Pepper sauce, or “peppa sauce” to use the Southern parlance, is a dead-simple Southern staple. The recipe couldn’t be easier: peppers and vinegar in a bottle. But don’t let the simplicity fool you. Pepper sauce can elevate a bland bowl of collard greens to something truly special.
For us Pacific-coasters pepper sauce is a much lesser known thing. Tabasco® sauce—a whole different animal—is about the closest we get here. But venture South and you’d be hard pressed to find a table, at home or in a restaurant, that wasn’t topped with a bottle.
A Million Uses
Pepper sauce; after 3 months of aging
A splash or two of this can bring a bland dish to life. I can’t eat collard greens or black-eyed peas without it. Most Southerners wouldn’t either. Try it in soup, or as the acidic component in a vinaigrette or caesar dressing, or mix it into your favorite pan sauce at the end. Because of its simplicity the uses are endless.
Making the ‘Peppa Sauce
To make, it’s as simple as heating enough vinegar to fill your glass bottle (an old rum bottle is traditional), stuffing that bottle with peppers and filling with white wine vinegar. Garlic is frequently added, as are black peppercorns. That’s how I prefer it.
Variations
Tabasco peppers can sometimes be harder to find, but any small(er) peppers will do. Red ripe peppers are the best, but green work too. As long as you can get them through the neck of your bottle, you’re golden. Feel free to experiment by adding other whole, dried spices of your choosing or swapping the white wine vinegar for apple cider vinegar.
For an Asian-inspired twist you might try rice wine vinegar, Thai chili peppers, garlic and star anise.
Now here’s the best part: when your bottle is nearing empty, just top it off with more vinegar. No need to heat the vinegar. The peppers will lose their potency over time, however, I’ve been working with a bottle for more than a year and have yet to replace them.
I’m fairly certain that those of you who make this will be making it for the rest of your lives.
- 1 glass bottle with cap or cork
- 1 handful of tabasco or your choice of peppers
- White wine vinegar, or vinegar of your choosing
- 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns (optional)
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed (optional)
- In a non-reactive pot bring enough vinegar to fill your bottle to a simmer, being careful to not boil.
- While vinegar is heating, set aside enough peppers to fill the bottle. You may remove the stems if you prefer, but it’s not necessary.
- Using a knife, make a small slit in each of the peppers. This slit allows the vinegar to more easily penetrate the peppers and soak up it’s goodness.
- Stuff all of the peppers into the empty glass bottle. If using the garlic and peppercorns, smash the garlic cloves and add those along with the peppercorns.
- Fill the bottle with the heated vinegar
- Because of its acidic nature it is not necessary to refrigerate. Garlic and black peppercorns are natural additions. Feel free to experiment with adding other dried spices, or just keep it simple.
- When the vinegar gets low top it off with more. Pepper sauce will last indefinitely.
264 Comments
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Yum… thanks for the recipe. Will be using homegrown Hawaiian chili peppers.
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That sounds excellent, Anne.
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Kyle,
Excellent! Thanks. I have made it a few times with peppers from my garden.
Just a quick question: Why simmer the vinegar? and what happens if it boils?
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You can use a bottle of Trappeys hot chili pepper sauce to get it all started. I used to use the 4.5 Oz bottle on the dining room table, now I just fill a Qt. mason jar snugly packed with various chilies like Tabasco, Thai hot and pequin and fill to the top with simmered rice wine vinegar. The rice wine vinegar or Mirin is a bit milder than regular distilled white vinegar and adds depth and sophistication to your final flavor. It doesn’t just hit your palate and burn away on your tongue. Nor is it excessively hot or have a long life span on your tongue. You can get fruity , citrusy, garlicky and creamy all in one jar. And I use about an 8 to 1 ratio of peppers to crushed cloves of fresh garlic. When the peppers are ready to retire after several vinegar changes, I just eat them straight out of the jar or on my favorite comfort food, Chicago Dogs!!!! Even the garlic has mellowed and is also quite tasty too.
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Mmm… Chicago dogs. One of my absolute favorite things in life.
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I like to eat the peppers instead of using the sauce I am from Alabama and I was raised on pepper sauce and this is the first time I have ever tried to make fresh pepper sauce I’m trying to figure out how long the peppers have to sit in the vinegar before you can start eating them
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I am using rippers and Tabasco peppers even got ghost peppers from a farm market.
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I give them about two weeks and then start tasting the peppers and/or the sauce to see when it is to your liking.
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What size cork bottle is that and where can I get it?
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How long before you should start using the pepper sauce? Should you wait or is ready to use after this?
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I remember my sister asking someone how to make this years ago. The reply was “It’s really hard. You put peppers and vinegar in a jar.” Thanks for confirming that it’s just that simple AND adding a couple of great suggestions!
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P.S. My mama says “peppa”. :)
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Glad to be able to confirm it’s simplicity. And your momma sounds like my kinda’ lady. Thanks for the feedback!
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yep, “peppa” sauce is a staple down here in southwest georgia! i made several bottles last summer with my husband’s abundant pepper crop but it’s not hot! wonder what might cause that? especially since the raw peppers would lift the hair off your head. my grandmother used to make pepper sauce using tiny ornamental peppers that were blazing hot. any thoughts you have will be appreciated.
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Thanks for the comment, Denise. Peppers are often inconsistent in heat. This is one of the reasons chefs always stress tasting your peppers before you add them. But as to why that heat would subside in the vinegar, I have no idea. That doesn’t seem feasible. Vinegar will tame the heat a bit, and if you cooked it, that can also tame the heat a little, but going from very hot to not seems unlikely. Sorry, no idea.
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After several vinegar changes over about a year the peppers lose most of their fire, So I just use the peppers to add to hot dogs or just eat them out of the jar and replace them with fresh peppers and fresh hot (but not boiling) rice wine vinegar and start over. The chilies are delicious straight out of the jar or on a good ole sausage dog. I have three bottles of pepper sauce I rotate so that I always have a supply of eatin peppers as well as enough sauce to season a 10 gallon pot of greens or peanuts. There’s no red in the peanuts, but the flavor is great!!!! and I can re-use the jar to start a new batch immediately!!!!! There is nothing like having a bottle of hot pepper sauce on the dining room table all the time. Just be careful because it will strip the finish off of an Oak tabletop in no time at all……..Don’t ask me how I know, but the table did get refinished and coated with polyurethane…
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She got the vinegar too hot while heating it. It broke down the vinegar causing the vinegar not to ferment the peppers. You should only bring your vinegar to a low simmer.
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That is not correct. Peppers will not ferment in vinegar. Vinegar inhibits fermentation. Instead it pickles the peppers and infuses the vinegar with the flavor and heat from the peppers.
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i had a bottle get cloudy after only a few months.I made a batch of twelve bottles been making the stuff for over twenty years this is a first.for me. I had a bottle I made from some Jamaican peppers for seventeen years start to go cloudy after about eight years but I kept right on using.
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Here’s a tip to make your pepper sauce hotter. Add a small amount of Olive Oil. Shake well and let it set for a week or two. Small amount meaning a tea spoon or less. More than that could make it unbearable. I’ve searched though out the web and was unable to find a good explanation for this. But the results are undeniable. Maybe someone reading this can explain the effect.
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It might have to do with chemical properties of capsaicin- if it binds well to fats, the olive oil will pull more capsaicin at one time from the peppers. Just a theory from a biochemistry student.
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A solid theory.
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It will help if you can put a slice on the sides of your peppers. It opens it up to let the vinegar inand the heat of the pepper out.
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I was so excited to find your recipe :) I’m from Florida and we LIVED on this stuff. I put in on beans and greens and spinach. Now that I’m pregnant, meat disgusts me so I’ve been trying to plan things that are higher in proteins, but I’ve been so bummed not to be able to find this sauce. We live in Virginia now and they don’t know what they’re missing :) Unfortunately I couldn’t find any tobacco peppers, but I still went for it and made some with red finger peppers. I will be bringing some tobascos home as soon as I find them or the next time I visit Florida :)
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I’m happy to hear that, Pam. It’s pretty hard for me to have any sort of beans, hot or cold, without it. Any small pepper will do. It’s all a matter of heat and flavor preference. Tabasco peppers are pretty hard to get ahold of here on the West coast too.
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Pam, Thai hot chili’s also work very nicely and taste just the same as Tabasco. My tabasco plants failed this year or I would send you a big ole bunch and enough seed to keep you growing your own forever. I grow my own peppers for sauce every year.
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i will try to find some Tobasco seeds and send it to you, Bob, in exchange for Thai Hot Chilli seeds if you like. I have never heard of Thai Hot Chilli.
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So simple! Can you add other veggies yo this?
