Homemade Hot Sauce!

Cayanne, Seranno, Joe's Round (missing jalapeno)

We're addicted to hot sauce. We like hot sauce on our eggs. We like hot sauce on our potatoes. We like hot sauce on our burgers/veggie burgers.We like hot sauce on our popcorn. Aside from desserts, we like hot sauce on just about everything. So, as you can imagine, making our own has come to mind.

A few years ago, we made a sort of buffalo-type hot sauce. Of course, that was before this blog, so we can't remember how we managed that at all. I do remember that it was fabulous over some oven-baked potatoes, sprinkled with blue cheese.

This year, we're trying the old-fashioned pepper fermentation method. Included are a lot of Cayenne peppers (thanks to Andy's colleague!), Joe's rounds (super hot!), jalapenos, and Serrano peppers. They're mashed up and fermenting as we speak. In fact, they've been fermenting since Saturday.

To do this, we simply (and with gloves on!):

1. removed the stems.
2. put all of the peppers in the Cuisinart

3. added salt (1.5 teaspoon per cup of mashed peppers)

4. put the mash in a Ball jar (though you could use a crock or a food-safe plastic container)

5. weighed down the mash with another jar, and

6. covered the whole operation with a towel

...and now we'll wait for a month or more for the flavor to develop. Throughout this process, we have to make sure that the liquid covers the mash; it's a crucial part of the fermentation process. If there is not enough liquid to cover the mash, we'll add salted water.

Soon, we'll be left with hot sauce to put into a bottle or two and store in the fridge.

I can't wait! I'm sure whatever I make for dinner the day it's ready will be a perfect meal for hot sauce.