this is great!... but I have a couple comments for those serious about trying fermenting! - avoid using tap-water if you can, distilled water is best! (chlorine and other chemicals in tap-water can kill the lacto-bacteria) - avoid regular table salt as well as they typically contain anti caking agents that could also make fermentation harder. the more natural salt the better! - for fermenting peppers, you want approximately a 3% brine IMO. Take a liter of water and mix in 30 grams of salt. - the plastic bag/parchment paper combo is a great method for submerging your peppers. make sure none of the veg is touching the surface!! very important! - if you make your ferment in a closed container like a mason jar, make sure to open the seal daily to release the pressure created during fermentation. - You want to ferment no less then 5 days, the longer you ferment the better the flavors develop. if you can maintain stable conditions it can ferment for a couple months safely! - trust your senses! the brine might look murky and taste a bit sour, but that's normal. if it has a foul odor or tastes like yeast/beer it might be toast. - When you think you are done fermenting, refrigerate the mix for a day or two to slow down the fermentation. - when blending, first strain the peppers from the brine and keep the brine aside in another jar. (its a miraculous ingredient on its own!) - blend the peppers as much as possible, adding brine as needed to reach your desired consistency. there is no need to strain the solids!! the solids are the sauce if you blend it enough!!!! - Unless you prefer the flavor, do not add additional vinegar, salt or sugar. it kills all the happy microbes and bacteria you have just cultured! - if you use the solids as the base for the sauce there is no xanthan gum debate! it will not need additional thickening. Thank you for coming to my ted talk, this is the only passion in my life. Also Secret Aardvark is the best store bought sauce money can buy.
Totally agree, leave out the vinegar, the sauce should be acid enough by itself. Otherwise you get the hot sauces they sell in stores, which are really hot pepper flavored vinegars, not a true hot sauce.
My favorite is Valentina. My daughter bought me a bottle when I was visiting her in El Paso about seven years ago, and it's become my go-to ever since.
Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce is my 'go-to' hot sauce for decades. It seems to have a good balance among spiciness, vinegar, salt and pepper flavors. It was just this year that I could buy and have delivered Crystal Hot Sauce from Amazon to Paris where I live. In the past I had to import it in a suitcase or beg visitors to bring me a couple bottles. Recently I have added local harissa sauce (north African) to my selection. I can buy it in bulk in tubs at the local fresh market. Harissa is along the lines of Sriracha but thicker. It is quite salty.
Lemon drop peppers, aka aji limon. Fairly hot with a mild lemony citrusness. Fermented flavors come together well. I made a fermented hot sauce from these earlier this year. The peppers are bright yellow, making a beautiful finished product.
My favorite is my own blend. Living in Trinidad and Tobago, I have access to the Scotch Bonnets, Moruga Scorpions anda host of other mild chilies. So my sauce is usually flavorfully spicy. 😊
I like to use a blend of red poblanos, red jalapenos, and red cayenne peppers. I roast them on the grill until slightly charred, add some roasted onion and garlic, pulse them in the processor, and then I let it all ferment in a valved glass jar for 4-6 weeks.
Most used is Chipotle Tabasco. Favorite is what I use for breakfast tacos/burritos: BLiS Blast hot pepper sauce. It's aged in for a year in barrel that's held bourbon, then Founder's KBS beer, then maple syrup, then finally the hot sauce. That slight maple sweetness with breakfast tacos is the best
Had a bunch of chilles sitting in my fridge when I came across this video. Just started fermenting my first ever batch of hot sauce thanks to you Dan! Also this series is fantastic, keep up the great work.
I've been making my own hot sauce with fresno peppers I started growing. Just with the peppers, pearl onions, salt, and vinegar, this has become my favorite hot sauce. Looking forward to trying this recipe! Another pepper that has a great taste is datil, kind of a sweet flavor.
co-signed x100,000. right behind that is their light-grey-ish smoked xxxtra hot sauce. really unique flavor on that one. those yucatan folks know what they're doing.