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It is! You could, I don’t know to what benefit that would be. You’d simply pickle you veg and would probably not impart a lot of flavor. I guess it would really depend upon what you are adding.
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If you add cauliflower pieces and raw carrot coins to this you get hot pickled veggies to eat out of the sauce. We had a local Tex-Mex place that served them to us as an appetizer and we fell in love. Sadly, it closed and I had to make my own. I do up a half-gallon jar of hot jalapeno peppers and veg every season and leave it in the fridge to snack on. For some reason, the veggies seem to pull the heat out of the peppers and get hotter that the jalapenos.
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I’m from GA and my mama always added little slivers of carrot to hers. Don’t know if that made it so good or if it was just cause it was mama’s cooking. Hope that helps, Pat. Thanks, Kyle, for a great read and recipe.
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Noel, that makes sense. Carrots and peppers are a natural combination in pickles. I’d be interested in tasting the sauce difference and seeing if they actually impart any of their flavor. They’re certainly good eaten when pickled that way. THanks for taking the time to share.
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Thanks for that tip! I have 3 containers of Peppa Sauce already….2 in little decorative bottles I bought at Michaels….we only have two pepper plants!
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Nice work.
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I started a quest today and picked 2 1/2 gallons of peppers from the garden. Imagine my surprise to find Mr. Hildebrant’s suggestion at the top of my search. Thanks for bringing me back to simple pepper sauce because I was working way too hard. Of course I do have high hopes for my jalapeño slices in a modified bread and butter quick pickle brine.
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Kyle! great to hear from you. I hope all is well. Glad to hear that I came up first. As for peppers, 2 1/2 gallons is quite a hall. Nice work. I’ve tried, but I have little success growing peppers here in the NW. I’ve got two small bushes, but rarely get more than a handful of peppers. As for jalapeños, I’ve been making lacto-fermented jalapeños like crazy lately. There’s done in a week. Here’s what I would suggest: a 5% brine. Easiest way to calculate is by weighing. So put a jar on a kitchen scale. Weigh out 1kg of water, zero the scale, then add 5% of that weight in salt (5% of 1,000 is 50g). I like to add coriander seeds, as they go perfectly with jalapeños. Put jalapeños and coriander seeds in jar, then cover with your brine. You will have naturally fermented (pickled) jalapeños in a matter of days. You should try it. I bet you like them much better than the vinegar pickled variety. Hope to see you around here more often.
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Love this too! Thanks for the tips.
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I’d LOVE to see this recipe!
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Try growing your pepper plants in buckets with gardening soil and peat moss. Also add a little lime to the soil. You will have more peppers than you will know what to do with. Lime is the secret to growing any type of plant.
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ju st made my first batch of pepper vinegar thanks for telling me the instructions ,all we now is collards and mess of turnips
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Glad to hear it, Willie.
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Hi or, as we say here in the south, Hey,
My pepper plants – Dragon and Tabasco – are really slow producing this year, this morning only three little peppers. What is the best way to preserve them while waiting for more to ripen? Can I prepare my vinegar and add peppers as they ripen? In the past I have had plenty of peppers to make the sauce in batches but this year the garden is playing by its own rules ;) The Jalapeno and Cayenne peppers are doing great though and I have been dehydrating them for crushing and powdering. Glad that I found your site!-
Hey, Nancy. I can totally add them as they ripen. The vinegar essentially pickles the peppers, so they will last a long time (a year or more) in the vinegar. Just add them as you go. I’m in the Northwest and I just cannot seem to get peppers to grow.
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7 years in the future a university makes a connection between aspirin triggering a hormonal reaction in nightshades: Try taking ½ of an uncoated adult aspirin, crush it, and mix into the soil that will go into the bottom of your hole/container before transplanting young pepper plants. Alternatively, you can just dissolve the same amount into enough water to water in well at the time of transplant. (I feel the first option has a more “extended release” effect.) You can do option 2 in addition to the first option, but waiting to administer the aspirin water treatment once the first fruit begin to appear. This works better on tomato plants, but in my experience did also bolster the defenses of my hot peppers as well.
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Just toss em into the vinegar and keep adding peppers till you fill the jar with a snug pack. I re-use 1 qt mayonnaise and dill pickle slice jars to make my sauce in.
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Hi Kyle,
Great site!
Any concerns with peppers sticking out of the vinegar at the top of the bottle?Also, moar posts plz!
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Thanks, Owen. I appreciate that. No concerns with them breaking the surface. In most ferments this would be an issue, but because peppers are so acidic and they are in an acidic bath (the vinegar), it’s pretty difficult for any spoilage bacteria or mold to grow on them. As for more posts, I just posted a primer for cooking sous vide this morning. Lot’s more queued up! Thanks for commenting.
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I made some peppa vinegar last night, but didn’t see this recipe until this morning. I did NOT heat the vinegar, or slice the peppers. Do either of these steps do anything more than speed up the process of the vinegar taking on the pepper’s flavor?
Thanks!
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Michael, You’re fine. No harm there. It will likely take longer for the flavor of your sauce to develop. Slicing the peppers will allow them to distribute more flavor into the vinegar quicker and more fully. Heating speeds up this process too.
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Went with rice wine vinegar, Thai chilis, garlic, and coriander!
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Nice work.
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It almost looks like there’s flakes in the bottom of my jar, Like little floaty‘s but they’re on the bottom! everything was clean so is it just the peppers deteriorating and part to the inside of the pepper ?
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Ever thought about a mango slice in the jar of pepper juice ? I’m thinking yes
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I am convinced that southerners are smarter cooks. It took me forever to find this site. I add a little sugar and umh….it is so good. Are we(southern cooks) the only ones who eat turnip greens and hot sauce. My husband puts mayonnaise on his with cornbread. Dpn’t knock it until you try it. He also makes turnip green sandwiches with mayonnaise. The mayonnaise, ofcourse, adds calories!
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Well, I can’t argue with you there. I love good, true, Southern food. Turnip greens are great. As are beet green and so many other greens that many often discard. And as for mayonnaise, even I, as a Northwesterner, know that Duke’s is the gold standard.
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Kyle, for mayo that is really good and close to homemade, try Blue Plate.
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Thanks Kyle!
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I’m from NC and my dad has several bottles of hot vinegar that are old enough to vote. I make mine with small red and greens i grow myself, in apple cider and salt. No heating, just stuff and pickle.
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Nice. Heating not totally necessary, but it does speed up the process of infusion.
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Really? See i always thought heating the vinegar messed up the acid levels.
I forgot to mention: I prefer to put my sauce in old soy sauce bottles, since they already have that nice stopper in the top. Keeps the peppers in, lets the vinegar flow.
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One last southern thing: during summer at the dinner table we usually have a bowl of fresh sliced cucumbers. In white vinegar, a little salt and pepper. They’re not pickled, just maybe an hour or two in the mix.
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Can’t go wrong with cucumbers and vinegar either.
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I bottle my pepper sauce in grolsch beer bottles, they already have cap attached on top that will snap on for tight fit. The bottles are green and look very pretty to give as a gift also.
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Great idea!
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Hey Kyle. I remember those bottles on every table when I worked in Lake Charles LA 30 years ago. Great stuff. Just made my first batch using my over-abundance of Serrano and Guatemalan peppers from our CASE shares. Half liter of vinegar plus the peppers just fit into my 700 ml rum bottle. However the neck of the bottle was too narrow for the Serrano so I quartered them lengthwise. Also, an hour after bottling the green ones are fading in color, though the red ones look great. Can’t wait to try it out though, smells great!
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That fading is why there is sodium bisulfite in Trappeys. I just looked at my bottle of green peppers. I found this site to get info on adding vinegar after using up what was in it when I bought it. I just used distilled. Maybe I should have used something better and maybe I should cut the peppers to speed things up.
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Thanks for the recipe Kyle! My husband got a tabasco pepper plant for his garden by mistake and you talk about producing! We had no idea what to use them for. Found neat vinegar bottles at the Dollar Tree. The peppa sauce comes out a little fast, but I used pliers and squeezed the straws in the cap and that helps. We will be sharing with all our friends. Oh yeah…they make my hands burn…my next buy will be food prep gloves at a kitchen store! :)
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Hey Nancy,
I bought six of those neat vinegar bottles at my local Dollar Tree store and found, as you, that the sauce came out a little fast. Great idea to pinch the “straws in the cap”. They really are neat bottles. Currently using one for a delicious balsamic vinegar salad dressing! As for gloves, I purchased a humongous supply of Nitrile gloves (100 ct per box) at Amazon. I use them to cut peppers (oh my goodness, try removing contact lenses if you haven’t been protected- NO, don’t …you WILL never ever NOT use gloves again! The boxes have 100 count and I bought a huge case of them. The gloves are perfect for many kitchen chores, cutting up chicken, ground beef, etc. I am waiting for my Tabasco peppers to turn red. Have made jars of pepper sauce using Jalapeno Pepper, Dragon Pepper and Cayenne Pepper (separately) – interested if any taste difference using different peppers. Planted collards a couple of weeks ago…can’t wait to experience southern goodness!
