The Basic B*tch: Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce

Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce: simple & awesome

 Ever heard of Frank’s RedHot? Maybe Louisiana Hot Sauce? Crystal? All these hot sauces have cayenne chili peppers are their base and not much else. These peppers are sweet, tasty and have a nice balanced heat.

But it’s 2021 and let’s be real: you can’t all find cayenne peppers.

This recipe is awesome because it’s a basic btch, it likes Uggs, North Face fleece jackets, leggings, and brunch but fears carbs. Seriously though, this recipes tastes awesome with any old pepper. Try to use red or orange peppers so the color is still bright and hot saucy. But you can use jalapenos, serranos, habaneros (hot!), or whatever you can find at your neighborhood grocery (or take a look at the list of online shopping options lower down in this post).

 I love this hot sauce. It is sweet without sugar (hey, apple), way tastier than Frank’s because it uses real, live vinegar vs. white vinegar (barf), and has the extra tastiness of garlic (a not-so-secret ingredient in some of your favorite sauces, like Sriracha).

 WARNING: always use latex gloves when handling hot peppers and hot sauce. These babies can BURN your skin!!
NOTE: this recipe makes about 2 x 5-oz bottles of hot sauce

Ingredients

10 cayenne chili peppers
6 cloves garlic
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon salt

Directions

1.     Remove the stems and roughly chop up the cayenne peppers along with garlic cloves and apples, and add them to a pot with the water and 1 tablespoon salt. You can remove the seeds if you want a milder sauce.

2.     Bring the mix to a boil, then cover the pot and reduce the heat to low and simmer everything for 20 minutes or so, until the peppers are nice and soft. Make sure there is still water in the pot, adding a tablespoon of water if it evaporates.

3.     Cool the mixture slightly, then transfer it to a food processor or blender. Add the vinegar and process until the sauce is nice and smooth. Adjust to taste, adding more salt if desired.

4.     Too thick? You can add a bit of water and vinegar, adding 1 tablespoon of each at a time to make sure acidity is balanced.

5.     Fill bottles or jars with a funnel and cap.

6.     Let cool to room temperature and refrigerate. Hot sauce should last at least 1 year in the fridge. How do you know if it has gone bad? It will get moldy.

Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce: bottled & shelf-stable

Really similar, but a little different in that this baby is preserved and filled using a proper canning techniwe so that your hot sauce can be shelf stable, meaning it can be gifted and sit on the shelf for awhile before you open it (then you need to refrigerate it).

Ingredients

10 cayenne chili peppers
6 cloves garlic
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon salt

Directions

1. Roughly chop up the cayenne peppers along with garlic cloves and apples, and add them to a pot with the vinegar, water and 1 tablespoon salt.

2. Bring the mix to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer everything for 20 to 30 minutes, until the peppers are nice and soft.

3. Cool the mixture slightly, then transfer it to a food processor or blender. Process until the sauce is nice and smooth. Adjust to taste, adding more salt if desired.

4. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve if you'd like a smoother sauce, or

5. Return the mixture to the pot and heat until it reaches 190F on a heat-safe thermometer.

6. Turn to low and pour it into bottles while it is still super hot.

7. Cap and flip upside down for 5 minutes. Then, flip them right-side up and let cool for 12 hours, then hand them out to all your friends!

Tips and tricks for Preserving Your Hot Sauce: 

Use Quality Hot Sauce Bottles And Caps

Use food safe, high quality hot sauce bottles and caps.

Follow Sterilization Protocol

Make sure all supplies are properly sterilized (hot water is fine).

 Avoid Using Oil

Oil can introduce a botulinum toxin and a poisonous protein.

 Ph For Shelf Stable Hot Sauce

A pH measurement of 3.4 or lower creates a sufficiently acidic environment to prevent bacteria from growing. To achieve this balance, use citrus fruits like lemons or limes, fruit such as apples or pineapples, and a high-quality vinegar that is at least 5% acidity. Don’t add more water than vinegar. Don’t add extra vegetables without adding more vinegar. Try to maintain a balanced ratio like this recipe, even if you are swapping ingredients.

Shopping list

This recipe calls for fresh cayenne chili peppers, but if you don’t have them, you can substitute habanero, jalapeno or whatever fresh chili peppers you can find.

Note: chili peppers are extremely HOT, so please be careful. Always use latex gloves—or dish gloves or even a plastic bag over your hands—when handling any hot peppers. These babies can BURN!! This recipe makes 12 (2oz) bottles of hot sauce, or 1 ¾ full quart jar, or two 12 oz jars, whatever you have around! You can re-use old jars for this recipe.

Ingredients

o   10 fresh red cayenne chili peppers

o   1 apple

o   6 cloves fresh garlic

o   Apple cider vinegar (1 cup)

o   Water

o   Sea salt (1 tablespoon)

Where to buy chili peppers:

The best place to find a wide and amazing assortment of chili peppers is at your local farmer’s market or farm stand (smaller and more local, the better!). But we are not all so lucky. While you can certainly find common peppers through Amazon Fresh or Fresh Direct, here is my list of online retailers for more exotic varieties or plants to grow your own:

·       Janie and Fernando run a small nursery in New Jersey, Cross Country Nurseries, and have been growing chiles since the early 90s. You can find fresh chili peppers, pepper plants, seeds, and much more.

·       Pepper Joe’s sells over 100 varieties of exotic chili peppers as well as plants via PepperJoes.com.

·       GhostPepperFarms sells, you guessed it, ghost peppers from their Florida pepper farm.

·       Another Florida vendor, Baker’s Peppers offers fresh peppers delivered to your door when in season.

·       Bohica Pepper Hut in South Carolina, also sells fresh peppers delivered to your door when in season (late June or early July). Over 200 varieties and free shipping.

·        A&M Farms offers mixed variety boxes, plus sauces, seeds, spices and powders.

·       Non-dried, chopped and frozen New Mexico and certified Hatch Green Chiles are best found via The Chile Guy, in packages of 5, 10 and 25 pounds; or even a whole truckload! 

·       Ghost Pepper Store is a bit of a misnomer, as they sell a variety of fresh chili peppers, dried peppers, smoked peppers, powders and seeds.

·       Homesweet Homegrown was started by Robyn Jasko, founder of Grow Indie and lauds itself as the “world’s first chile pepper CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).” You can get a share of their chile pepper harvest, and each month a box of 18 hot peppers will arrive at your door.

Laena McCarthy