Here's my latest recipe. It turned out fantastic. It's only
kind of hot, around 2 or 3 out of 10 on my scale. If I had to guess, I'd put this in the 15,000 - 30,000 SHU range. I'll share my recipe and rough process. Hopefully we can get this ball rolling on the hot sauce forum!
Tiber's Sleeping Ghost Hot Sauce
Yield: (2) 5 oz. jars
Ingredients:
1 Roma tomato
3/4 cup white vinegar
3 Ghost peppers (Bhut Jolokia)
8 Aji Amarillo peppers
2 Habenero peppers
1 tsp pickling salt
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/8 tsp xangthan gum (for texture)
Process:
WEAR GLOVES!
Cut the stems off the peppers. If you are using dried peppers like I did, you must rehydrate them. Put your peppers in a bowl and pour boiling water over them and wait 15 minutes or so. They should be soft and flexible by then. Save the water for later.
Put all the ingredients in a food processor and run for several seconds or even minutes. Measure the pH with test strips or a pH meter. It should be between 3.0-4.5 pH for safe storage. If the pH is high, add a little more vinegar, run the processor again, and remeasure.
Once you have your puree, simmer it on the stove for about 20 minutes or until desired consistency is reached. I save the water that I used to rehydrate the peppers to add to the boiling sauce. This way I can make sure the mixture is cooking properly, while not letting it get too viscous. Let cool and put into a sanitized food storage container and let sit in the fridge at least overnight. The longer you keep your puree stored, the more heat the liquids will absorb (to an extent, of course). I usually leave mine in the fridge overnight. Sometimes a week or two. See what you like the best.
When you are ready to separate the sauce from the pulp & seeds, you'll need to prepare your equipment. Sanitize your sauce jars, lids, and drippers (if you use them). I sanitize a spatula and use that to help with the straining part.
WEAR GLOVES. Seriously. I can't tell you how many times I've wiped the sweat off my brow after a day of handling peppers only to be followed by hours of burning and pain on my whole face. Or worse yet, scratch an itch on your eye.
Next you're going to want to strain the pulp & seeds from the puree. I use a cheap
coarse strainer, which does very well. I have tried using a fine strainer, and that was miserable. Strain into a (sanitized) cup or container that you can use to pour carefully into bottles. Using a funnel may help, but I've found that it clogs up too much. Use a spatula to help push the sauce through the strainer. Discard the pulp and seeds, or use them for something else.
Pour the strained sauce into bottles slowly. Fill to within a half centimeter or so from the top. You'll get something like this:
You'll notice the one on the right is filled to the top. I'm going to use this sauce today, so that's OK. The other one I will commit to aging in the fridge.
You can also use shrink wrapped plastic seals for extra appeal. Makes a great gift for the pepper head in your family. Or keep it for yourself.
Hot sauce gets better with age. I like to make several bottles, use a few immediately, but keep a couple for long term tasting. Keep refrigerated if you use vegetable ingredients and/or if your pH is above 4.5. If you're not sure, refrigerate anyway.
Tasting notes:
This sauce has a slow creeping burn that builds for up to 10 minutes before it finally stops getting hotter. The burning lasts for about another 15 minutes at most in normal doses. The texture and consistency is perfect for a general purpose hot sauce. It brings ample heat with great flavor. It has a slight fruitiness to it, complimented by a robust sharpness that's hard to describe. (Sorry, I don't know hot sauce as well as I know beer.) I would consider adding a tad more garlic, maybe some dried onion and perhaps a dash of cumin.
TB