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Hi Kyle,
Pepper vinegar was something that ALWAYS stayed on my grandma’s table. When I was a kid, cayenne peppers was the prevalent hot pepper here in southwest Georgia. I can still see those peppers in the decorative bottle on the table. Funny how something like that leaves an indelible impression on you.
You say an old rum bottle is traditional, but rum comes in all sizes and shapes of bottles, right? Got to ask you, is the picture you used of the bottle featuring the pepper vinegar the same rum bottle that you mentioned in the blog? If so, where might I score a bottle like that one? Is it an antique? Thanks so much, your blog is excellent and I will try the garlic and peppercorns. Never heard of adding other ingredients besides the peppers and vinegar.-
Eugene — (Looks like you got the comment to work). Honestly, any old bottle is traditional. As for the one in the photo, it’s not vintage. I cannot recall the liquor, but I think it’s a Scotch bottle. There’s tons of cork-topper bottles like that for modern spirits. As other have mentioned, those bottles with the metal spouts are particularly nice too, as it makes dispensing an easier task.
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Kyle – One more question if I may. In the recipe given, you state a handful of peppers but never specify the amount of vinegar. I know the amounts do not have to be exact, but to start out with, roughly how much vinegar would you recommend per amount of hot pepper? In the picture shown it looks like about
2 parts vinegar to 1 part pepper. To get the heat level that you prefer, it’s something you kind of have to experiment with, right? Thanks.-
It’s all relative to the size of your bottle. Fill you bottle with as many peppers as you have/desire. Then fill the rest with vinegar. That’s really it. Trust me, I’m a stickler for ratios and measurement, but with pepper sauce it simply doesn’t matter. The heat level will vary so much from pepper to pepper. That’s just how peppers are. I’d taste the pepper, then use your best judgement as to how many you use.
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I fill the bottle as full as it will get with peppers and add as much vinegar as it will take. I moderate the heat by what vinegar I use and how long I allow it to remain in the bottle. The longer it stays the hotter it will be. The less potent the vinegar the longer you cann leave it before it is too hot to enjoy for your pallet. You will have to experiment, but I use rice wine vinegar cut with about 25% water and that seems to leach out the peppers a little less powerfully and what does get into the vinegar isn’t so hot that I can’t enjoy it on other foods besides greens and leaf veggies.
Wheelchair Bob -
My family has been making this sauce for generations. No telling how far back since we’ve been here since 1679 and in the South a good portion of that time.
I use a slight variation on the technique. I do cut the peppers and leave the seeds in (hotter that way), but I pack them into the jars first, as many as I can pack in! (Cutting them lets you pack them in tighter!) Then add vinegar so that I have the right amount. I pore the vinegar from the jars into the sauce pan and heat it with peppercorns and some kosher salt. Roughly 1 1/2 teaspoons of each in a pint jar. Then pore it over the peppers in the jars.
I just put up a batch a few minutes ago. I used Scotch Bonnets, so it should taste great!
The nice thing about this is that you can make just one jar at a time if you only have a few peppers. If you’re in a hurry, you don’t even have to heat the vinegar!
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Mike, That’s a scary mix your making there. Did you cut the scotch bonnets too? I cannot imagine how hot that sauce is gonna be. How long do you leave the sauce in before you change it out. I don’t leave mine in for more than about a month or it gets too hot to enjoy. Plus I like to keep rinsing the heat out of the peppers so I can eat them straight out of the jar once they are well pickled and have given up a good bit of their heat to the multiple batches of pepper sauce they have made. After a few rinses I bet those bonnets would be tasty to eat too! Just gottta get the heat turned down a few notches before I can eat them straight out of the jar. The peppers straight out of the jar are really rather tasty once you get the heat under control a bit. I usually have several bottles of pepper sauce for the table and keep rotating them with fresh vinegar so they all get to the point that I can snack on the peppers in about 5 or 6 months. Right now I have 2 bottles of Trappey’s and 3 bottles of Texas Petes going that are all on the first rinse with the factory supplied vinegar. Once that vinegar is gone I will refill the jars with rice vinegar and let them sit for about a week then start using them on the table. My wife thinks I am nuts, just eating the peppers straight from the jar, but since I tamed the heat a good bit they are tasty and flavorful additions to just about anything you are eating. I do love me some hot pickled peppers!!!!
Wheelchair Bob
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Well, I AM a bit of a pepper-head!
The nice thing about the concentrated heat of this sauce is that it’s easy to adjust the heat versus vinegar flavor at the table. If you use the sauce straight, you get more heat and less vinegar flavor. For more vinegar flavor, add some vinegar at the table.
Like you, I also like to eat the peppers right out of the jar. I’ve eaten scotch bonnets straight on the first vinegar infusion, but it was a bit uncomfortable!
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Mike,
Youre a better man than I. I would have to rinse out those scotch bonnets a few times before I was ready to attempt to eat them out of the jar. I did however discover that Sport peppers like they put on chicagoe hot dogs are great out of the jar. Some are a little hotter than others, but the same principle of rinsing out the heat also applies. I have 2 jars of them that I am working with in addition to all the other little jars of rooster spurs!!! They can be amazingly hot straight out of the jar too.
WCB -
My mother used the mason jars but the lids always corroded. We did replace them. Is there any thing you would suggest.
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If you do want to use mason jars, you can buy plastic lids for them at most grocery stores. The high acidity of this will corrode the metal ones, as you’ve noted. A vessel with a narrower mouth may prove easier to pour.
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We always use a bottle with a stopper or use cheese cloth and a rubber band to keep out the critters. The mix is so acidic that once it is soaked wel,l not much of anything can ever get root and grow in the jar. We almost never refrigerate the sauce because it slows the pickling down more than we would like. Hope this info helps because Peppa sauce is good fer what ails ya! What you cant eat, just slather on and it will soak in through your skin and joints!!!! (JK, don’t put it on yer skinsilly)
Wheelchair Bob
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Actually, Bob, they sell an ointment with capsaicin in it to rub on your joints for pain! I’ll bet you could use peppa sauce the same way!
I have a sinus spray called “Sinus Buster” that is made with capsaicin. It really opens up your sinuses!!
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Kyle, the brine fermented peppers sound great. I’ll have to try that.
I have made lots of Kim Chee using the same technique. The Koreans also ferment lots of different vegetables that way.
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You should. It’s super easy. I’m actually working on a post for that right now. I should have it up this weekend.
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Great! I’ll watch for the post!
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So I used cayennes grown in my garden. Green, yellow and red. made a nice look. They’ve been soaking in apple vinegar for 1 week. The garlic cloves I put in the bottle are turning yellow and blue. What’s up with that?
I made another bottle using mostly green cayenne peppers and a few yellow cayennes. Garlic cloves are not turning except where I cut some of the larger cloves in half. Those are turning brown where I cut them so I don’t do that anymore. Also, McCormick spice sells a Pepper Medley that is a mixture of black, white and pink peppercorns as well as coriander. Adds a fabulous taste.
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Wes, that’s a very common reaction, and cutting or type of pepper will have little effect. The acetic acid in the vinegar does this. Harold McGee talks about this in an article for the NY Times:
“…And a strong green color develops in Laba garlic only with acetic acid, the main acid in vinegar (also found in sourdough), because it’s especially effective at breaching internal membranes and mixing the cell chemicals that react together to create the green pigment. The pigment itself turns out to be a close chemical relative of chlorophyll, which gives all green leaves their color…”
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Great job! I love it! Been making it for years here in Southern Mississippi! I have a question more about the bottle you use… Where did you find that bad boy?! I’d love to know where to get my hands on one of 2 of those!
Thanks!
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Thanks, Will. As far as the bottle goes, that’s a Woodinville Whiskey bottle. Sounds like a good excuse for a new bottle of whiskey.
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I have two questions: You said that it can be topped off with more vinegar when the sauce gets low. When you do this, do you top it off with heated vinegar, or just the room temperature vinegar? My second, 2 part, question: I’m using tobasco peppers from my garden. Do you ever eat them from the bottle and, if so, after how long of soaking in the vinegar?
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Gregg, It’s not necessarily to heat the vinegar. That step is really only to “kick start” the absorption of the chili into the vinegar. I do eat them out of the bottle, but it’s really a preference thing. Just taste as you go and you can determine how long you like them to soak before eating. They will soften a bit and lose a little heat, but they don’t change too drastically.
