Experiment Done! The Home Made Hot Sauce was a great success!!!! (well half of it anyway).
First, the wine method sucked. It was just gross. Probably I screwed it up somewhere along the line. But I wouldn’t recommend it and I just threw it away. The mash method was very easy and worked great though.
With the blended mash, I waited for the fermentation to stop and then let it go for an additional week. It mellowed very nicely. The mash in the jar didn’t smell great even at this point, but I decided to try it out because it just seemed like it was done to me.
In a medium bowl use a sieve, mash, or other kind of straining device to squeeze the liquids out of the pepper mash. Remember, all we did with this batch was to blend the peppers and add a small amount of salt and garlic. I had a strainer I could place on top of the bowl and used a spatula to work the mash. You can see the liquids as they collect in the bowl.
When you get almost all of the liquids out, it will look something like this:
I poured them into a small mason jar and added a small amount of Apple Cider Vinegar (About 1 tablespoon).
I dipped my finger in it and tasted it. It really was a great flavor and lots of heat. But not the kind of heat that is biting up front. It gave a very well rounded subtle heat that came after the flavor. I really liked it and totally recommend trying it out for yourself.
However, I would make a couple of changes to the home made hot sauce for next time:
Skip the garlic – it was a good idea, just not a great fit with this.
Add a little bit of liquid smoke if you want smokey overtones.
If you would like something with the consistency of sriracha, I would just stick the mash in a food blender and liquefy it. You could also boil it down to thicken it if you like.
Anyway, I thought this was an awesome way to make you own hot sauce and it had very little salt, which was one of our goals when we started.
Happy eating everybody!