Dan, your teaching makes me so happy. I love learning about food science. I always imagine there could be a Khan Academy for food with you and Hannah at the helm.
My current favorite is D.L. Jardines Texas Champagne. My brother told me about it and I will forever be grateful. He just so happens to live about 5 miles from Puckerbutt Pepper Company where they grow the Carolina Reaper.
Any of the Marie Sharp's Hot Sauce are my favorite, but it also depends on what I'm cooking. My condiment section holds many., e.g. Reds, Jersey Death, 357 & Cholula to name a few.
5% brine is what I use for pickles. Use chlorine-free water for best fermenting results (Brita filter plus brief boil) and salt free of added iodine and anti-clumping agents (sea salt or kosher salt). Best measured by weight, not volume. I'm gonna make some hot sauce!
You should have mentioned that the longer you let ferment there is a change in flavor. Hot Ones Los Calientes is a great sauce comes in at 30-50K and has great flavor.
@@DanSheldon48 I heard from a author of fermentation that about 2 weeks is enough for most vegetables. Since after that time the pH is to low for more fermentation and the sugary vegetables juice is mostly gone.
@@DanSheldon48 I'm not even sure it would be safe at room temperature for 8-15 weeks. Once the sugar is used up the lacto fermentation will stop, and once the pH drops other, less helpful organisms start to move in. Maybe adding a bit of sugar every now and then would help, but don't know. I do know that it's a pretty small jump to get from delicious to lethal when fermenting.
Texas Pete...it is great on a salad with ranch. I like the taste; love the consistency. When I make my hot sauce from the peppers I grow it may be hotter or milder by I want the consistency.
Tapatio is my go to everyday sauce. If you're looking for some more heat, try (in no particular order) Mezzetas habanero, Adobolocos smoked ghost pepper and their Trinidad moruga, Hard Times' High Foot (goes amazingly well with breakfast foods), Hot Ones' The Last Dab Dedux (the scoville rating is really high but the heat actually isn't insane and it tastes reaaaally good).
Welcome Back! Would you recommend adding mustard seeds or whole peppercorns during the fermentation process or at the end when you blend? What about fruit/fruit juices like pineapple? Thanks for the hot sauce information. This is definitely something I would like to make at home, but didn't feel I had the right background knowledge for.
Dan's way of explaining things reminds me of listening to some of my favorite teachers, with how they would make it seem as they were talking to me individually, even though they were teaching a whole classroom of students.
My favorite hot sauce is whatever I had last! BUT I recently had habanada peppers for the first time - as the name suggests kinda, they’re habaneros without all the heat. They’re delicious and would be perfect for a super floral habanero-ey hot sauce without all the heat!
I've been making my own hot sauce for about 6 months, and I'll never go back. Being able to play around with the peppers in the mix, the spices we add, and the level of heat, has been life changing. I can't believe I ever bought boring versions of this at the store.
My favorite commercial sauce is Cholula. I just started a ferment of half Fresno and half dried Ancho. In another week I should be able to process into a sauce. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Turned out great. Not buying any more commercial hot sauce.
El Yucateco. It's made with habanero from Mexico. I use the XXXtra hot one on tacos, quesadilla, etc with a little sour cream. I use the regular one that has tomatoes in it to spice up other foods, like Kung Pao chicken while it's cooking. It does not have a vinegar aftertaste like Louisianna hot sauces do so it doesn't fight with whatever flavors the dish has. I found out about El Yucateco when I was at a local Mexican restaurant and requested something hotter to put on my food - the waiter came back with their chef's favorite that he put on his own food, El Yucateco. Not every market has it, but I know that Kroger markets do. For Louisianna hot sauce I use Crystal as it seems to have the best flavor for Buffalo sauces. I also use Tabasco, a few drops in eggs and a few other things.
