Make Your Own Hot Sauce With Local Chiles

If you hurry, you should still find a few bushels of local chiles here and there. Grab what you can -- at least a couple quarts -- and don't worry about how glamorous they look; some are bound to be shriveled and beginning to dry. For this sauce recipe (which comes from my husband's uncle, a painter from New Orleans who has lived in rural Mexico for the better part of 40 years) it doesn't even matter what kind they are -- though obviously the hotter the chiles the hotter the brew.

Once home with your stash, don't refrigerate them. Green fruit will eventually turn red, orange, or yellow; you can make sauce at any stage, but I don't like to mix ripe with unripe in the same batch. We grow ring-of-fire cayenne, poblano, and jalapeño, and the bottle you see here includes a mixture of the three, all fully ripened. I also make an all-green jalapeño that's herbaceous, with slightly bitter notes.

Click here for the full story.

-OR-
Get Your Green Beer While It Lasts
Tips On Being A Vegetarian At Thanksgiving

Comments

[jsarets]

03:40 PM on 11/23/2008

The hot acid method is a decent starting point for a homemade pickle (which is essentially what a hot sauce is), but if you really want a sauce with the complex flavor profile of Tabasco, you need lacto-bacterial fermentation.

The only critical ratio you need to remember is 5.5 oz (by weight) of pickling/canning salt per gallon of filtered or distilled water (chlorinated tap water will ruin everything). Puree the peppers with your choice of herbs and spices in some of the brine. The fermentation will take place in a heavy non-metal vessel, preferably a ceramic crock, placed uncovered in a dark, dry place between 65-70 F. Add the puree and some more brine to the desired potency to the vessel and let sit for 3 days. Then, every 2 days for 6-10 days, skim the fermentation scum off the top of the brew. When the bubbling slows down significantly, it's ready to be (optionally) filtered, bottled, and stored in the refrigerator for at least a year.

This process relies on lactobacillus acidophilus, the same naturally-occurring bacteria responsible for yogurt. The salt concentration of the brine controls the speed of the fermentation process and inhibits undesirable strains of bacteria. The bacteria convert the sugars in the peppers into lactic acid, which has a rounder, more complex flavor than the acetic acid in vinegar. The process involves no cooking, preserving more of the herbaceous and fruity notes of peppers.

[eatyourveggies]

05:07 PM on 11/20/2008

I would strain the mix before bottling it that will rid the sauce of bits of seeds, etc. Also consider adding garlic and onion before puree-ing the stuff. Yum.

[Dystopic]

11:48 AM on 11/20/2008

Nice chiles.

I grow heirloom tomatoes and peppers for a living - all organic, hydroponic in greenhouses.

Nothing can beat a salsa or pico made with heirlooms.

[Giada]

06:38 PM on 11/20/2008

Only recently have I been introduced to heirloom tomatoes, and they are so sweet, heaven in a tomato.

I've made homemade salsa for years, with a chili variety, and one of my favorites recipes is Cowboy Caviar, using anchos, jalapeno, yellow chilis, habanero.

[Dystopic]

07:48 PM on 11/20/2008

We have something called "texas caviar" with chiles and peppers and black eyed peas, usually we make it on new years...

Heirlooms are great, people seem to really like the Black varieties from Russia, my wife likes the "oxheart" varieties. My favorite is a watermelon beefsteak - black green and reddish pink, looks like watermelon. The Italian vrieties are great for making sauces, a roma style paste tomato. I currently grow 22 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and 6 varieties of heirloom peppers. All organic hydroponic, pesticide free. I would rather lose an entire crop than put poison on my plants. Google heirloom and switch to images, some of these things are art plain and simple.

All the flavor has been bred out for uniformity and hardness to withstand shipping, same thing with alot of things. We just ate our first free range chicken we raised, took about a year and a half to get to weight (no hormones or antibiotics), and the taste was incredible, it tasted like chicken, not some "generic" white meat.

All my toms are picked ripe and delivered promptly, peak of ripeness.

It's very satisfying to eat something you grew yourself.

[LMPE]

12:32 AM on 11/20/2008

I often say that a neat thing to do would be to take someone who has eaten an all-American diet and trick him/her into eating something really spicy (chiles would work just fine). I expect that the person would, as I like to say, go all Roger Rabbit (in reference to the scene in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" where he drinks alcohol).

[Dystopic]

12:29 PM on 11/20/2008

I eat an all american diet ... The indian food I eat is made by americans, the thai food I eat is made my americans, the greek food I eat is made by americans... I am a Texan who was brought up by my American family eating Tex-Mex.

I am a chile head, I eat my home made salsa at practically every meal, and I always request the I be "burned to the core" whenever I eat Thai or Indian. I like to munch on habaneros, and make a wicked wicked chili, few can hang. Some people think that the excessive heat covers up the taste of the food, I disagree.

I get your point though... Pot roast, fried chicken and other "non capsaicin infused food types"

[AKJM]

02:32 PM on 11/20/2008

Well it's a great photo we call them peppers. Tonight or tomorrow we will have sauted peppers and onion with sausage on pasta.
Aside, sometimes foods can be too hot, you know like burning twice know what I'm saying, that's uncomfortable.