Hot Sauce question....

For flavor, my preference is Louisiana all day every day. It is not hot (IMO) so you can put a lot of it to flavor a soup or gravy with vinegar and pepper. Again, flavor, it is far and away my favorite. (I think crystals tastes identical but I will buy Louisiana brand every time)

For heat, go with any of the habenero or ghost pepper sauces that you can find in a grocery store. The heat will drown out the flavor if you use it in small batches.

I using commercial stuff in restaurants, I prefer Crystal over Tabasco.

At home, I make my own out of habanero, ghost and Trinidad Scorpion Butch T peppers. Nice heat range and great taste with the recipe I use, but definitely not for the feint of heart.

Louisiana
Crystal
Tabasco- Chipotle
Tabasco- Garlic
Tabasco- Green
Tabasco- Habanerro in selected foods
Tabasco- regular

Probably in this order for me. There are so many hot sauces it’s hard to try new ones since they last so long. But this is my go to unless I am somewhere where there is a new one to try. I am not into exttreme heat but more flavor. Each hot sauce fits different foods.

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I need this.

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OK, I've posted it once before but will again this one more time.

This year I grew habanero and Butch T's and this is how I make my sauce.

Remove any green stem end material from the peppers and give them a good rinse. All ingredients are estimated as I don't measure anything when I cook. You may want to tweak it to your liking.

Put the peppers whole in a blender(I usually put 40 or more at a time). Do not remove the seeds or pith from the peppers as this is where the heat is really concentrated.

Add a large onion roughly chopped. Also 5-6 cloves garlic, 2-3 sprigs of fresh parsley, juice of 1 lemon, enough vinegar to bring the liquid level in the blender to about half way up, salt to taste (I use about 1/4 cup).

Turn the blender to high and let this blend until it is completely pureed. I like my hot sauce kind of mildly thick and not watery.

Put the mixture in a stainless steel pot and bring it to a boil and cook it like this for about 15 minutes and keep it stirred so it doesn't stick.

Have mason jars cleaned and ready with fresh seals if looking to store it for later use. Or you can directly pour it into an old Worcestershire Sauce bottle to use immediately.

Once it is in the jars, put the lid seals on and tighten down the retaining ring. You can now either let them on the countertop to cool and see if a vacuum forms, sealing the jars or you can put them in a hot water bath of boiling water for about 15 minutes, remove the jars and place on a towel on the countertop and they WILL form a vacuum as they cool.

I've stored jars like this for well over a year when making big batches and they can go directly into a pantry with no refrigeration needed.

If a jar doesn't seal, no problem since I've never had anything contaminate this stuff between the pepper heat and the vinegar. The only thing I do is use it first or give some away to folks that can tolerate the heat and appreciate it.

Have fun.

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Have you tried aging any of your batches?

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Not really. I use it right out the pot. The only time it sits is when I make large batches and it is in sealed jars under vacuum. I believe the longest I've ever had any carry over from the year before was about one year before it was opened.

I've got a lot of folks that have tried my hot sauce and many of them get a pint jar when I make a large batch, so it's not hanging around long.


ETA: My wife and I have been to Avery Island a few times and have been to the plant for a tour of their process.

They make a pepper mash, put it in oak barrels and cover that with salt and let it age for something like 3 years. They then add the vinegar and the final product only has something like 20% pepper in it with the rest being vinegar, salt and whatever else they put in it.

Nice. I'm gonna make something similar. I have some habaneros and ghost peppers growing now.

Louisiana or crystal usually. I have some daigles in my cabinet right now that I’m digging. It’s not too hot, not too much viniger just good flavor.

Sorry for the delay. Thanks everyone for chiming in. There are several mentioned I’ve not tried so I have some work to do!

I’ve wondered about the Valentina brand. It’s cheaper than the Louisiana, Cholula, Tabasco here in Oklahoma City. Is it cheaper because the quality isn’t good or is it legit like you say?

Valentina is not better than El yucateco imo