I love the flavor of Good old fashioned Tabasco sauce! And found out by accident you can completely kill - neutralize- the heat by merely cooking it. Sprinkle it over your eggs or BBQ wings before cooking; the broiling/ cooking process will eliminate the heat yet leave all the Tabasco flavor in. If you want the "hot" sprinkle on after cooking.
I’m a classic man I like Tabasco. There’s two 3 hot sauce camps the sweet/heat, sour/heat and heat/heat. I like the sour heat of Tabasco over sweet heat of shiracha.
I really can't handle pepper heat at all, but I love the flavor (mango habanero is my fave sauce for flavor) but my dad loves hot sauces, especially Tabasco. I now have a garden where I am growing organic jalapenos, poblanos, and dragon chillis (cayenne x thai chilli hybrid) plus a variety of sweet peppers. The dragons are hot, but have really good flavor, so trying to find a good enough balanced recipe to make a hot sauce for dad, plus I'm going to grow 'heatless habaneros' for myself.
Check out chiltepin hot sauce. Made from a huckleberry-sized hot pepper. They grow wild in very southern Arizona in the hills around Nogales and in Sonora, Mexico. I think they come in around 60,000 Scoville units. I've only seen the sauce at Mexican grocery stores so I stock up when I find it.
For me, flavour first, heat second...... too many "sauces" are hotter than Hades but taste pretty darn awful, I would assume these are the ones frat boys dare each other to drink at parties because I have no idea what edible substance would match their flavour profile. Nice vid, thanks Dan.
I use a 5% brine for pickles, that would probably work well here. It's best measured by weight, not volume, easy-peasy with a digital scale and metric. I use chlorine-free water for best fermenting results (Brita filter plus brief boil) and salt free of added iodine and anti-clumping agents (sea salt or kosher salt). I'm gonna make some hot sauce!
I am Trinidadian. Making hot sauce or pepper sauce as we call it is quite common but scotchbonnet is the lowest common denominator. You can buy pepper sauces in most supermarkets here right up up scorpion blends. The best ones are flavourful in addition to the heat and generally have a lot of spices beyond the peppers. Homemade sauces are the best by far in that regard.
For eggs in particular, and any other foods where you don't want to test your capsaicin tolerance, Cholula is the best, widely available bottled sauce I have found. Thicker consistency and less vinegary than most brands out there. For a good burn and delicious fruitiness, Matouk's West Indian Pepper Sauce is awesome! I'm a chili-head and I use Matouk's on a lot of dishes. It's thick, green and has body to it (i.e., it isn't pureed). Note: I would not use either in Indian/Pakistani dishes. Make your own masalas and use fresh green chilis to taste.
Best brand of Mexican hot sauce is Tapatío. Cheaper, brighter, less bitter, and slightly hotter than Cholula and less earthy than Valentina. For Tex-Mex hot sauce: Green Tabasco. Middle Eastern: whatever brand you can get for sambal oelek. Sambal oelek goes great on a "sandwich" of hummus, chicken, shepherd's salad, and spinach chiffonade wrapped in a toasty, warm naan. Sriracha works great with any of our "Asian Fusion" dishes or to liven up one of our "what's in the fridge" dinners like "Asian" tacos.
Thanks for granting my request and making this video! My favorite store-bought sauces are Huy Fong's Sriracha and Frank's Red Hot. I like to make a fermented sauce with ripe jalepeńos and a fresh sauce with sweet peppers and Thai hot peppers.
I hate the crunch of pepper seeds so I remove them from both fresh and dried chiles. The trick is leaving enough of the placenta, not discarding it with the seeds. Recently made a bitter melon dish with serranos and lost a lot of the heat because of removing the seeds carelessly - but they were really embedded, so I couldn’t help it. Of course, if making a sauce, leaving the seeds in is quite reasonable. Tabasco is still a favorite. Some of the El Yucateco sauces are good too. Low power sauces like Crystal come in handy and the generic ones are adequate and cheap.