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I refill the vinegar when it starts to get a little low and I usually wait till the peppers have has a few soaks in straight vinegar before I eat them. That will help reduce the OMG heat from the Tabasco Peppers and make them more enjoyable. Did you slit the peppers when you put them into the jar? If you slit the peppers they will get less hot a bit faster.
Bob
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To add to what Kyle and Wheelchair Bob have said, I usually start eating the peppers as soon as I open the jar! Just taste a bit to see if you like the heat level.
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I did slit the peppers and I cut the stems off. I corked the bottle immediately after adding the simmered white wine vinegar and I plan to let it sit for about a week, before using it. Does that sound good? My wife and I love hot stuff. :-P
BTW, thank you for all the replies! I love cooking, so making my own sauce just adds to that. -
Slitting the peppers will allow the vinegar to penetrate the flesh from the inside and that along with frequent vinegar changes will take away the excess hot pretty quick. Depending on how much you and the wife really like HOT stuff you can start tasting the peppers after the first or second vinegar change and see how many more exchanges you need to make to get the hot down to what is palatable for you and your wife. I use hot vinegar or just put the entire jar in the microwave for one minute on high. That gets my vinegar hot, but not boiling. Good luck!!!
Bob
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Kyle thx for all the tips Tabascos are plentiful this year up here in Crozet Va peppa of the year though goes to my Peruvian Hot Lemon Drop once they turn yellow it’s a hot lemony delight just add vinegar no garlic…oh my
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You’re welcome. I love those lemon peppers too.
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I just left my kitchen without looking at a recipe I added some home grown Serrano peppers to an old spaghetti sauce bottle with white vinegar. I grew other spices in my yard and plan to get more pepper, rosemary sage and thyme to add. What’s your thoughts on adding the rosemary and thyme to the hot vinegar then blending garlic and onion with the peppers using the vinegar thyme and rosemary infused liquid?
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If it was me making the recipe you have I would use a garlic press and puree the onion. Add them to the pepper infused liquid and let it rest a while before use. I think that adding them during the infusion process will give a nice garlic flavor and the onion will have a better chance of nearly dissolving when you get ready to use your recipe. If you want to add them into the decanter I would leave the onion in slivers and mince the garlic or at least cut them in half. That will allow you to have some esthetic qualities, but the garlic and onion will take a while to infuse because the vinegar will have to pickle it first. Just my humble opinion, but I have made a bunch of different recipes and they have all worked pretty good so far. I pickled a quart of jalapeno’s that was cut into rings and added the garlic and onion from the very start. Just layer them into the mix so they are not all together in one layer and you should be pretty happy with the result.
Wheelchair Bob
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Bob I blended the garlic with onions with everything else and it was awesome.
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Kyle, i stumbled upon your page while looking for something to do with my tabasco peppers. Great idea! I made a bottle, and can also be used to peel paint! ;)
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Happy to hear it.
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Just picked a mess of Tabascos – I also store mine in vinegar. I don’t use the pepper sauce as much as I use the peppers. Cut slits in a roast (beef, pork, any meat) and slide the Tabascos into the slit. Do the same with garlic slices and onion. Then roast the meat (or smoke it) and be prepared for a wonderfully flavored piece of meat with an equally flavorful gravy.
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So I add white vinegar in a pot enough to fill several small bottles as a had a great harvest of serrano peppers in the vinegar I infused rosemary and sage from my garden. Then in the blender yellow mustard with onions, fresh thyme leaves lots of fresh garlic 1/4 cup olive oil the peppers and hot vinegar well blended. Pour in bottles and insert a sprig of rosemary in each bottle. So delish and no mustard taste.
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Sounds like a nice approach.
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Growing up there was always a bottle of peppered vinegar in the pantry so now there is always a bottle in my pantry. My mom used Chili peppers but I use Datl peppers for mine. Gives it a slightly sweet taste while having plenty of heat. I’m making up a bottle now and I was looking for some new ideas for using the old peppers besides just eating them. Any suggestions?
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If they still have some heat left in them, you could just add more vinegar, along with maybe some fresh peppers.
You can chop them up and use them in Mexican Salsa, or in making up some Guacamole.
Chop them up and add them to cornbread.
Add them to turnip greens.
Chol them and add to pickle relish to make a spicy relish.
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So, what is the protocol for when the peppers are no longer covered by the vinegar? My bottle was pretty packed with peppers and its not taking much vinegar use to expose them.
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I don’t think it matters too terribly. Don’t overthink it. Top it off when you can.
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My grandmother (Eastern NC) never put garlic in her pepper vinegar; and she made it with apple cider vinegar. It was my understanding that garlic can go bad if it is not refrigerated after cutting/crushing. Is this not true? Can you put crushed garlic in the jar and continue adding vinegar and using it without fear of botulism?
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Terri. I like apple cider vinegar quite a bit. As for garlic, no, it will not go bad. It’s essentially pickled and preserved by the high acid content (pH) of the vinegar. It may turn blue (I spoke to this up a few comments), but that’s not an indication of it going bad. As you note, garlic is one of the major harborers of botulism-causing spores. This is why so many of the cases of botulism are from people putting garlic in oil to make flavored oils.
Clostridium botulinum will not grow in acidic conditions (pH less than 4.6), and therefore the toxin will not be formed in acidic foods (however, a low pH will not degrade any pre-formed toxin).
Distilled white vinegar usually measures around pH 2.4, with a strength of 5%. Commericial Apple cider vinegar will have a pH of about 4.25 to 4.5. The lower the pH, the more acid the vinegar is.
Cider vinegar is right on the edge of the acidity threshold. If you are pickling garlic in ONLY cider vinegar (as in nothing else like the peppers), you may wish to test the pH to ensure that it is below 4.6. Most commercial cider vinegars should be safely below this. But in the case here, we are also adding more acidity through the peppers. This should take the pH and overall acidity far below the threshold for botulism growth.
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Just made this recipe for Thanksgiving collards (some people in my family do not like too hot.) How long should the pepper vinegar set before fully ready?
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Mines good and hot after 7 days
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Bob is right. It seems that a good portion of the heat is infused after a week or so. However, if it hasn’t been that long, it’s still gonna be good! If anyone wants more heat or flavor just have chop up some of the pepper into their greens.
Looking forward to Thanksgiving!! My son has taken on the mantle of cooking the turkey on his Big Green Egg and also prepares the turnip greens! Can’t wait!
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Thanks for the recipe, I remember eating on my greens as a child, now I can have my own
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Our neighbor gave me a handful of Carolina Reaper and Chocolate 7 Pot peppers (#1 and #3 hottest peppers in the world!) and I made some peppa source with them! We had some with our turnip greens at Thanksgiving.
Gooood!!
He has lots more that he has frozen. I want to try some of the fermented pepper sauce with them!
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I wanted to try something different. The Chinese use a oil based hot sauce so I thought, why not? Put some type of small hot yellow peppers that I’d grown into a small jar with olive oil. I retired so the wife and I took an extended trip back to Louisiana where we both were raised. When we returned to FL about 3 months later upon entering the house there was a different but not unpleasant order that greeted us. The concoction that I’d made and completely forgot about and left on top of the stove had fermented and exploded. There were peppers on the ceiling, the windows, the walls, the floors, and a sticky residue to boot. So much for experimentation. I’ll stick to what I know. Hot white vinegar over hot peppers of your choosing. I also add a little salt to my hot pepper sauce. Live and learn. PS: For you hot pepper lovers, I was in Cambodia about 10 years ago and the sides of the roads in the rural areas were lined with a 4-5 foot ribbon of drying red peppers as far as the eye could see.
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That’s funny. I can’t say I’ve not dealt with an fermentation explosion once or twice. Just make sure gas can escape and you’re golden.
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Kyle, I just got a recipe for a really interesting fermented pepper sauce that is simple to do and virtually 100% foolproof with basic kitchen food handling techniques. Though I do strongly recommend using latex or nitrile gloves 100% of the time when handling and processing your peppers they still must be washed and dried thoroughly to remove dust, dirt, pollen and surface bacteria. Essentially the drill goes wash and dry the peppers. Place a small slit in the side of each pepper and remove the seeds if trying to tame an overly hot pepper. Place the peppers into a suitable glass container with a sealable lid and tamp them down firmly. As you fill the jar when you complete a layer add a small amount of kosher large flake salt and continue until the jar is tightly packed with about 1 inch of head room. Set the lid on top of the jar after filling with clean clear non-chlorinated tap water and allow the jar to begin fermenting in a warm place in your pantry without drafts. I always place the jar in a bowl or other container to catch any water forced out during the fermentation process. After the peppers reach the desired level of crunchy hot goodness (7 days to three weeks) remove the water, rinse the peppers well and replace into the jar with fresh 5% apple cider vinegar to preserve them literally forever. The fermentation step is supposed to preserve the bright colors and the crunch should you decide to eat them straight out of the jar or as a topping on a sandwich or dip. I have a batch of Serrano’s and Anaheim’s in fermenting now and will let you know if the additional steps are worth the extra time and effort invested to make it in the first place. Being here in Florida the growing season is almost year round and there is a continuous supply of fresh peppers into our community due to the large south American and Mexican population in our area. The local independent grocer does a really good job of keeping a good selection of peppers always available to his community. Hope this recipe helps you and others to deal with a glut of ripe peppers all at once!!!
