Homemade hot sauce recipes

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Gixxer

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The wife makes a habanero sauce that is really awesome. Habaneros, jalapenos, onions, garlic, pineapple, peaches, vinegar, salt, sugar. Fruity, savory, not too sweet. I need to get with her for the actual recipe.

What are you guys making?
 
Yeah, hot sauce!

My last one was a tomato based chipotle sauce. I used Bhut Jolokia, Aji Amarillo, Chipotle, Cayenne, garlic, tomato, vinegar, pickling salt, dash of cumin, and xangthan gum (for consistency).

Turned out great! I didn't make enough. I'm still getting the hang of hitting my desired volume. I strained out the pulp and seeds after I boiled it to get a nice smooth sauce, but lost a lot of volume in doing that.

This stuff is great on tacos, pizza, in a bowl of chili, etc.

TB
 
I posted this a while back but cant find the thread. Anyway, this is a f**king hot sauce :)

Makes about 1 litre / 34 ounces

400g / 14 ounces tomatoes, finely chopped
6 Naga Jolokia chillies, finely chopped
4 Scotch Bonnet chillies, finely chopped
4 Habanero Red Savina chillies, finely chopped
3 Red Cayanne chillies, finely chopped
5 Red Birds Eye chillies, finely chopped
5 Cloves of garlic, minced
3 Medium carrots, finely chopped
2 red onions, finely chopped
5 tbsp tomato purée
Distilled vinegar
Salt
Olive oil
1 Million SHU Capsaicin extract

1 Heat 2 - 2.5 tablespoons of olive oil in a shallow pan
2 Slowly cook the garlic, onions and carrots until soft
3 Add the chopped chillies and cook for 5 mins or so.
4 Add the tomatoes, tomato purée and season with salt. Cook for 5 mins
5 Add enough vinegar to the pan so that it just covers the rest of the ingredients. Increase heat and bring to the boil
6 Take off from the heat and transfer everything into a blender. Blast until blended into a smooth sauce like consistency.
7 Add back to the pan and bring back to the boil
7(b) At this point the madmen should add several drops of the extract. This will make the sauce burn like crazy and should only be attempted by professionally trained idiots.
8 Once boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 20 mins
9 Transfer sauce into sterilised jars and seal with the lids immediately
10 Can be eaten straight away but its best to leave for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

This makes a extremely fiery but also balanced sauce that starts with a acidic kick, quickly followed by a fruity sweetness before leaving the parting gift of a complete mouth and throat burn. The combination of different chillies as well as the addition of the extract mean that no part of the mouth is safe from the sauces relentless fire.
 
Yea Mr Frosty... That hot sauce looks like brutality!!! I could make that for guests at the home that I don't like!!!
 
I make a really flavorful Garlic Pepper sauce.

Quantities are not exact but it doesn't really matter too much:

1 full head of garlic
3 large tomatoes
12oz of tomato sauce
2 carrots
1 yellow onion
3 cups of chopped hot peppers of choice (I like habanero, Bolivian chili, sereno chili, jalapeno, depending on heat desired)
1 Tbsp chopped thyme
3-4 cups of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp salt (optional)

Blend in blender for 2-3 minutes to get it as well pureed as possible.

Simmer on med-low heat for 30 minutes or until thickened enough to liking.

Funnel into sanitized beer bottles and cap as you would homebrew!

Store up to several years. Refrigerate after opening and use wine cork to seal up after each use.

I have some I made 3 years ago and it is still great!
 
While I'm sure it will be terrible, I've had some habenero's pickling/fermenting for 3 years. If it works out I'll have insane hotsauce. I'm sure it won't though.
 
I have pickled some habaneros with jalapenos and cowhorn (cayenne family) peppers... The jalapenos disintegrated, but the cowhorns and habs held up nice. My pickling recipe is simple, 50-50 cider vinegar and water, a tiny pinch of salt and sugar.
 
I'm going to have a five gallon barrel run into the ground by the summer. I'm going to go Tobasco style and grind up a half bushel of mixed peppers, vinegar, and garlic, and age it for a year.

Should be really exciting!
 
Here's my latest recipe. It turned out fantastic. It's only kind of hot, around 2 or 3 out of 10 on my scale. If I had to guess, I'd put this in the 15,000 - 30,000 SHU range. I'll share my recipe and rough process. Hopefully we can get this ball rolling on the hot sauce forum!

