Homemade Hot Sauce (Tabasco Style)

My husband is so wonderful--he shares my time with work and this blog and happily tests out all the things I make. I am not sure he is the best test subject, because he mostly says everything is delicious, but it's certainly good for my self-esteem.

This past weekend he made a hot sauce in the style of Tabasco Sauce, which we had always purchased and kept in the house (prior to making this recipe) and which does not appear to have weird ingredients. But we grow a lot of peppers every year and even husband appreciates the value of foods with ingredients we can follow directly to the source. So this year, he made this sauce and it is even better than the store-bought kind.

Ingredients:

About 2 cups (about 1 lb) peppers (we used Black Prince), stems removed

3 small carrots, peeled and cut into thirds

1 medium onion, chopped

1 very large clove of garlic, chopped

2 cups white vinegar, be aware of the source of your white vinegar - read this for more information

3 cups water

1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp sea salt

 

How To:

1. In a medium to large saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer on low for about 45 minutes.

First Added

 

After 45 minutes

 

2. Remove from heat, let cool to room temperature, and then add to a blender or food processor to "liquify". Husband did not wait for this to cool when he made his batch of sauce, but I highly recommend that you do because the pressure caused by the high heat in the blender may cause a "hot sauce explosion", which would be no fun. 

3. Strain by pouring blended sauce through a strainer using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to push through. That's it! You can preserve the sauce by canning, which will give it a shelf life of about a year, until you open it of course, at which point you'd want to store it in the fridge.

 

Comments:

Husband got this recipe from a video he watched here, Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce by Keith Snow, and which we modified a little bit (we did not add the pectin and we used different peppers). This takes about 15 minutes prep time depending on how many stems you will be removing from the peppers--with so many tiny black prince peppers we spent a full 15 minutes pulling off the stems. But, if you use a larger pepper, like chili, it won't take as long. Just be sure to use a pepper with a good flavor, something like chili, or this Black Prince. This makes about 7 cups.

 

Ripened Black Prince Peppers

 

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This post was shared at Scratch Cookin' Tuesday, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, and Just Another Meatless Monday.