Homemade tabasco?

Hello fellow culinarians, I seek guidance on making some sort of pepper sauce. This is where I am ... I picked a peck of peppers, (lol) and pureed them in the blender with enough vinegar to make a kind of mash. I boiled them for about an hour, slow simmer, and now they are sitting on the stove "steeping". Everything I have read says to let this concoction age for up to 3 yrs. Well this is going to be X-mas gifts, this year, so that is out. My plan is to let it sit for about a week, room temp, lightly covered, till the bottles I ordered off the internet arrive. With the acid content I don't have any spoilage issues, do I? Anybody done this before? I have not. I would appreciate any feedback or knowledge you might have, or even a website for more info. Thanks and everybody have a Happy Christmas season!!!! Tim

Chef Tim,

I've tried on several occasions to make my own "hot sauce" (of varying regional influences, i.e. Caribbean, Mexican, etc). Upon completion, they all had one thing in common...they sucked. Wishing you the best of luck but my own experiences have kind of soured me on making small batches of hot sauce.

Keep us apprised of the results, I'm pulling for ya to hit a home run.

I make sauce every year..
I rinse and clean the peppers and get rid of the stems
I put them in a stainless steel pot with a pretty good helping of salt and about 1 head worth of garlic cloves.
I put in enough white vinegar till I get them covered.
Generally I boil the whole thing on the grill until they are soft, about 20-30 minutes ( if you do this in the house everyone kind of chokes to death)
While they are still hot, I puree them in the mixer and put them from the mixer to another bowl or pot. Then I stir the whole mess together and decant into bottles. I guess you could remove the seeds by straining them out but I don't.

I usually start with a good sized bucket of peppers about 2 1/2 gallons.

So far so good, I've been making it this way for about 10 years.

My dad makes homemade sauce that is pretty good. This recipe seems pretty close to his.


http://southernfood.about.com/od/chilep ... lbb349.htm

Ingredients:
•1 1/2 cups vinegar
•6 chile peppers (at least one cayenne, a variety tastes best) minced
•6 oz can tomato paste
•1 tablespoon minced garlic
•1 teaspoon black pepper
•1 teaspoon lemon juice
•Olive oil
Preparation:
Saute your peppers and garlic in about a tablespoon of olive oil.
Stir in the tomato paste and half the vinegar.

Bring to boil and add the rest.

Tips--chipotle peppers are fabulous with this (they are my favorite)

to use habs--puree in blender (small amount of water)and strain. Use resulting liquid unless you reall enjoy heat.

If you use more than one habenero you can reduce vinegar by amount of liquid added.

WOW, thanks for the responses, I did not expect anything so fast. I was thinking of a thickening agent now. The bottle of sauce in my fridge, (generic lol & cheap, 2 4 1) uses xanathan gum. I wanted to add some oil at one point and stretch it and get an emulsion to achieve a consistentcy of something like a salad dressing. Not to thick but hangs on to a piece of lettuce!!! Anybody got any gum? LOL

I think I've got some ABC gum ..(already been chewed) stuck on the bottom of this chair here. Let me know if you want it and I'll try to chip some off for you.

I have BEAUTIFUL tabasco-ish (used my homegrown habeneros) cooling. I used yellow tomatoes, the peppers, vinegar, sugar, spices (tied in a bag), and salt. It is BEAUTIFUL! I added a bit extra sugar since the peppers are hot as hell. Has a great flavor too, but HOOOOOTTTTTT!

I make sauce every year..
I rinse and clean the peppers and get rid of the stems
I put them in a stainless steel pot with a pretty good helping of salt and about 1 head worth of garlic cloves.
I put in enough white vinegar till I get them covered.
Generally I boil the whole thing on the grill until they are soft, about 20-30 minutes ( if you do this in the house everyone kind of chokes to death)
While they are still hot, I puree them in the mixer and put them from the mixer to another bowl or pot. Then I stir the whole mess together and decant into bottles. I guess you could remove the seeds by straining them out but I don't.

