Jalapeno Hot Sauce w/Habanero Kick

My husband loves Tabasco. Period. He doesn’t really like Frank’s or any off brand. For his fried eggs, it has to be Tabasco brand hot sauce. When I told him I wanted to try to make my own hot sauce, he was surprisingly pretty willing to let me experiment. 

We decided not to go too strong, but still wanted a kick. There really isn’t a “recipe” that we followed since we were just dumping as we went, but it turned out great! We knew it had to ferment for 3 days, and that the salt helps to brine so that it doesn’t spoil. That’s about it. We made the first big batch in September and it kept well in the fridge until we ran out about 2 weeks ago. 

For Christmas presents for his family, we decided to make hot sauce and garlic infused olive oil (I’ll post about that later!). He was actually excited to share these with his family! I think this was a success. I can’t wait to experiment with different types of pepper and maybe even add some spices!

Ingredients

approx. 3 lbs. jalapenos, washed

8 habanero peppers, washed

white distilled vinegar

salt

Directions

Using disposable gloves, halve peppers and remove stems, seeds and “guts”. 

Using a food processor, fill the tub with the peppers and pour in enough vinegar to cover the peppers. Being careful not to splash this in your eyes, start blending until mixture is as smooth as you can get it. Add a handful of salt and a little more vinegar, if needed. 

Once blended well, transfer to a pot and bring to a boil. (This is very potent! Be sure to stay back and not inhale too close.) 

Once it starts to boil, turn off the heat, let cool a bit and transfer to heat safe jars. (I used a couple of quart-sized canning jars.) 

Let cool. 

Loosely cover with a flour sack towel or cloth napkin and place in a dark, room temperature cupboard and let sit, undisturbed, for 3 full days. 

After 3 days, you can refrigerate the mixture as is, or you can strain it out if you want a thinner sauce. We like ours chunky with bits of pepper in it. 

Just make sure you shake it well each time before you use it.