An Inspired Cook

I’ve always wanted to make my own red pepper sauce like Tabasco brand but I rarely find good and fresh cayenne peppers.  I just happened to be shopping for jalapeno’s last week when something red caught my eye.  Beside the jalapeno’s were a few habanero peppers, some ghost peppers and a tray of fresh cayenne peppers.  The cayenne’s were long and curly and crisp and I felt compelled to bring some home.  Not knowing how many it would take to make a batch of sauce, I took a wild guess and estimated about a pound of peppers would do.  The ingredients listed on the back of a Tabasco brand bottle are distilled vinegar, red peppers and salt.  I basically made it the same way with the addition of some water.  I had to play around with the amounts and do a lot of taste testing to get it just right.  When you’re taste testing something so hot and spicy it takes some time in between tastes to make an accurate assessment.  The coloring of my homemade batch turned out much more vivid and bright than the original but the Tabasco brand sauce is fermented which would definitely affect the coloring.  Also my sauce was a little bit thicker but the taste was very close.  My taste testers (Joe and Josh) found one difference . . . they both tasted a variance in the vinegar.  I used an apple cider vinegar (which was what I had on hand in the pantry) but probably should have used white vinegar.  It didn’t even occur to me at the time, but next time I’ll be sure to make it with distilled white vinegar.   If your family goes through bottles of Tabasco red pepper sauce the way mine does, you might try making it yourself, if you can find the cayenne peppers that is!