Wheelchair Bob
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Bob, I actually ferment peppers all the time. I do quite a bit of fermenting. For a hotsauce, I typically make a mash and ferment the mash. In fact, I just did so last week. I also love to ferment jalapeno slices with coriander seeds. If you’re on Instagram, you can see various fermented sauce projects of mine, here, here, and here. Tabasco sauce is fermented several years in oak barrels. Fermentation builds depth not possible with a typical vinegar infusion, like the recipe here. I’ve been meaning to post some fermented sauce recipes. Maybe once springs rolls around and peppers start showing up again.
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Came here to find out where you sourced the container and sure enough comments section answered my question. I reckon I have an excuse now for a new bottle of nice whisky.
If you do see an online source for similar bottles, please share. I have six tables that all need pepper sauce but have no business trying to hurry through six jars of good booze… -
Thank you so muchoose for this. I’ve gotten a bottle of peppa sauce in new Orleans every year sonce as long as I can remember, I’ve topped them off all year long, this year I’m not going back due to being away for college and my sauce has lost its pep early(I’ve been using it a lot to cure the homesickness)
I tried out a few more precise recipes before stumbling onto this one and none of them worked or they made it seem too complicated.
This recipe was easy to follow, I used a variety of peppers I grow in my garden and it turned out perfect! (I used tobasco, serrano, Fresno, a bunch of garlic, peppercorns, and a single tiny habenero sliced and shared between the 4 giant bottles I filled)
This made my dinners taste like home again, and now I have extra for when my friends are over!-
You’re welcome, Marie. Glad to hear it.
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Thank you for the recipe. If I use carrots in my pepper sauce can I leave it on the table indefinitely or should I refrigerate it?
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Shouldn’t be a problem. The vinegar will preserve the carrots as well.
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Hi – please tell me if necessary or safer to do a hot bath (like jelly etc.)? A Southern relative told me she gives her jars with the vinegar & peppers a 10 min boiling bath in a canner after packing her jars. I don’t want to do the extra step if not necessary. Thanks.
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Sherry, it is not. The heat only helps to speed up the process. You can simply drop the peppers in a bottle and top off with vinegar.
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Hi, thanks for all this advice! I am planning to send friends holiday gifts of repurposed bottles with vinegar-pepper sauce using some little Tabascos that flourished this year. Should I refrigerate till I can send out in December, or will they keep without boiling or refrigeration for a month and a half? So glad to find all this info and looking forward to trying your fermentation recipes. Lisa
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My understanding also, Kyle.
The key is to have a high enough acid content. The reason a hot bath is necessary for most “canning” is because there is usually no acid added. Think green beans.
The acid kills any dangerous bacteria.
I generally use straight apple cider vinegar with no othe liquids added, which gives more acid content then needed. Partly for safety, but mainly because I love the flavor!
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OK. The reason for this is the fact that capsaicin is soluble in oil. Actually any kind of oil will work. Capsaicin is the hot part of the pepper.
Works in the opposite way as well. If you get something that is too hot, eat something with oil or fat in it. Ice cream is my favorite! The oil will absorb some of the capsaicin and take away some of the burn.
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I rember when peppa sauce was on the the table of most restaurants.
Glad I found your recipe. I have some peppers making this year.
I lve this in my beans.
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Happy to hear it.
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Thanks for the tip. I love it, but I have never made it. My best friend and riding buddy made me some. 10/29/2013 he will be gone for 2 years. I’m glad to know I can reuse the pepers. Btw…I drink pickle joice….etc
Thanks Again,
Grant Hamer-
Grant, sorry to hear of the loss of your friend. Maybe his memory will be carried on in you making pepper sauce. Thanks for sharing.
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I made some vinegar sauce using yellow Tabasco peppers and my peppers turned brownish in the jar…what did i do wrong?
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That’s just how it goes. Don’t sweat it.
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Just making sure it’s not ruined and i can still use the vinegar …you think that would be ok if the peppers are brown looking, right.?
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Vinegar won’t let anything bad grow. It’s too acidic. It’s just the he breakdown of the vegetable. Natural process. Green veg may stay more green, but red and yellow will go brown. Don’t sweat it.
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I made this yesterday with fresh tabasco peppers from the garden, garlic, allspice and heated rice wine vinegar and it was fantastic. Yup. I think I will be doing this for the rest of my life
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Happy to hear it!
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I have a few tabasco plants. For some reason they seem to like this semi-desert brazilian northeast. I get a couple of liters (dry measure) per year from each. For such small amounts, I just dry them, then grind ´em up with garlic, seasoned salt, some tiny amounts of ground black pepper, maybe a little nutmeg with some good olive oil and my home made cashew vinegar. Makes a pretty good side of the plate pepper sauce. Severely miss open pollinated jalapeños. anchos, pasillos, de árbol, cascabels etc. Anybody able to help me find seeds? Soy medio Mexicano nacido en Texas.
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The internet would probably be the best place to look as long as you can find someone that will ship the seeds. I live in Chicago and that is where I get all of my seeds from scorpions and reapers all the way down to red bells
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Ran across this page while surfing the web for hot sauce recipes. Pop bein’ southern, I haven’t seen anything like this in so long, I done forgot all about it. My wife had been savin’ these 4-sided, fused-neck lookin bottles of 10ozs or so with fancy man-made corks in’em. I’m also a home brewer, & am going to brew a hot pepper IIPA tomorrow while we work on this one. We’ll be using ghosts, fatalii’s & scorpions in the beer & cider vinegar with garlic as well. Would ground black pepper be ok? don’t have peppercorns.
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Sounds nice. I’d avoid ground black pepper. It’s just going to muck things up and you will likely get most of it on your food in your first few pours. No real need to use black pepper. If you don’t have whole peppercorns, just omit it.
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Ok. That simplifies things for this go around. Putting up hot sauces & winter warmer ales for winter.
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How Long after preparing this before it is ready to use?
Thanks
Kevin-
It’s all a matter of taste. Longer = stronger. You can start using whenever. Just taste it.
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Well, the Hellfire Imperial IPA is about done fermenting. We just put up three 8.5oz bottles of this sauce. Forgot the garlic,though. Gotta go back in the kitchen & do that. Anyway, each bottle contains 3 ghost chilies, 2 red fatalii, & 4 Trinidad scorpions. [IMG]http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss71/unionrdr/IMG_0136_zpsjqd30zcm.jpg[/IMG]
Topped off with hot cider vinegar.-
Very nice. Thanks for sharing. Sounds killer. Is this available to purchase?
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I brew beer for my & family/friends use at home. I’n not a commercial brewer. The sauce is ready for a taste, but it’s gonna be really hot, I’m sure. The 2 ghost peppers I used in the IIPA gave a nice little bit of heat & fresh pepper flavor in the first FG sample I took. The 12ozs of hops I used from US, UK & NZ match the aroma & flavors of the peppers pretty close. When it’s ready to drink in a month or so, I could send you a bottle?
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That’d be awesome. I can try to reciprocate.
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Making this as soon as I can scrounge up peppers! Of course I find myself at the end of the growing season here in the Northeast. I’ll find them tho! Have no fear. My question is: given the same amount of peppers in a jar, what are the taste differences between rice wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar? Is one “smoother” than the other? I like hot, but I’m not into torture. Should I just use less peppers? I want to taste flavor, not just heat.
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I haven’t made pepper sauce in years because of too much rain down here in South Alabama. Thanks for the recipe since I forgot if I should add any sugar or not. I bought all my bottles at the Piggly Wiggly – CHEAP. Now for the holidays I can give that to my neighbors instead of cheese straws. Thanks!
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Sounds great.
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Enjoyed the ideas on making pepper sauce. I have never made it before but thought I knew how.
I was on the right track, picked up a few ideas I am going to yes. My peppers went wild this year and have been wondering how I was going to use them, now I know.
From East Tennessee Blue Ridge Mountains.
