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Cayenne Pepper Sauce with cayenne peppers

Fermented Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce

Gord Wilson
A bold and tangy homemade hot sauce made with fresh cayenne peppers, garlic, carrots, onion, and salt. Naturally fermented for deep flavor and heat.
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Prep Time 1 hour
Fermentation time 14 days
Total Time 14 days 1 hour
Cuisine Mexican

Equipment

  • 1 Blender
  • 1 Mason Jar
  • 1 Fine Mesh Strainer
  • 1 or 2 Hot sauce bottles or jars

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pound 454g/16oz of ripe cayenne peppers. Sliced in half with the seeds and pith removed.
  • 4-6 garlic cloves Peeled and sliced thinly. I normally go on the higher end of this.
  • 1 carrot. Washed but not peeled, and sliced thinly.
  • 1/2 onion red or yellow about 1/2 cup sliced thinly.
  • 800 g of water about 3 and 1/3 cups
  • 24 g of sea salt Do not use table salt. Makes a 3% salt brine

Instructions
 

Step 1: Make the Brine

  • Dissolve the sea salt in the water. This brine is what protects your peppers and allows the good bacteria to thrive. The brine for this is a 3% salt brine.

Step 2: Prepare your ingredients

  • Thinly slice the carrots, onion, and garlic and set aside in a small bowl. Remove stem from peppers, cut in half and remove the seeds and pith.
    Preparing ingredients for fermented hot pepper sauce
  • Preparing ingredients for fermented hot pepper sauce.Preparing ingredients for fermented hot sauce.

Step 3: Pack the Jar

  • Place your cayenne peppers, carrot, onion, and garlic into a clean mason jar. Layering the ingredients as you fill the jar. The mason jar does not need to be sterilized, it just needs to be clean.
    Filled mason jar with fermented pepper sauce ingredients.
  • Pour the brine over top until the peppers are fully submerged. Use a fermentation weight or even a small ziplock bag filled with brine to keep them under the liquid. If anything floats past the fermentation weight scoop it out. Anything on the surface could cause mold and ruin the fermentation process.
    Fermentation weight to keep cayenne pepper hot sauce under the brine.

Step 4: Ferment the Hot Peppers

  • Cover the jar with a fermentation lid (or just use a regular lid loosely so gas can escape). Place it in a cool, dark spot in your kitchen. Let it ferment for at least 7–10 days, but you can leave it up to a month for stronger flavor. You’ll see bubbles forming that’s the good stuff happening.
    fermented cayenne pepper hot sauce recipe
  • We typically do a 14 day ferment with our hot sauce. The brine will become cloudy as it ferments. This is a good sign that the fermentation is working.

Step 5: Blend and Bottle

  • Once the peppers have fermented to your liking, pour everything (peppers, garlic, carrots, onion and brine) into a bowl through a Fine Mesh Strainer to separate the brine.
  • Add the separated ingredients a 1 cup of brine into a blender. Blend until smooth, adding more brine if needed. Once the hot sauce is as smooth as you can get it pour it through a fine mesh strainer again into another bowl. Pushing the pulp through the strainer to get as much liquid out as possible. This is your finished hot sauce.
  • At this point, you can add a splash of vinegar for extra tang and shelf life, or leave it as-is for a purer fermented taste. Bottle your hot sauce in glass jars or hot sauce bottles (making sure to leave the lid removed as it will continue to ferment). Store the hot sauce in the fridge. The fermentation process will continue while it’s in the fridge and the flavour will continue to develop and get better over time.
    Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce
Keyword cayenne pepper sauce, easy fermented hot sauce, fermented hot sauce, homemade hot sauce, hot sauce
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