Tiber's Sleeping Ghost Hot Sauce

Yield: (2) 5 oz. jars

Ingredients:
1 Roma tomato
3/4 cup white vinegar
3 Ghost peppers (Bhut Jolokia)
8 Aji Amarillo peppers
2 Habenero peppers
1 tsp pickling salt
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/8 tsp xangthan gum (for texture)

Process:
WEAR GLOVES!
Cut the stems off the peppers. If you are using dried peppers like I did, you must rehydrate them. Put your peppers in a bowl and pour boiling water over them and wait 15 minutes or so. They should be soft and flexible by then. Save the water for later.

gettingstarted_zps6dc6b036.jpg


Put all the ingredients in a food processor and run for several seconds or even minutes. Measure the pH with test strips or a pH meter. It should be between 3.0-4.5 pH for safe storage. If the pH is high, add a little more vinegar, run the processor again, and remeasure.

Once you have your puree, simmer it on the stove for about 20 minutes or until desired consistency is reached. I save the water that I used to rehydrate the peppers to add to the boiling sauce. This way I can make sure the mixture is cooking properly, while not letting it get too viscous. Let cool and put into a sanitized food storage container and let sit in the fridge at least overnight. The longer you keep your puree stored, the more heat the liquids will absorb (to an extent, of course). I usually leave mine in the fridge overnight. Sometimes a week or two. See what you like the best.

When you are ready to separate the sauce from the pulp & seeds, you'll need to prepare your equipment. Sanitize your sauce jars, lids, and drippers (if you use them). I sanitize a spatula and use that to help with the straining part. WEAR GLOVES. Seriously. I can't tell you how many times I've wiped the sweat off my brow after a day of handling peppers only to be followed by hours of burning and pain on my whole face. Or worse yet, scratch an itch on your eye.

nextdayprep_zpsb2f7984e.jpg


Next you're going to want to strain the pulp & seeds from the puree. I use a cheap coarse strainer, which does very well. I have tried using a fine strainer, and that was miserable. Strain into a (sanitized) cup or container that you can use to pour carefully into bottles. Using a funnel may help, but I've found that it clogs up too much. Use a spatula to help push the sauce through the strainer. Discard the pulp and seeds, or use them for something else.

strainpulp_zpsb4b2ced8.jpg


Pour the strained sauce into bottles slowly. Fill to within a half centimeter or so from the top. You'll get something like this:

fillbottles_zps4bfb6d4f.jpg


filledbottles_zpsd9a6e5ab.jpg


You'll notice the one on the right is filled to the top. I'm going to use this sauce today, so that's OK. The other one I will commit to aging in the fridge.

You can also use shrink wrapped plastic seals for extra appeal. Makes a great gift for the pepper head in your family. Or keep it for yourself.

shrinkwrap_zpse9841308.jpg


Hot sauce gets better with age. I like to make several bottles, use a few immediately, but keep a couple for long term tasting. Keep refrigerated if you use vegetable ingredients and/or if your pH is above 4.5. If you're not sure, refrigerate anyway.

Tasting notes:
This sauce has a slow creeping burn that builds for up to 10 minutes before it finally stops getting hotter. The burning lasts for about another 15 minutes at most in normal doses. The texture and consistency is perfect for a general purpose hot sauce. It brings ample heat with great flavor. It has a slight fruitiness to it, complimented by a robust sharpness that's hard to describe. (Sorry, I don't know hot sauce as well as I know beer.) I would consider adding a tad more garlic, maybe some dried onion and perhaps a dash of cumin.

TB
 
This is my house hot sauce. I got this recipe off the Internet somewhere, so I can't take credit for it. This has allot of heat and goes well on most everything. Enjoy!

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped onions
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 habanero peppers, stems removed
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp lime zest
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tomato
sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Cook and stir the carrots, oil, onion, and garlic in the hot oil until soft, about 10 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor. Add the habanero peppers, water, lime juice, vinegar, tomato and lime zest to the blender/processor and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste, transfer the mixture to a saucepan and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Simmering at the end gives the sauce a more liquid consistency.
 
Whipping some up right now:

4 dried habaneros
2 dried ghost peppers
10 dried arbol peppers
1/2 tsp. Aji amarillo powder
1 c. chopped carrots
1/2 c. vinegar
3/4 c. tomato juice
8 garlic cloves
3/4 tsp. pickling salt
3/8 tsp. Xantham gum

Simmering right now. Smells amazing!!
 