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Hey, Kyle! Well, this was a nice little read. I read the whole comment thread. I’m another south Georgian. I’ve made pepper sauce several times, each time differently. With money being tight, I decided to make some for Christmas presents. I didn’t grow any peppers this year & so far, the most suitable hot peppers I’ve found at the store are Serranos & Habaneros. I’m planning on slicing & mixing them together. I want my sauce to have a kick to it!
Merry Christmas!!-
Sounds great. Enjoy!
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I made this with some Thai chilis and garlic. It tastes great, but the garlic turned a grey/brown color. I know its normal for garlic to turn colors, but usually it’s green, not grey. Is this normal or anything to be concerned about?
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Totally fine. Normal.
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Is there a way to prevent the grey garlic? (besides omitting the garlic!)
I thought about doing some of this as a gift and the garlic adds nice flavor but when it turns grey it doesn’t look very appealing.
Thanks!
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Not really. It may go gray, green, or even blue. Garlic is certainly not necessary though.
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We use wild birdseye peppers in north fl for pepper sauce.
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I have jalapeno, habernero,and Serrano peppers in a bottle of distilled vinegar.Its been three weeks and no sign of them getting hot.Does it matter that there in a plastic bottle and I have it refrigerated.
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No sign of getting hot? As in the vinegar is not spicy when you taste it? It doesn’t need to be refrigerated. That will slow infusion, but it doesn’t hurt.
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Mine is good and “warm”. I did take the tops off all but one of the peppers and since my peppers were larger than the neck of the bottle, I sliced them in half. I also left the seeds in. I made 15 bottles for holiday gifts and no one complained about them not being hot!!!!! I’m thinking you need to get it out of the fridge. Cold slows everything down and this sauce does not need to be refrigerated. It’s perfectly safe to leave out on the counter…….where you see it and remember to use it! My first bottle is now half way empty (I am about the only one who uses it) and the juice is taking on a nice mellow flavor and the color of the juice is taking on the color of honey! This is magical stuff. I always will be grateful for this “recipe”. I’ve gotten a number of folks addicted. Have you tried it on scrambled eggs yet? Oh baby…………………
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Never let a good thread die. For every pepper plant you could ever want, go here: http://www.chileplants.com/ You can search using all sorts of factors. I focus on time of year they produce (season) and heat level, with a minor emphasis on whether the plant is prolific, so I have plants producing all year. I’ve used these folks for years. They have 14 different tobasco-type plants from around the globe, including the Louisiana standard.
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Good stuff. Thanks.
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My grandfather was a peddler on Sand Mountain (Boaz, AL) for decades and specialized in collards, mustard, rape and turnip greens. They grew well in the sandy soil on Sand Mountain. We’d cut the greens and break the collards leaves off Friday afternoon, hose them down with cold well water and haul them in the old Ford pickup truck to East Gadsden to sell. I’d knock on the doors and Papa would slowly drive the truck down the lane and stop when somebody wanted greens. The black women loved greens and would flag us down and buy them by the pound. They’d season with what they had available; usually a piece of fatback or a bone. Sometime Papa would pick me up and put me in the dumpster behind a little market with a butcher shop where we’d fill up before going down the mountain. I’d collect fat trimmings they’d thown away so we could give it to the blacks to season with. They’d also toss a hot pepper in the pot when cookin Papa’s greens . Sometimes we’d take poke sallet too. Papa always said the poke sallet wasn’t good and seasoned till the dogs has pissed on it… (to be cont.)
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I tried the recipe with a Twist Today . I used Habaneros , Jalapeno , Mixed sweet Peppers , Onion and Garlic , Pepper corns! Looking forward to trying it . It made 4 Mason Jars . I water bathed them . Thanks for the Idea ! Vinegar was a Mix of Apple-cider / White .
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BTW How Long do I wait until it is Flavored ?
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Really, just taste it to see when you’d like to start using. As soon as a day.
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Just taste it.
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I did they are really nicely Flavored . My friends I shared some Jars with loved it ! Thank you for the inspiration to Experiment !
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Just as you say, Kyle. The salvation of otherwise boring dishes like collard greens and black-eyed peas. And, for me a vinegary, peppery trip down memory lane–not like Proust’s Madeleine, mind you, but still…
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Ha! Word.
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Made many jars last year, gave away a lot and ate some! Peppers growing and will soon be ready again. In addition to preserving in vinegar do you have a good hot pepper jelly recipe? Thanks.
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I’ve been searching myself. Haven’t put the work into that yet. I do make the occasional jalapeño mint jelly, but that’s about as close as I have come.
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Thanks for your response! If your search results in a good recipe please post.
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I’ll be starting up a peppa jar Monday once I get a few more ripe peppas from my garden. Just gotta empty that perky bourbon bottle!
Bottle one will have red chiles and serranos. Two is straight up dragon cayennes with garlic and peppercorns. My crops are pretty abundant this year, so I’m doing lots of experimenting.
Thanks for keeping this page up. Doing my best to keep it at the top. ;) -
Sounds like a great recipe – can’t wait to try it – I have a bunch of different peppers – will habaneros work ? Thanks
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Boy Howdy! This is my favorite comments section ever! For a recipe that boils down to: Add peppers (whatever amount of whatever variety you like best) to vinegar (whatever amount of whatever variety you like best). Put mixture in bottle (or jar if you prefer). Wait 2 weeks (or however long you think best) then consume, it sure seems to take a lot of figuring out. So for all you folks that had questions about the type of vinegar or type of peppers here’s the REAL recipe (don’t tell Kyle I told you, he’ll be pissed): you MUST use 17/32oz Guatemalan insanity peppers grown deep in the jungles of Quetzalcatenango by monks at an asylum for the criminally insane which MUST be sliced on the bias at an angle of not greater than 23.5 degrees but not less than 17.25 degrees off the perpendicular when removing the stem from the body of the pepper. The vinegar absolutely needs to be derived from a New Zealand white wine of a vintage before the Fukushima incident (1995 Cloudy Bay Chardonnay vinegar is best) and added to the peppers at a ratio of 7/8 cup for every 17/32oz properly sliced peppers. If you choose to add salt that’s your business, but if you absolutely must do it make sure that it comes from the Dead Sea and that the crystals are perfect cubes of no less than .575 inches per side, and use no more than 1/2 pugil per 454 grams of sauce. After the ingredients are prepared they should be combined in an empty Patron Tequila bottle, but only if the tequila was drunk at an office party by a sexy coworker. If not, an empty Evan Williams Single Barrel whiskey bottle will suffice, but yield inferior quality sauce. While combining the ingredients you must play “Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum at top volume and sing along where applicable. DO NOT get the words wrong, or you’ll have to start over. Once this is complete it the resulting mixture should not be refrigerated OR left on the counter top. Instead it should be buried at the NW corner of the nearest church (revival tents don’t count), and only dug up at the next multi annual cicada hatch in your area. ANNUAL cicadas hatches are not sufficiently long to ensure proper maturation. This recipe is good with collard greens. For beet greens, spinach, kale, or chard a rather more elaborate preparation is required. However since most cooks don’t have access to powdered marmoset spleen this recipe will serve in a pinch if nothing else is available.
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BEST COMMENT IN HISTORY OF BLOG. Bravo. Just what I needed today.
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Misneac,
Where have you been all my life??? You rock, Bud!!!
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Would have checked in sooner. Been testing the efficacy of Catholic vs Protestant churches for the peppa sauce and desiccating assorted lemur, tamarin, and potto organs in order to compare sauces for my newest classic “une pieuvre en direct et langues de mille lapin”. La pieuvre do NOT care for peppery sauces. C’est la vie…
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In comments about jars or bottles to use… just use the rice wine vinegar bottle by mirin…it has that plastic stopper on it with the slurs in it… just slice the peppers seeds and all and crushed garlic…no need to heat…add as many peppers you want. Might need to take out the vinegar first then add peppers garlic sea salt then add vinegar back to the bottle… shake ready to use!
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Hi!
Thank you! This is fascinating information. I remember my dad having a bottle of pepper sauce in the fridge. Some kind of small green pepper. He got it out when mom made pinto beans (every few months) and used a drop or two. I think that bottle lasted my whole childhood. Dad wasn’t really into spicy food.
The other day I went out to my garden after weeks of neglect and was shocked to find two full beautiful pepper plants full of small peppers growing upward! I didn’t recall what plants I had even bought. (I am an awful gardener.) From pictures online I think there are tabasco plants. Well, now I am really excited and want to make real tabasco sauce. (I cook better than I garden.) But am excited to find this way to putting whole peppers in vinegar because I think it will make unique gifts. And it will remind me of my dad.
