Home of the BrewNosers

I found a pretty cool/unique glass bottle, so what better way to put it into service than with a nice home made hot sauce? I grew standard Cayenne and Jalapenos last year, so a basic sauce using these peppers would be good. I would also use peppers from Pete's if a good recipe calls for it. Not looking for ultra-heat, but rather something to serve mildly brave guests. Ideal heat would be a bit hotter than rooster sauce. Ultra heat is okay, too.

How long does this stuff keep?

Is there a trick to plucking hot peppers off at their most potent hotness?

For peppers, the riper the hotter.

For the sauce to keep you'll need to keep the pH below 4, fairly acidic. Most sauces contain vinegar for this reason. You can experiment with different vinegars, lemon juice, lime juice, etc. Of course this will also effect the sauce's consistency, as will temperature. So if you are cooking your sauce in a pot, and you like the consistency, it will be a bit thicker once cooled and bottled.

I started growing peppers for the purpose of sauce making but haven't made any since before xmas 2010.

There are many ways to make hot sauce, some people add fruit or carrots, others like only peppers. Some people age and ferment their peppers before making the sauce. I loved fermented, pure pepper sauces the most. I have few threads in the sauce making section of thehotpepper.com, http://www.thehotpepper.com/forum/91-hot-sauce-making/. There's some good reading and sauce ideas there.

I'll give you the rundown on a basic sauce.

Destem and clean your peppers. Cutting out the core / placenta / seeds it optional but most of the heat is there. I prefer to leave it all in. You may want to add onion or garlic (I like to add onion or shallots). Add the ingredients to a pot, simmer with some vinegar and canning or kosher salt (ie: no iodine). Cook until the peppers are nice and soft. Transfer to a blender and blend until desired consistency. Transfer back to the pot and simmer some more, adding vinegar or water (I don't recommend adding much water).

Make sure your bottles are clean and sterile, much like your brewing equipment. Sometimes I hot water bath then keep my bottles in the oven until I bottle. Transfer your sauce to the bottle(s) and invert them so the heat and pH of the sauce kills any bacteria on the lid. If you have plastic tops do not hot water bath or pressure can the filled bottle.

Here's some of my threads there:
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/12675 ... out-great/
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/11380 ... hot-sauce/
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/11528 ... l-29-2009/

Good luck!
-Rob

Also, if you have a hand stick blender you can blend right in the pot; don't make a mess!

Thank you for the info and links. That yellow habanero sauce looks awesome.

How long do you suppose it would keep? Is it just like any other pickled preserves after opening? Is the "hot" a volatile compound that will decrease over time?

It won't get milder over time so don't worry about that. The sauce I make will keep for months on end. I also recommend keeping it in the fridge. Yes, it's like most pickled preserves.

I have some unopened sauces that I made before xmas, not refrigerated, holding up just fine.

So, thinking of throwing all of my peppers into a one big pot and making a big batch of sauce (and may bottle with various dry spices added to different bottles for a slight variety). Since the amount of peppers/etc won't really be to a recipe, should I figure out some way of measuring the pH of the sauce pre-bottling to make sure I'm in ok shape?

Does the pH really even matter that much if I store them chilled at all times?

Tim

pH is important for food preservation. If it's not low enough you'll need to water bath or even pressure can for safety, refrigerate after opening, and use within a certain time.

I understand not everyone has a pH metre or pH strips but you can look at some shelf stable recipes and scale based on the amount of peppers you have. I'd weigh out your peppers and then decide how much vinegar and salt to use (if making that type of sauce) based on some recipe.

The scaling sounds like a good idea.. BUT I can't seem to find any recipes (including yours ) where folks list the weight of the peppers. I'll keep looking I guess (or get some pH strips somewhere).

TimG wrote:The scaling sounds like a good idea.. BUT I can't seem to find any recipes (including yours ) where folks list the weight of the peppers. I'll keep looking I guess (or get some pH strips somewhere).

Noble Grape lists pH strips on their website, not sure if they actually carry them or not.

TimG wrote:The scaling sounds like a good idea.. BUT I can't seem to find any recipes (including yours ) where folks list the weight of the peppers. I'll keep looking I guess (or get some pH strips somewhere).

Hah! I record the weight in a book, I can look some up later on when I'm home.