As my supply of home grown hot peppers has grown so has the things that I’ve made out of them. Husband likes Franks Red Hot sauce, so I’ve played around with home made versions of it using the home grown peppers, usually whatever peppers I have, which makes for a fair bit of variation in flavor. I’m not interested in playing around with the fermented sauces, but the home grown red ripe peppers make for some nice flavors anyway.
This past summer of course I grew Cayennes, so this year I did up actual Cayenne based hot sauce for him.
A note on making hot sauces. There are alot of recipes out there that make me cringe. And alot of home hot sauce makers who have no understanding of what makes things safely shelf stable. The good news for those folks is that botulism is rare. The bad news for those folks is that if they get unlucky some day they’re going to end up either dead or crippled for life. Before you decide to follow some random hot sauce recipe you found online please make sure you understand how acidity protects you from botulism, and how to tell if your sauce is acidic enough. I can do that whole rant if need be, and if you all reading this actually want it, but I won’t in this post.
This recipe is a modification of the hot pepper jelly recipe that I use and that I know is plenty acidic and thus safe to play with.
If you have pets, or if any of the humans in the house aren’t a fan of hot things, turn on the vent fan before you start doing anything. Also, I highly recommend gloves for handling the peppers, and even if you wear gloves do yourself a favor and wash your hands with LOTS of Dawn dish soap BEFORE using the bathroom or touching your face.
1 pound of red ripe Cayenne peppers
2 cups of white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
rough chop the peppers and add to sauce pan with the vinegar. Heat up, and then puree with the stick blender. Puree to your choice of texture, commercial sauces are often mashed through a fine strainer after pureeing to remove the seeds and larger bits, I don’t bother, but if you prefer a smoother sauce you’ll want to do this. Add salt and garlic powder. Simmer down to the consistency you want. Bring to a rolling boil. Pour into hot 1/2 pint jars and water bath for 10 minutes. This made up 3 jars worth of sauce. It also smells absolutely wonderful, even to me who doesn’t care for hot things.
I’ll note, if you don’t want to water bath it, and just want something for the fridge or freezer, this’ll keep for extended periods of time in the fridge just fine.
Good advise to pet owners whose sense of smell is 1000’s better than ours. What is pleasant to us can be painful to them.
I try to wait to do the hotter peppers on warmer days, because there’s a very good possibility that I’ll end up with fans in the windows. The fumes can get very pungent! Having said that, my crew seem to be more tolerant than I am actually. Which is kinda funny. My Husband of course thinks it all smells awesome regardless.