Hot Sauce

This evening, in an effort to stave off the January blues, I made my own hot sauce for the first time. Santa actually got me a “make your own hot sauce” kit for Christmas although I didn’t use it this time round - sorry Santa, I wanted to try with fresh chilies and a blender, I promise I will make the kit at some point though.

Anyway, I naively went to big Sainsburys and loaded up my basket with a couple of bags of the hottest fresh peppers they had available, which in this case were Scotch Bonnets. Given they were only a 4 out of 6 on the heat scale (I should’ve paid attention to the fact that the 6/6 was a Carolina Reaper) I figured how hot could they really be, right?

Wrong.

I made a fairly basic sauce with Scotch Bonnets, pineapple, apple cider vinegar, garlic, salt and sugar. The colour is absolutely gorgeous, a beautiful, deep, vibrant orange. I could look at the jars of hot sauce I produced all day. I’m just not sure if I can actually eat any of it.

Having tasted some by dipping the handle of a spoon in and licking that, the sauce is delicious but packs a truly overwhelming punch. The fruitiness comes through first but then comes the prolonged burning sensation, which is sufficiently intense that it made me sweat profusely and get the hiccoughs. Even though I only had a tiny bit, my stomach hurts, 15 full minutes later. I have about 400g worth, and I think the only way I’m ever going to be able to get through any of it is by mixing it with copious amounts of sour cream and yogurt.

Perhaps I ought to have just stuck to the kit.