I went down a rabbit hole of hot sauces during the pandemic, ordered many bottles of hot sauces with different flavor profiles and spice levels to try. Marie Sharp’s Hot Habanero pepper sauce with its few simple natural ingredients is by far the best tasting and my favorite of all the ones I’ve tried, and I hope they never stop making it. Of the supermarket hot sauces, Sriracha (the one in the wide mouth bottle with no sugar added) is my favorite.
My favorite hot sauce is Texas Champagne by D. L. Jardine's - but it's awfully hard to find, so mostly I make do with my second choice: Crystal. Not as good as Texas Champagne, but not bad, by a long shot.
I was exposed to Huichol hot sauce when I visited Mexico. It has the perfect amount of heat and the flavor was unlike other hot sauces I've had. My favorite peppers to make my own sauce with are the tabasco and the habanero. Thanks for the video!
Made my own hot sauce last year, not so much heat but LOTS of flavor, was similar to what you made, but didn't ferment my veggies. I will absolutely try that , thanks! And may I say friends and family LOVE getting a bottle of homemade hot sauce ♡
It’s all about the balance of flavor and spice. All Melinda’s Habanero Sauces, original, or XXXtra, or XXXX reserve. I choose the heat level depending on what I’m eating.
We're heat junkies in our house; our favorite is Hot One's Last Dab. I put 4-5 dabs on pretty much everything. It's delicious; I don't like vinegar-forward sauces, and this one is super tasty and super hot.
My favorite hot sauce depends on what I'm eating. For breakfast it's always 3 over easy eggs with Tabasco. Frijoles de la olla, home made salsa or Tapatio.
Homemade is my fave! Typically skip the vinegar and sugar unless trying out recipes. Boil some tomato, Serrano, garlic, onion, and habaneros to soften then blend them up with salt and pepper. Try that on that perfect egg Dan!
A bottle of Texas Pete sets on my table at all times. Flavor + heat. The hottest sauce I ever got near was my ex-husband's 80 year old Panamanian aunt's home brew. Whew! Just a whiff of it would literally snap your head back! You could use it to bring back an unconscious person! LOL
Valentina (Black Label - hotter) is my go-to sauce. However, for (Southern) fried foods I prefer vinegar forward flavour like Louisiana sauces - Frank's RedHot and Tabasco.
I'm a Texas Pete man myself as far as generic sauces go but I like all hot sauces. I got one in a sauce shop called Lethal Gator that was absolutely amazing. I'm also pretty partial to the black label valentinas
I learned something new: the heat is in the ribs; I always thought it was in the seeds. At any rate, I’m not a big fan of peppers. I like flavor, not pain.
Very old school -- I go with standard Tabasco, except sometimes if I'm making red beans and rice I'll use Louisiana (if available ) because that's what the man down at Buster Holmes in New Orleans nearly 30 years ago told me they used.
As someone who likes hot food, the flavour is important. You mentioned the difference between fruity and grassy, that's spot on. I personally don't like the grassy type at all.
I'm no Heat Head but I love trying out new hot sauces and have had well over 100 different brands and craft bottles, and as basic as it may be, I always go back to Frank's and Cholula.
Though there were a handful of ways to reach HOT - peppers being most common. McIlhenny smoked Tobasco sauce. Love it on hashbrowns and as a base for chilli
Thank you for the video. Could you do a follow up on making hot sauce without vinegar? I have a friend who has developed an intolerance for it but he loves hot sauce.
A vapor lock is used to keep things sterile, right? Like when you added your own yeast to beer and don't want other microbes muscling in. Didn't the lactobacillus come from the environment here? And the salt keeps the bad microbes at bay?
@@doctorbobstone , the lacto bacteria is already on the vegetables and it is anaerobic, meaning it will do its thing without oxygen. Immersion in salt water allows the lactobacillus to go to work without allowing other bacteria and fungi to consume the food. The same process is used to make sauerkraut and kimchi.
