Spectacular. That’s the word one of our recipe testers used to sum up his feelings about this homemade hot sauce recipe. Spectacular. We’re not going to argue.–Renee Schettler Rossi
LC Pickling Salt Note
Don’t let a single potentially unfamiliar ingredient keep you from making this homemade hot sauce recipe. The ingredient in question is pickling salt. It’s simply pure granulated salt without any anti-caking agents. And it’s more readily obtainable than you may think. Go on. Google it. Then make this recipe.
Special Equipment: Mason jars with O-rings (that's the metal ring thinger)
Homemade Hot Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh cayenne peppers, stemmed (about 4 cups)
- About 2 tablespoons water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pickling salt
- 2 cups distilled white vinegar
Directions
- 1. Pack the peppers in a food processor and pour in the water. Pulse until the peppers form a chunky mass made of small pieces and then add the salt. (You’re going for about 2.5% salinity in your initial fermentation, if you pay attention to such things.)
- 2. Place the peppers in a large Mason jar, cover it with a square of paper towel, and secure the towel with the jar’s O-ring (that’s the metal ring thinger). Store the jar in a dark spot that hovers around 70°F (20°C)—a kitchen cupboard is good—and let it do its thing for 48 hours.
- 3. Skim any accumulated mold from the surface and stir the peppers. Cover again with the paper towel and the jar’s O-ring and repeat the skimming and stirring every day or so for 5 more days. The total fermentation time is 1 week.
- 4. After skimming any accumulated mold from the surface on the last day, dump the fermented peppers into the food processor and pulse a couple of times. Strain the mixture into a large pitcher or other container, pressing on the solids with the back of a spoon or with a small spatula to remove all the liquid. Add the vinegar to the strained liquid and stir. Pour the hot sauce into jars, cover tightly with rings and lids, and refrigerate for up to several weeks.
Homemade Hot Sauce Recipe © 2014 Hugh Acheson. Photo © 2014 Rinne Allen. All rights reserved.
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Can this be canned?
Hi Terri, this is my go-to resource for canning questions. There is great information about processing methods and timing.
Terri, I think you can safely can this because of the high acidity level. Read more about it here. But before proceeding, please get confirmation from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.
This recipe is a keeper! Definitely trying this simple recipe with (hopefully) next season’s garden peppers! We did a slightly more complicated version this past fall, aging it (still) in a moonshine-soaked wooden keg, and it’s pretty great. Also, when we originally made the pepper mash, we had it in a Mason jar, and covered it with a layer of cheesecloth, a heavy rock (to weigh down the mash so it wouldn’t float), and then a thick layer of kosher salt on it (kind of a la what Tabasco does), and found it stopped the mold issue…
Elisse, terrific, on all counts! Many thanks for taking the time to share your tricks and tactics. Incredibly helpful. And I must admit, I envy you that moonshine-soaked wooden keg. Brilliant use for it—although I can think of many more!
Thank you for this. I just made some home made Sambuca and Apple Pie Moonshine for holiday gifts and door prizes. They were a big hit. I have the recipes if anyone is interested.
Hal, you’re very welcome. And heck yeah, we want the recipes! Oops, I mean, yes please we would be grateful if you shared the recipes here. (Sorry got so excited I forgot my manners for a moment.)
Yes I am interested to get the recipe.
Pressure canning is a great way to go if you want to preserve. It is a fantastic way to keep low acid foods shelf stable…no more frozen stock!
The idea of skimming mold off is a bit concerning though. Mold can permeate deeper into the ferment than is visible to the eye. Might I suggest using a jar with an airlock system and avoid any potential risks?
Hi Renee, I posed your concerns to Melissa, our resident expert on food preservation. These were her thoughts; “There is really no risk from just skimming off the mold. It is quite common for a layer of yeast or a white mold to form on the top of fermenting vegetables. They are both harmless, and should just be skimmed off. Sometimes colored molds will form on the surface. These are also harmless, but can impact the texture and flavor of the underlying ferment. But they can also be skimmed off, and if you check your ferment often, and skim them off as soon as they appear, they underlying ferment will be just fine, and perfectly safe. Vegetable ferments are easily the safest kind of preserved food.
Airlocks are used for fermenting alcoholic beverages because acetobacter (which feeds on alcohol) requires air, and will grow on the surface of the ferment (turning it to vinegar) if there is air can come into the fermentation vessel. Airlocks are not necessary for vegetable ferments, which are producing lactic acid, not alcohol.”
Renee, I wanted to chime in, too, as I not only share your name but your concern about mold and it’s less visible side. We included that note in the recipe because the original recipe in the book included it. But in our testing, only once did we notice the appearance of anything remotely resembling mold. So it may not appear. Also, the very nature of fermentation with some foods—hot sauce, sauerkraut, pickles, miso, to name just a few—relies upon the growth of little critters. It may not be pleasant to think about, but in many cases it’s actually beneficial to health, per numerous studies that have come out in recent years urging the consumption of these types of food produced by controlled fermentation. Anyways, I wish you luck if you try the recipe and would love to hear what you think of the hot sauce.
Hi.
Pickling salt is not available in the country that I live. Is it imperative? (All contain iodine)
Hi Richard, the recipe is essentially calling for a salt with the fewest additives and anti-caking ingredients. Picking or canning salt is the preferred salt though many Kosher salts are free from added ingredients.
It turned out great, but boy it is HOT!
Karen, That’s terrific! Usually people find with making homemade hot sauce, it’s never as hot as they’d hoped. You won the lottery!
So what’s the difference between a paper towel versus cheesecloth? Will the chilies produce gases that need to escape or will it ferment better with a paper towel?
I’m going with scorpion and red (sweet) Serrano chilies.
Steve, either work. You’ll see that one of our testers used cheesecloth.