Alright... Found the recipe... Those of you that look at the recipe and think it will be too sweet, that is not really the case. It's very balanced. between the fruit, vegetal pepper flavor, sugar, and vinegar. If you are afraid it will be too sweet then cut back on the sugar.

Peach/pineapple habanero sauce...
Makes about 6 cups or so...
1 large can sliced peaches in juice, not syrup
1 small can pineapple chunks
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
1 medium white onion, diced
2 jalapenos, cored and seeded
15-18 habaneros, cored and seeded
4TBS sugar
1/4C cider vinegar
1/4-1/2C water

In a large saucepan, (big enough to hold all contents), lightly oil the pan and saute the onions, garlic, habs, and japs till onions are translucent, then add peaches and pineapple (both with juice), along with rest of ingredients. Simmer uncovered for maybe 20 min (VENTILATION OF THE KITCHEN IS KEY!!! Or cook outside). Cool batch enough to safely put in the blender. You can blend it till its perfectly smooth or leave it kinda chunky. We leave it kinda chunky but whatever works. Bottle using whatever method you are comfortable. I normally give it a week before I start using it regularly, but the flavor changes slightly over time.
 
Alright... Found the recipe... Those of you that look at the recipe and think it will be too sweet, that is not really the case. It's very balanced. between the fruit, vegetal pepper flavor, sugar, and vinegar. If you are afraid it will be too sweet then cut back on the sugar.

Peach/pineapple habanero sauce...
Makes about 6 cups or so...
1 large can sliced peaches in juice, not syrup
1 small can pineapple chunks
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
1 medium white onion, diced
2 jalapenos, cored and seeded
15-18 habaneros, cored and seeded
4TBS sugar
1/4C cider vinegar
1/4-1/2C water

In a large saucepan, (big enough to hold all contents), lightly oil the pan and saute the onions, garlic, habs, and japs till onions are translucent, then add peaches and pineapple (both with juice), along with rest of ingredients. Simmer uncovered for maybe 20 min (VENTILATION OF THE KITCHEN IS KEY!!! Or cook outside). Cool batch enough to safely put in the blender. You can blend it till its perfectly smooth or leave it kinda chunky. We leave it kinda chunky but whatever works. Bottle using whatever method you are comfortable. I normally give it a week before I start using it regularly, but the flavor changes slightly over time.

Doesn't look "too sweet" to me! Habeneros go very well with fruit! I've made a Habenero hot sauce that had mango and peach in it. Turned out awesome. I'm not always in the mood for a rich hot sauce, so I don't make something like that very often. However, that goes great on hot wings, taco salad, and in a chicken marinade. Thanks for sharing!
 
I have a simple recipe I make:

4 habañeros
2 red bell peppers ( 3/4 pound), roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.

Simmer until soft (may need to add more vinegar). Then purée.
 
I have a simple recipe I make:

4 habañeros
2 red bell peppers ( 3/4 pound), roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.

Simmer until soft (may need to add more vinegar). Then purée.

This is what I love about hot sauce....

It's impossible to botch a recipe so long as you have the key ingredients present and enough acidic additions to keep the pH low enough to preserve it!
 
Man, these look great fellas! I've never tried.making hot sauce, but these sound too good not to try. I'll be at the grocery store this weekend for sure! I have tried making a wing sauce...honey jalapeño. A local joint has it as a wing sauce. Its stellar and I can't seem to replicate it.
 
Whipping some up right now:

4 dried habaneros
2 dried ghost peppers
10 dried arbol peppers
1/2 tsp. Aji amarillo powder
1 c. chopped carrots
1/2 c. vinegar
3/4 c. tomato juice
8 garlic cloves
3/4 tsp. pickling salt
3/8 tsp. Xantham gum

Simmering right now. Smells amazing!!

Any reason to use dried peppers instead of fresh? Since you mention simmering it, it probably isn't to kill any nasties the peppers may have.

I'm going to have some ghost peppers, Scotch bonnets, Trinidad scorpions and Carolina reapers in my garden this year. Not sure yet what I plan to do with them beyond drying and powdering a bunch.
 
Any reason to use dried peppers instead of fresh? Since you mention simmering it, it probably isn't to kill any nasties the peppers may have.

I'm going to have some ghost peppers, Scotch bonnets, Trinidad scorpions and Carolina reapers in my garden this year. Not sure yet what I plan to do with them beyond drying and powdering a bunch.