My question is, what about adding salt? Will adding salt affect this for better or worse or not at all? I realize I can add a bit of salt along side the sauce, but would love to add it to the sauce if that would be desirable and not harmful.
Thanks a bunch!-
Adding salt will have no I’ll affect. Feel free. I think you’ll find that you will have a more flexible condiment without it though. If something is already at the desired salt level, but you want that added kick of acid and pepper, you’re going to then be over salting the dish.
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Thank you for getting back to me. Started several jars of peppa sauce!
It looks very pretty too.So if I can add other veggies to it, can I add mostly veggies? I was given a slew of okra. Would could I do mostly okra with a few peppers and vinegar?
Thank you!
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Pickled okra recipes abound. There are a ton of spices you can add depending on your preference. If you have a lot a lot (bushels) of okra I’d personally make 6 or 8 different recipes, wait a week or two to let the flavors develop (you’re gonna be eating it pickled, which generally means for a long time), then make whatever floats yor boat most, but in bulk. Don’t get scared though; it’s just veg. Google some recipes to see what looks good. If you don’t love it then change it. I like mustardy stuff myself. Make sure to use food safety rules for pickling. Keep the Ph up, dont add too much sugar, read Sandor Katz, refrigerate as appropriate, etc… I never smoked okra yet, try that and let me know how it comes out, if you’re feeling benevolent and really hard up for recipes. I mean like, in a smoker, not like dried banana peels. Don’t smoke nutmeg. For reals, yo.
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Good advice.
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This northern Yankee girl born and bred thinks this is the best thing ever. I think I’ve already made 20-25 bottles of this nectar from the gods to give as gifts. I’ve got a new batch brewin’ with this years’ new peppa crop. My only issue is finding appropriate bottles!!! I like really cool and interesting bottles and that is becoming a problem.
My last batch I added a PINCH of sugar to the vinegar and I like it! Not a lot…..it shouldn’t be sweet but a PINCH rounds it out. I only use rice vinegar. I think it has a rounder taste. Kyle, you are a rock star in my family. I put this on or in everything. If I forget, I get this “look” from my family like I don’t love them anymore!-
I was kidding about the “real recipe”, but not about the Evan Williams Single barrel whiskey bottle. Aside from being a not terrible whiskey for a fair price the bottles have a real cork and will fit a speed pourer in the neck so you can portion the sauce with a standard “one one thousand, two one thousand” count for roughly one ounce, and multiples for more than an ounce. Go down to your local gin joint and make friends with a bartender fir free bottles. Wild Turkey works too, but the Evan Williams bottles are classier IMHO. Plus you can get a LOT of vinegar and peps in there. Lastly, it’s a perfectly good excuse to buy whiskey during the holidays. “I know baby, but I have to finish this gift for my aunt and I’m all out of bottles. Just this one and two more for my folks and my uncle and we can buy some nice wine, I promise”. Heh heh heh…
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Happy to hear it.
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Thank you for the article! I read all the comments and I just made a batch. My only question is regarding the garlic. I know you say it is fine, but I have read other post regarding garlic only being good for 4 months refrigerated in vinegar. How long do you keep a batch and then be done with it? I have many more dragon peppers growing and one good size Tabasco plant to harvest.
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Quick question Kyle; do you have any recipes or insight on fermented pepper mash? I’ve got a fair amount of peppers left over, and want a more classic hot sauce that I can make myself and experiment with. Nothing too crazy, just a solid, consistent, Cristal’s/Tabasco style sauce I can use as a starting point for my own personal variations on the theme. Granted, I’m probably not going to ferment it for years at a time, just using Tabasco as an example of a simple fermented pepper sauce.
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Help, made a mix of peppers as follows, all fresh from the plant. 1 habanero, 8 seranos, 6 bananna peppers, 3 dragon cayenne peppers. Just wondered if the mix with simmeted white vinrgar might be too mild in flavor?
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sorry habanero should be poblano
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I’ll jump in here… i’ve been making pepper sauce this way for about 60 years. The recipe has been handed down for I don’t know how many generations.
When I make it, I’ll deliberately change it up using different peppers to vary the heat and flavors. I think that your mix of peppers will have a good flavor even if the sauce is not as hot as you might prefer.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the heat level of a particular variety of pepper will vary quite a bit from season to season. So, a sauce of, say, all habeneros will be hotter some years that in others.
I suspect that yours will be kind of a medium heat. Let it season a couple of weeks and taste it. If you want it hotter, just add some more of your favorite hot variety. Take out a banana pepper, eat it, and replace it withna couple of habaneros.
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Like Mike said.
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I’ll be making some “peppa sauce” with the abundance of habanero peppers that are still growing and ripening on my 15 plants. So far I’ve made fermented hot pepper sauce with them, canned salsa, I’ve dried a few, I’ve frozen some, I’ll be fermenting some halves, and now I’ll be making some kick-ass peppa sauce!
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Kyle, my dad made this sauce to use in soup beans and I have used it all my life here the thing. My dad died ten years ago and the last bottle he made for me I just keep filling with vinegar but it has not had fresh peppers added to it in years I think he used a mild pepper and not sure what kind so what mild pepper would you recommend if I am going to make some new batches
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Deb, I’m not Kyle, but since I’ve been making this “peppa” sauce for over 50 years, I’ll insert my comments.
Most of us can only use peppers available in the grocery store. So,mthe easiest thing to do is to use a blend of peppers. If you want a mild sauce with just a bit of “caliente” just use one jalapeno with the rest banana peppers. If that isn’t hot enough, add another jalapeno and so on.
Too hot? Pour some vinegar out and just add fresh vinegar. That will tone it down.
Also, try adding garlic or dill, or any other spice or veggie. Okra pods are good in it. The greatest thing about Kyke’s recipe is its infinite flexibility!
I have a few jars “working” that I just gathered up all the different peppers in my gsrden, mixed them randomly and made some sauce. Ghost, habeneros, jalapenos….. But then, it’s impossible to make it too hot for me!
Finally, google “peppers ranked by Scoville rating” to find the relative heat of different peppers.
Mike
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Thanks Mike I am going to an international market soon so will see what kind of peppers they have
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How long should this sit b4 I start using it?
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I “try” to leave mine a month or so.
If I start using it early and it isn’t hot enough, I chop up one of the peppers out of the jar and add it along with the vinegar.
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Mine turned out beautiful. WISH u could see it. THANKS for the recipe & the info (& ur time)
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I make mine using banana peppers! Gives it a sweeter taste. I’m not a huge fan of anything hot so the banana peppers is a really nice option.
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I have a question about which peppers to use regionally. Specifically what would be traditional in northeast Georgia? The Tobasco makes sense for sure, but I can’t help but wonder if there was variations, or if it matters much.
I just found this site, thanks for having it up!
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I think I make my pepper sauce a bit different from most. I allow my vinegar to boil with the peppers, blend together olive oil, fresh onions, garlic and green onions then add peppers and vinegar. Then there is no need to wait for it to ferment. Ready to eat and refrigerate after it’s cool. I have used habanero as well as jalapeno peppers.
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Thank you for for this, but question…what if your tobacco pepper plant only produces about 8 small peppers at a time. Do you have an idea of how I could store the peppers best until I have enough to do this with?
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What I do is to put what peppers you have in the jar, heat enough vinegar to cover them as in the directions and then pour it in. As you get more peppers, do the same steps in a bowl to blanch and sterilize the peppers and then add the new peppa sauce to the jar with the original peppers.
This makes sure that the hot vinegar does its job with the new peppers without cooling it off with the first batch.
Just keep it up until you have a full jar.
When I was a boy, we used to just pour vinegar over the peppers without heating it. I think heating the vinegar is a better way to do it.
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I like Serrano peppers for my hot pepper vinegar. This year I made a batch to give away. The jars all looked great. I put a slit length ways in each pepper and removed the stem. After pouring boiling vinegar over them I letall the bottles sit a week in the garage. The bottles I used have a neck about an inch in diameter and after several weeks, I noticed that there was something that looked a little like butter that had formed in the top of the jar. I was able to pull it out as it held together. This is the first time I have noticed this problem. Does anyone know what it is?
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I am genuinely thankful to the owner of this site who has shared this great paragraph at here.
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You’re very welcome.
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Me too! I grew up with it but had not made any in years and then it was simply pepper in Apple Cider Vinegar!
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Ok I think I screwed up any idea if I’m doing this right or how to fix let me was you through what I did. First my peppers of choice were Carolina reapers I had 20 and also added 6oz of habanero and Serrano mix while I blitzed them I added white vinegar to the food processor I never boiled it. This is where I think I screwed up I only blitzed the peppers with the cold vinegar any suggestions.
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Do you have to keep blanching your peppers as you add them? I am only getting a few at a time. Also what vinegar do you recommend apple cider or regular?
