in a dark place, tightly cpped, glass bottle with a plastic lid.

 

[lash]

Carrots and mango are nice flavor adders to Habanero pepper sauces. I’m a fan of sweet and hot together for many things. I like my hot sauces to have flavor and not just heat.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

So you ferment, Sean?

Sirhr

Yessir, I do.

Again, many different tangents and processes can be pursued.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Yessir, I do.

Again, many different tangents and processes can be pursued.

Do you seal your fermentation container or poke a small hole in it? I have heard both being done?

Cheers,

Sirhr

PS. One of the things I did successfully do last year was make a form of thai hot oil. It is good and I almost used it up... so I'll be making that for sure!

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Mine here, are 'sealed' but with a vinter's air-lock. This is to keep the oxygen out, and at the same time allowing the carbon dioxide gasses to escape too. So, it is not 'pressurized' but it sure isn't open to atmosphere.

 

[weightmask634]

I’ve made a few batches using lactic acid fermentation. I slice/chop peppers, add non-iodized salt (google how much, I can never remember), and maybe a little water if the peppers aren’t juicy. Then put in a jar and weight them down with pickling weights or a ziplock with water in it. Then screw on a lit with an airlock on it (again, google if you need an alternative). I have let this ferment for anywhere between 6 weeks and 3 months.

After it’s done, I will add some white vinegar to halt fermentation and purée. You can add garlic, carrots, onion, or anything else that seems interesting.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Today's harvest:
7 lbs 6.25 ozs cleaned, stemmed, and split

 

[AngryKoala]

I have a pile of habaneros and Trinidad scorpions. I need this also.

Those Scorpion peppers hurt.