Royal Hot Sauce

Details

Yields: About 5 5oz bottles

Notes

This is probably the first recipe I’ve ever made completely by myself. I’ve certainly adapted recipes, but this is the first one that’s entirely mine from start to finish. It took a lot of tweaking, but I’m quite happy with the final product.

Made as directed, this hot sauce is quite spicy and may be beyond what some people would call “reasonable”. If you want to tone it down, seed some or all of the peppers before adding them to the jar.

WARNING: habaneros are SPICY. Wear food safe gloves during preparation to prevent absorption of capsaicin into the skin.

Ingredients

  • ½ pint (~ 6 oz) of black raspberries or marionberries
  • ¼ lb habanero peppers
  • ½ lb serrano peppers
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • ¼ cup vinegar
  • ¼ tsp xanthan gum (optional) Pickling salt

Directions

  1. Skin and crush the four cloves of garlic. Stick in the bottom of a 1 qt mason jar with the berries. Use a pickling stick or other blunt implement to crush the raspberries and garlic together.
  2. Read warning above, and put on gloves. Roughly chop the peppers and add to the jar.
  3. Fill the jar with a 2% saline solution (see glossary), tapping the jar as you fill to get air bubbles out.
  4. Seal the jar with a fermentation lid, or standard canning lid. If using the later, open the jar every day to "burp" the gasses produced by the fermentation process.
  5. Allow to ferment in a warm location for 2-3 weeks. You will likely see bubbles forming, and the liquid may contain a white, cloudy color. Both of these are fine and are normal byproducts of fermentation.
  6. After fermenting, blend the peppers (including brine) with vinegar. Once smooth, run through a mesh filter to remove any remaining solids. Mix in xanthan gum and bottle.