Home made hot sauces.

[Henry Krinkle]

I've made a few hot sauces in the past. This year the peppers did fantastically well in the garden. From eight individual pepper plants, each a different variety, I have already harvested close to ten pounds of peppers and still have pounds on the plants. That lead to a dizzying array of hot sauces including my first attempt at a fermented sauce. Here are the six I've done with at least two more fermented varieties in the planning stage.




Head to head taste test. Left to right. Hank's No.1 to No.6.

No.1-Green cayenne and tabasco. The most vinegary. Mild to mid heat. The most like store bought.

No.2- Everything red. Even though the vinegar,salt and honey levels are identical to N0.1 the variety of peppers loans this sauce a complexity that hides the vinegar. The mildest of all six but it's the dark horse for best.

No.3- Peach, (Old world) mango habanero. I didn't care for this one at the start and it required a lot of fine tuning, but after sitting for a couple of weeks the flavour is quite good. Fruity, sweet and high mid level heat. The old world mangoes give it a big citrusy kick that I hadn't anticipated. I had been thinking of that heavy syrupy quality that New World mangoes have. Despite that it is pretty good on jerk.

No.4 Aji and citrus. This was supposed to be the mildest, but it is not. Really bright and citrusy, the acid makes it seem hotter than No.3. Despite the heat and acid it is not a complex hot sauce and it doesn't really hang around. This might be the salad dressing hot sauce.

No.5 (New world) mango, habanero and "woody" spices. This is meant to be a Caribbean style hot sauce and it is a fair imitation of that. This is clearly the hottest of the six. The syrupy quality of the mangoes in combination with the star anise and cinnamon give this sauce great depth and a long lingering finish. I am pretty proud of this one. It's sort of No.3 done right.

No.6- Everything orange or red, fermented with pimento wood. The aroma and flavour of this one is heavenly. I was careful not to kill the probiotics while blending this, so this sauce will continue to ferment and develop more complex flavours as it sits. It's the best of the lot, even beating No 2 and No 5

Any of you fine ladies and gentlemen make your own?