They're available year round as dried. You rehydrate with a soak in boiling water before making it.
 
I usually end up with about 5 gallons of Habenaro's every summer and I am a big fan of this:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bobs-habanero-hot-sauce---liquid-fire/

I also do a smoked pepper sauce. Basically smoke a 5 gallon bucket or more of peppers..... mainly red bells, or red sweet peppers.... but also about 25-35% cayenne, red jalapeno, red Habenaro, etc. Then, after a couple hours on the smoker throw it in a blender, boil it down with vinegar, water and salt. Can it - basically a great pepper sauce (salsa like) for eggs, pastas, meatloaf, fish, etc.
 
OMG, you have no idea how happy it makes me to know that craft brewers are also sometimes chili heads.

I'm a major chili head. I love a fine flavored sauce that the average Joe cannot appreciate. I've done a little experimentation with my own sauces. One ingredient that works very well but is rarely mentioned is bananas. They provide a nice sweetness to high powered sauces while adding texture and thickness without using xanthan gum.

That said, one of my projects this summer is to create a "dare" style hotsauce in collaboration with a local BBQ sauce maker I'm friends with. Not certain yet on the details yet, but it will include extracts for the sake of making it stupid hot.

My personal stuff doesn't use extracts, but when you use the right peppers you don't need extracts.
 
That dare hot sauce? Hmmm... I bet Blair's 6am has that covered lol but yea making a sauce? Sounds painful!! Yet cool at the same time.
 
Gixxer, you are correct. Blair has most of the bases covered in the realm of extreme sauces. I keep a bottle of 3am around myself for special occasions. To say "a dab will do it" can be an understatement.
 
Whipping some up right now:

4 dried habaneros
2 dried ghost peppers
10 dried arbol peppers
1/2 tsp. Aji amarillo powder
1 c. chopped carrots
1/2 c. vinegar
3/4 c. tomato juice
8 garlic cloves
3/4 tsp. pickling salt
3/8 tsp. Xantham gum

Simmering right now. Smells amazing!!

Straining and bottling this now. Really spicey, but not in an over powering way, and great flavor. Can't wait to let this sit in the fridge for awhile.
 
Straining and bottling this now. Really spicey, but not in an over powering way, and great flavor. Can't wait to let this sit in the fridge for awhile.
Right on. I let mine sit as long as I can take it. I'm getting better with my patience lately.

How long do you usually let yours age?
 
Here's a new recipe I made. I won't know exactly how it turns out for another few weeks, but from the samples I took while making it - it's hot.

1/4 Roma tomato
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup all natural unfiltered cider vinegar
25 Bhut Jolokia (Ghost peppers)
7 Habenero peppers
1.5 tsp pickling salt
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp dried onion
1/4 tsp xanthan gum

Pour boiling water over chilies in a bowl, cover with foil and let sit 15 minutes or until rehydrated. Add all ingredients to a food processor. Process until thoroughly mixed and chopped finely. Take a pH reading and make sure you're under 4.0. I like to be in the 3.3 - 3.5 range. Once processed, pour into pan and simmer while adding some of the leftover water from rehydrating the chilies. Stir on heat for about 15 minutes. Pour entire contents into a sanitized food container and let sit in fridge for about a week.

That's where I'm at now. I will strain the sauce mixture in a week and bottle it. Then I'll let it sit in the bottle for another week or two if I can help it, and I'll report some tasting notes here.

TB
 
How long do you usually let yours age?

I don't know - it's my first batch! :p

Here's a new recipe I made. I won't know exactly how it turns out for another few weeks, but from the samples I took while making it - it's hot.

1/4 Roma tomato
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup all natural unfiltered cider vinegar
25 Bhut Jolokia (Ghost peppers)
7 Habenero peppers
1.5 tsp pickling salt
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp dried onion
1/4 tsp xanthan gum

Sounds good!


Just whipped up some habanero mango last night...

2 cups diced fresh mango
26 dried habaneros
1/2 cup diced white onion
~2 Tbsp minced garlic
3 cups apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. salt

I may add a little pineapple to it, as it wasn't quite as sweet as I was looking for; but I'll taste it again in a week or so before straining it.
 
Just whipped up some habanero mango last night...

