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Spice Up Your Cooking with Homemade Hot Sauce

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In the world of condiments, hot sauce appears to be a trend that’s sticking around for the long haul. Gone are the days of the old standards like ketchup and mustard being the sole stars of the condiment caddy at your local diner. Now, you’d be hard-pressed to find a joint that isn’t offering at least one variety of the spicy sauce we’ve all come to love and expect. These days, so many companies are hopping on the spicy bandwagon, that you can even find an Italian version of the popular condiment.

Hot sauce really is the solution to just about any culinary conundrum. Boring burger? Hot sauce. Subpar sandwich? Hot sauce. Mundane minestrone? Hot sauce. No doubt we’ve all got a few of these store-bought bottles clinking around in our refrigerator doors, standing ready to add some pizzazz to just about any dish we find lacking. It turns out, though, that homemade hot sauce is actually a breeze to make. What’s wonderful about that, too, is that it’s completely customizable. Maybe you’re one of those for whom hot sauce just can’t be hot enough, and you like to set your palette ablaze, likening yourself to a fire-breathing dragon. Perhaps you prefer your hot sauce on the mild side, enjoying just a slight hint of peppery pleasure. The love for that capsaicin kick is a sliding scale, and no matter where you fall, there’s a homemade hot sauce recipe for you. 

Homemade hot sauce in a jar with small red chili peppers on the side.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

To understand hot sauce, it’s important to have a general understanding of chili peppers and what makes them so feisty. Capsaicin is the chemical component in chilis that gives them heat. The more capsaicin, the hotter the pepper. The scale is vast and can be daunting considering the number of chilis there are out there. A helpful tool for understanding this is the Scoville Scale, a scale that ranks chili peppers according to their pungency and capsaicin levels. A bell pepper, for example, contains no capsaicin and therefore has 0 heat units, while the Carolina Reaper, the world’s hottest pepper, registers at 1.5 million to 2.2 million heat units on the Scoville Scale. Some of the more common peppers are categorized as such: A poblano falls between 1,000 and 2,000 heat units, a jalapeno anywhere between 2,000 and 8,000, and a cayenne lands somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000. 

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So before venturing to the market, ask yourself where your palette may fall on this scale, and purchase your peppers with care. Can’t get enough sizzle in your sauce? You’ll want to toss in an extra habanero. Or, if you dare, a dash of ghost pepper or two (but don’t say we didn’t warn you). If it’s a milder, slightly sweeter flavor you’re after, try some Fresno chilis instead. Some people even throw in a carrot or two for the beautiful color and the velvety texture they offer.

This homemade hot sauce recipe falls somewhere in the middle. It’s for those of us who like a good kick, but not so much that it sends us running to guzzle the gallon of milk in the fridge. And yes, it’s true that milk is better at extinguishing those flames than water, so maybe pick up a carton, just in case. 

Homemade Cayenne Hot Sauce Recipe

Laid out homemade hot sauce ingredients.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This tried and true recipe is a personal one, adapted from a worksheet I received in culinary school many years ago. That worksheet is torn and tattered, and so marked up from sauce splatters, notes, and revisions that it’s hardly legible these days. A word to the wise: If you ever see a recipe that looks like this, grab it and run. Because it’s a good one!

Yield: Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound cayenne peppers, roughly chopped
  • 1 habanero pepper, roughly chopped
  • 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 shallots, minced
  • 1.5 cups white vinegar
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp honey

Method:

  1. Add all ingredients except honey to a pot and bring to a boil 
  2. Reduce to simmer and cook until peppers are extremely soft, about 1 hour 
  3. Stir in honey until thoroughly combined 
  4. Remove from heat and let cool
  5. Pour mixture into blender or food processor and process until smooth

Store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months

Yes, it really is that simple to have your very own homemade hot sauce ready to show off at a moment’s notice. The possibilities are endless. So go ahead and add this one to your repertoire of sauce recipes. There isn’t a single meal we can think of that won’t thank you for it.

Lindsay Parrill
Lindsay Parrill
Former Contributor
Lindsay is a graduate of California Culinary Academy, Le Cordon Bleu, San Francisco, from where she holds a degree in…
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