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Nicholas Fryer Nicholas Fryer is offline
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Default Homemade Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce

On Sep 7, 11:54*am, George Shirley > wrote:
> On 9/7/2011 10:34 AM, Nicholas Fryer wrote:> Greetings one and all!
>
> > I am new to canning and preserving, so please bear with me

>
> > I grew a bumper crop of cayenne peppers this year, and I want to make
> > a thin, "Tabasco"-style hot sauce. I want to bottle this sauce and
> > process it so that it is shelf-stable. If I make enough, I would like
> > to give it as gifts to friends and family. The only problem is that I
> > cannot seem to find good instructions on how to accomplish this! Any
> > suggestions y'all may have will be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in
> > advance!

>
> Hot sauce is normally made with fermented chiles. I used to make quite a
> lot until they ate out the lining of my stomach.
>
> Basically you need to wash, cap (take off stem), dry, and then fine chop
> the chiles. Put them in a large jar or crock, cover top of chiles with
> about a half-inch layer of pickling or kosher salt. Leave in a dry, cool
> place, like a cellar and keep an eye on the stuff. If it grows mold you
> need to scrap it off. It will mellow out and get good over time.
>
> Alternatively you can just make the stuff the way you want, run it
> through a blender or a food processor until slurried, add about 30% by
> volume of 5% USP white vinegar, mix well and blend.
>
> Tabasco is fermented in a played out salt mine on Avery Island in
> Louisiana. It is in used wooden barrels, salted down and the lids
> replaced and held for a year before processing. The salt mine provides a
> constant humidity and temperature which is used for making fermented
> sauces. YMMV.
>
> Do a Google on this newsgroup and you should find several references to
> "Hot Sauce" from the last nineteen years.
>
> George


George, thank you for the reply! I searched and did indeed find many
informative posts you have written over the years! One final question:
if I do not ferment the chilies, and I want to bottle the sauce in the
small "woozy" style bottles, is it necessary to process the bottled
sauced in a water bath? If so, how long would you recommend? Thanks
again for sharing your knowledge!