2 cups diced fresh mango
26 dried habaneros
1/2 cup diced white onion
~2 Tbsp minced garlic
3 cups apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. salt

I may add a little pineapple to it, as it wasn't quite as sweet as I was looking for; but I'll taste it again in a week or so before straining it.

It's hard to get a good idea of the heat and flavor when it's young. It's also hard to wait for it to mature when it smells so good. Kind of parallels beer in a way. :mug:
 
Garlic Four Pepper Hot Sauce:
7 fresh hananeros
2 fresh jalapenos
2 fresh seranos
1 fresh pablano
1/2 sweet onion
1 tomato
2 heads of roast garlic

saute it all together (preferably outside, I don't want those fumes in the house), put it all in the food processor add about 1/2 cup of vinegar to thin it out. Strain it into a pot and add about 1/4 cup honey, 1 T salt, and some cumin. Simmer, and store in a mason jar. Tastes amazing, very hot, but lots of sweet roast garlic flavor as well.
 
I just whipped up my first batch of gooood hot sauce, this is another one of those things that I'll never buy from the store ever again. I used 10 habaneros with seeds (paid all of 80 cents for them!) plus the meat of one mango. I had intended to run everything through my juicer but the habs kept clogging up the spinning blade so I put them in the ninja and ran it until they were pretty well mushed, then added the mango a few pieces at a time and ran it until it was a nice pastie consistency. It came out to about a cup of puree and I followed the 10:1 sauce:vinegar rule of thumb by adding just shy of 2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar. I don't have any pH strips so I'm hoping the acidity is low enough, should be fine as long as I keep it in the fridge. After straining it I took a taste test and its real good, kind of tangy and sweet then whoosh! the heat comes on. It isn't a painful heat but it last a long time.

As soon as I find my flippin' camera I'll post a pic.
 
My standard:

Equal parts habanero, red thai peppers, crushed chili pepper (the dry flakes you put on pizza), and fresh garlic. Blast in a food processor with enough white vinegar to make a loose slurry. Let sit in refrigerator for 24 hours. The next day, add gold tequila and fresh squeezed orange, lemon and lime juice equal to the vinegar. 1 part vinegar, 1 part tequila, 1 part combined citrus juice. Salt, white pepper to taste, back in the processor till saucy. Strain through a metal screen and mix in cayenne pepper powder until desired consistency is reached. The tequila makes it "pop," the cayenne leaves a lingering heat. I get requests for the next batch constantly.
 
A customer just brought me ghost chilies. Ate about half of one. Had to get the milk ...

ForumRunner_20131104_153716.png
 
I too had a little nibble off of a dried ghost and it was not all that fun! I think most of that had to do with the fact that it was dried. I dig fresh peppers for tasting moreso than rehydrated dried peppers.
 
I just need to figure out something to cook with those dried ghosts that I have
 
Descender said:
My standard:

Equal parts habanero, red thai peppers, crushed chili pepper (the dry flakes you put on pizza), and fresh garlic. Blast in a food processor with enough white vinegar to make a loose slurry. Let sit in refrigerator for 24 hours. The next day, add gold tequila and fresh squeezed orange, lemon and lime juice equal to the vinegar. 1 part vinegar, 1 part tequila, 1 part combined citrus juice. Salt, white pepper to taste, back in the processor till saucy. Strain through a metal screen and mix in cayenne pepper powder until desired consistency is reached. The tequila makes it "pop," the cayenne leaves a lingering heat. I get requests for the next batch constantly.

I'm going to have to try this....
 
THis one's not a sauce but hot pepper jelly that is just excellent. Especially good on bread or crackers with gorgonzola or cambozola.

6 jalapenos
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper

Finely chop peppers, should be about 3 cups. Leave or remove seeds depending on what heat you want.

1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
6 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp pectin to make it set

Bring it to a boil, throw in pectin and boil for 1 minute, pour into canning jars. This can take a few days to set, if it doesn't then you can cook it up again and add more pectin. Makes 7 cups.
 
Odin_Brews said:
THis one's not a sauce but hot pepper jelly that is just excellent. Especially good on bread or crackers with gorgonzola or cambozola.

6 jalapenos
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper

Finely chop peppers, should be about 3 cups. Leave or remove seeds depending on what heat you want.

1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
6 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp pectin to make it set

Bring it to a boil, throw in pectin and boil for 1 minute, pour into canning jars. This can take a few days to set, if it doesn't then you can cook it up again and add more pectin. Makes 7 cups.

Going to have to do this as well.
 
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