I usually start with a good sized bucket of peppers about 2 1/2 gallons.

So far so good, I've been making it this way for about 10 years.

This is almost exactly the same path I follow, except I add some my-garden-grown carrot. I leave the seeds, as well, and put them in small jars (about 1 cup). I haven't made any this year, but last year's are holding up well in the jars. I still have about 30 jars left over. Darn stuff is so hot my friends to whom I have given it can only use about a jar a year!

[Robin Garr]

... except I add some my-garden-grown carrot.

That was the secret to the original Melinda's from Costa Rica, as I recall, which was a hot-sauce cult classic of the '90s before the brand changed owners and moved to Belize.

Not a traditional style hot sauce, but I make a huge batch of this every year to use up some habaneros:

http://cooking.netrelief.com/recipes/home_style_inner_beauty_hot_sauce_recipe.shtml

15 habanero chiles -- roughly chopped
1 ripe mango -- peel, pit, mash
1 cup cheap yellow prepared mustard
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
salt and pepper -- to taste

Relatively easy to make - dump everything in a food processor and whirl till smooth. Great as a sandwich spread, among other things.

... except I add some my-garden-grown carrot.

That was the secret to the original Melinda's from Costa Rica, as I recall, which was a hot-sauce cult classic of the '90s before the brand changed owners and moved to Belize.

I'm kind of a throw-back, so that doesn't surprise me! (I still see Melinda's in stores, I think - a green and white label?).

My favortie hot sauce, bar none, is Marie Sharp's Habanero Pepper Sauce, a product of Belize that also contains carrots.

[Robin Garr]

My favortie hot sauce, bar none, is Marie Sharp's Habanero Pepper Sauce, a product of Belize that alos contains carrots.

And, if I'm not mistaken, a sibling or a cousin of the Melinda's that I was talking to TP about. They were among the first habanero-based sauces to hit the market, and it was additions like the carrot that gave the sauce an interesting, complex flavor that was about more than just heat.

... except I add some my-garden-grown carrot.

That was the secret to the original Melinda's from Costa Rica, as I recall, which was a hot-sauce cult classic of the '90s before the brand changed owners and moved to Belize.

Looking at a bottle of Melinda's Red Savina sauce I happen to keep next to the computer, and per the label it is a 'Product of Costa Rica', imported & distributed by Figueroa Brothers, Inc. of Dallas, Tx.

Ingredients:

Red Savina peppers
hand-select choice red habanero peppers
fresh carrots
onions
lime juice
vinegar
garlic
salt

(and yes, I keep hot sauce near the computer - never know when a snack might need a little kick. There's a bottle of Melinda's Red Savina, a bottle of Pickapeppa Red (awesome sauce if you can find it), and a bottle of Sriracha... I gots issues. )

[Robin Garr]

I don't remember the details any more, but I'm pretty sure that the original Melinda's underwent a corporate takeover and moved to Belize in the '90s. When Marie Sharp's came out, rumor had it that it was the "original" Melinda's. Later you'd see both labels from both countries. It was a hot topic on foodie forums at the time, but we're talking about 15 years ago or more, and my memory's not that good.

... except I add some my-garden-grown carrot.

That was the secret to the original Melinda's from Costa Rica, as I recall, which was a hot-sauce cult classic of the '90s before the brand changed owners and moved to Belize.

Looking at a bottle of Melinda's Red Savina sauce I happen to keep next to the computer, and per the label it is a 'Product of Costa Rica', imported & distributed by Figueroa Brothers, Inc. of Dallas, Tx.

Ingredients:

Red Savina peppers
hand-select choice red habanero peppers
fresh carrots
onions
lime juice
vinegar
garlic
salt

(and yes, I keep hot sauce near the computer - never know when a snack might need a little kick. There's a bottle of Melinda's Red Savina, a bottle of Pickapeppa Red (awesome sauce if you can find it), and a bottle of Sriracha... I gots issues. )