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I just wash the additional peppers as I add them. As you use them, you will need to top up the vinegar and add additional peppers. As the sauce ages, the peppers get softer and the develops a wonderful flavor.
Apple Cider Vinegar has the best flavor with the peppers in my opinion. You can try different vinegars to see what you prefer. You can also mix vinegars to come up with your own blend.
I’ve been making this types of pepper sauce for over 60 years.
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Thanks Mike, will try the Apple Cider Vinegar with the tabasco peppers.
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Love this site. Nothing like a southern cooked meal along with all the fixings.
Stared using the pepper sauce in a little school up in mississippi delta. Even in the second grade the kids chewed tobacco and a used pepper sauce on everything in the school lunchroom. Standard for the school lunch room tables. Learned to love it there along with a few other wonderful additions. -
Thanks for the Tabasco pepper tips. What is a non reactive pot in reference to heating my vinegar?
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Basically glass or stainless steel.
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Is it ok to add some sugar to this??? Not a lot just enough to give it a touch of sweetness?
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You can do whatever you wish.
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Thanks! I know it’s a matter of taste (I like the touch of sweetness!) I just didn’t know if it would affect the acidity of the vinegar.
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Sugar preserves too, so there’s no user there—assuming it’s not an insane amount.
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I’m so glad to find this! My pepper plants (Tabasco, Thai chili, chili, Serrano, jalapeño, cowhorn, habanero) have been loaded this year, and I’m trying lots of new things, especially if they’ll save for Christmas gifts! Thanks for this suggestion!
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Sounds like a great harvest.
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Hi Kyle. My question is, what is the purpose of heating the vinegar? Does it preserve to peppers longer? I’ve just taken cayenne peppers and added vinegar without heating it up. The bottle is spicy. But after a few months of refilling, the peppers aren’t pretty. Are the peppers deteriorating faster because I didn’t heat the vinegar first? Thanks.
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It simply spreads up the extraction process. They will go brownish after time.
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It just speed to extraction process. The peppers will go brownish usually. Nothing wrong with that, outside of not looking great.
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Thanks so much for sharing. I just made my first jar. Love reading all the helpful comments.
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Have you ever emulsified the peppers and vinegar into a paste after e few weeks of fermenting?
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To be clear, these are not fermenting. And yes, you can make a more traditional hot sauce by emulsifying it together. I’d use much less vinegar if I were going to do that though.
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Is there a minimum amount of time you have to wait before the sauce is ready to use?
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Use your taste to guide you.
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I just wanted to add, there is nothing that goes better with black eyed peas than this sauce.
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Love this site! Can I freeze fresh peppers,take them out later and still make peppa sauce?
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ihave a jar that turned cloudy, is this okay?
also a couple of my bottles had a gelatinous ring in the neck of the bottle. i’ve been making peppa sauce every year for twenty plus years and have never experienced this before the substance came out in one piece and resembled parrafin in a melting stage ? I removed the stuff and have still been using the sauce
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I just made 3 jars of this goodness over the past month as my Tabasco plants had various stages of ripeness. Ohio was good to peppers this season. 2 plants were enough to produce 3 bottles full of peppers. Used 2 Rebel Yell bourbon bottles and a Patron bottle. First recipe used garlic/peppercorns and omitted the garlic on the latter 2 bottles. Not a southern boy, never made the stuff… helpful article, easy to make a delicious sauce. I didnt know what to do with my Tabasco plant… will be doing this yearly from now on. FYI… pour a cup and a half of this sauce in dish, mix in some brown sugar… ohh my it made an amazing sauce for my smoked pulled pork ! Heaven
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Well apparently I have been making my sauce wrong-well differently. I found a simple recipe that was just very basic and you can build from there. I guess I’m not really fermenting mine. I combine my pepper varieties (Thai, Ghost, Paprika, tabasco, jalepeno), just chop the stem off, put them in the blender until they are as fine as my blender will go, mix it with vinegar (white or apple cider vinegar), cook it in a pan with various spices (i usally add minced garlic, onion powder, smoke paprika powder), after reducing it a little I let it cool and put it in a jar with cheese cloth covering it for a few days. Best hot sauce I have ever had-and I have tried many. but apparently it is not fermenting any sitting out. Will have to try it using real fermentation now. I have new pepper seeds coming for this season.
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I made some today in a Weck jar with Thai Peppers, Szechuan peppercorns, ginger and garlic. My husband keeps trying to put it in the fridge!!!
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Best sauce ever. Been making it with chili piquin for close to 60 years down in Texas. Piquins grow wild. Best flavor.
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I tried making this, however a white film started to grow on the inside of the bottle above the liquid. The peppers also have white stuff growing on them. Any ideas?
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Would it work without heating the vinegar?
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Does it matter if you use regular vinegar?
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You can use any kind of vinegar you like. I prefer the flavor of apple cider vinegar, probably because that’s what I grew up using.
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As embalagens recicláveis possuem este símbolo.
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Hey! I just made some pepper sauce yesterday. I added some onion slices and some peppercorn. I used white vinegar, salt, and sugar. I suppose it’s too late now but is the onion okay to use? I also dd boil my vinegar, salt, and sugar but not a rolling boil. 🤷🏼♀️
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Corked-caped-or flip top wine bottles and whisky bottles are great for pickled pepper storage.
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Can we show pictures here?
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I have a couple of black pearl plants that are very prolific in production of beautiful bright red pequin peppers. 70,000 on the Scoville scale. I love pepper sauce be eating it with brown beans and frybread most of my 52 yrs. but I just made my first jar from these little firebombs. Has anyone ever used ornamental peppers for this sauce? I used a 50/50 mix of white and rice vinagar.
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Hiya you pepper nuts! I have a ton of Apple Cider Vinegar and generic vinegar and cleaning vinegar at 6% acidity. (Heinz just changed the label from cleaning to all purpose and provides recipes, so I guess I can consume it). I may have some red wine vinegar but from those choices do you have any advice on which to choose? And I should chose a CLEAR bottle right? We bucket grew peppa’s this year. The tabasco was a first and I BEG all of you to grow it in your season. They grow erect or vertical. They don’t hang like a jalapeno. And it is magical. I have serrano’s, cayenne’s, and j-peno’s. Again with that combo what advice do you have for this first time peppa sauce maker? Thanks a ton! Chili today…hot tamale to you all! 2020, we got this, ya’ll! : )
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Thanks! I have been looking on how to make this Pepper sauce for my mustard and collard greens since moving out of Mississippi many years ago. Years later living in CA, I find your simple recipe :) Thank you, thank you Kyle.
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I am going to have a large amount of Scotch Bonnett and reaper peppers. Is it okay to add these type peppers instead of the Thai and Tabasco variety
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It certainly is. It will be hotter, as you can imagine. You could take half those and ferment some too. Mix them with 3% of their weight in salt. Blend well. Press plastic wrap against surface and let it ferment for a month or so. Then mix that with whatever amount of vinegar you like.
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I couldn’t read all of the comments but they all sound good. BUT if you want to keep it simple, use the small Hawaiian red hot chili peppers. Just pick a hand full, put them in a container and leave them on the car dashboard in the direct sun with the windows closed. In one or two days they should be dried completely. Run them thru a small coffee grinder so they turn into a powder, put them in a shaker and sprinkle it on everything you want. It’s simple and easy. No extra preparation. Caution when applying. Too much will ruin the taste. Good luck.
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Nice article to keep, for both the article and the comments, I’m in NW Florida and I’ve grown my Pepper Marbles for years. Such cute little peppers, about the size of a regular to jumbo marble. Such cute little plants, only get about 8 inches high and a big pot with 6-8 plants will produce 100 peppers per year. Gonna make a nice Brandy Bottle corked Jar for pepper sauce with this years crop, can’t wait. PS : Pepper Marbles are blistering hot…lol…so I know Imma love this sauce this winter.
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Question, if I add one or two scotch bonnet peppers , no seeds, to one quart vinegar how hot would it be ? Siracha hot or Tabasco hot?
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Any experience/comment/opinion of peppa sauce made with Ghost Peppers? Thanks in advance.
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My Grandmother would make this same sauce except she used Cayenne peppers and put it in a mason jar…beautiful red peppers. It sat on the kitchen table along with the salt, pepper and butter. I remember my Grandfather and my Daddy pouring it all over their food….and my Daddy plucking a pepper out of the jar to eat with his supper. It looked so good with those red peppers, but I tried it and it was fire in my mouth! Now I’m very grown and wanted to make some for my kitchen table. I really appreciate the recipe!
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I made these this summer and now I have a white slimmey substance floating on the top of the vinegar. What is that or did I do something wrong.
