Quick Hot Sauce

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Quick Hot Sauce

Ingredients

300g red chillies,
3 cloves garlic, chopped
¼ tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp sea salt
1 cup (250ml) apple cider vinegar
1 cup (250ml) water

Equipment

Chopping board
Chef’s knife
Medium saucepan with lid
High-speed blender
Fine sieve (optional, for a smoother finish)
Sterilised glass bottle or jar with lid

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Directions

Stem and deseed chillies, then chop roughly (keep seeds if you like more heat).
Place in a saucepan with garlic, peppercorns, salt and vinegar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add water, return to a simmer, cover and cook for a further 10 minutes.
Transfer mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Pour into a sterilised bottle or jar and allow to cool, then keep refrigerated.

Notes

Wear gloves when deseeding the chillies

Capsaicin binds to the oils in your skin and doesn’t wash off with water. After deseeding a batch of chillies bare-handed, the burning can last for hours and transfers easily to your eyes if you touch your face. Disposable kitchen gloves cost almost nothing and save a lot of discomfort. If you do get capsaicin on your skin, rinsing with whole milk or rubbing with vegetable oil is more effective than water.

Blend while still warm for the smoothest result

Warm chillies break down more easily in the blender than cold ones, giving you a finer, smoother sauce. Let the mixture cool slightly after cooking so it’s safe to handle, but blend before it goes cold. If you want an even smoother sauce, pass it through a fine sieve after blending to remove any remaining skin pieces.

Storage

Store in a sterilised glass bottle or jar in the fridge for up to 3 months. To sterilise, wash in hot soapy water, rinse well, fill with boiling water, swirl and empty. Air-dry completely before filling. If you leave the sauce at room temperature after opening, use within 2-4 weeks. The sauce improves in flavour over the first few weeks as the vinegar and chilli continue to meld.

Ingredient Notes

Red chillies:

The recipe calls for 300g after deseeding and stemming, so buy around 400g whole to account for prep. Fresno chillies give a fruity, moderate heat and good red colour. Long red cayenne chillies are hotter. Bird’s eye chillies are significantly hotter still. A mix of varieties gives more complexity. For a milder sauce, substitute half the chillies with red capsicum (bell pepper).

Apple cider vinegar:

Adds acidity and acts as a preservative alongside the salt. Apple cider vinegar has a slightly fruity, rounded flavour that suits a hot sauce better than the sharper edge of distilled white vinegar. If you substitute with white vinegar, the sauce will taste cleaner and brighter but slightly more acidic.

Black peppercorns:

Whole peppercorns added during cooking and blended in with the chillies. They add a background aromatic heat that’s distinct from chilli heat: more complex and less lingering. If you want a purer, cleaner chilli flavour, leave them out.

FAQs

What chilli varieties work best?

I've just used your standard long red chilli (cayenne) for this style of sauce. They have enough heat to be interesting without being overwhelming, and both have a good red colour. Bird’s eye chillies work if you want a genuinely hot sauce. Scotch bonnet or habanero give a fruitier, tropical flavour but significantly more heat.

Can I make it hotter?

Yes. Leave the seeds in some or all of the chillies. The seeds and white pith contain the highest concentration of capsaicin. You can also add a hotter chilli variety. Blend a small amount of your finished sauce with a single bird’s eye chilli to test how much extra heat it adds before committing to the full batch.