@@tshimkus2 thanks for the explanation. Presumably oxygen doesn't kill them since they were exposed to it before being put into the brine. Do they do better in a low or no oxygen environment? Or is there some other advantage?
@@doctorbobstone , it allows this "good" bacteria to out-compete the "bad" bacteria for those precious sugars. Molds and other microbes are killed by the salt brine and the lactobacillus bacteria are the sole survivors. The food is still being decomposed by germs, just not the ones that normally result in food being tossed in the trash.
My favorite brands are Franks for traditional US hot sauce, and a Siracha product that is called Thai Chili Sauce. This is not the typical rooster sauce, but milder and fruitier, and usually only available at Asian markets...in large bottles. Simply delicious.
Weird: as I got older my taste buds can't fathom the heat of the great hot sauces I used to really enjoy, I miss the subtleties/hidden nuances (and heat) that so many sauces would emulate! Now, I'm forced to settle for the milder offerings that the grocery stores provide. I really miss those old days of seeking out all of the crazy concoctions? And the NAMES! (LOL). The one sauce I can eat without worries is the old standby: Mc.ilhenny co. tabasco brand pepper sauce. It's great for general purpose, but it really shines when you're cooking with it. There, I said it........
So, if the bacteria in it is lacto bacillus, you can make the fermentation process more successful and quick if you add a tiny bit of yogurt or buttermilk to the brine.
this is great!... but I have a couple comments for those serious about trying fermenting!
- avoid using tap-water if you can, distilled water is best! (chlorine and other chemicals in tap-water can kill the lacto-bacteria)
- avoid regular table salt as well as they typically contain anti caking agents that could also make fermentation harder. the more natural salt the better!
- for fermenting peppers, you want approximately a 3% brine IMO. Take a liter of water and mix in 30 grams of salt.
- the plastic bag/parchment paper combo is a great method for submerging your peppers. make sure none of the veg is touching the surface!! very important!
- if you make your ferment in a closed container like a mason jar, make sure to open the seal daily to release the pressure created during fermentation.
- You want to ferment no less then 5 days, the longer you ferment the better the flavors develop. if you can maintain stable conditions it can ferment for a couple months safely!
- trust your senses! the brine might look murky and taste a bit sour, but that's normal. if it has a foul odor or tastes like yeast/beer it might be toast.
- When you think you are done fermenting, refrigerate the mix for a day or two to slow down the fermentation.
- when blending, first strain the peppers from the brine and keep the brine aside in another jar. (its a miraculous ingredient on its own!)
- blend the peppers as much as possible, adding brine as needed to reach your desired consistency. there is no need to strain the solids!! the solids are the sauce if you blend it enough!!!!
- Unless you prefer the flavor, do not add additional vinegar, salt or sugar. it kills all the happy microbes and bacteria you have just cultured!
- if you use the solids as the base for the sauce there is no xanthan gum debate! it will not need additional thickening.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk, this is the only passion in my life. Also Secret Aardvark is the best store bought sauce money can buy.
This comment is criminally underappreciated.
But at least, a huge thanks from me :)
Good to see others recognizing Secret Aardvark
Just one more thing: in case your weight leaks use extra brine instead of plain water.
I’m literally eating secret aardvark as I read your comment! Crazy coincidence
Totally agree, leave out the vinegar, the sauce should be acid enough by itself. Otherwise you get the hot sauces they sell in stores, which are really hot pepper flavored vinegars, not a true hot sauce.
This is like “Its Alive with Brad” but for people who prefer cats to dogs.
Damn, that description is too damn perfect!
I tried to find a flaw in your statement, but I DO prefer cats and I like Dan much more than Brad. You win this round.
Good description but Dan here actually owns a dog. He had it on the butter episode.
@@BanilyaGorilya that was my favourite episode! that dog was the cutest thing ever. I admit I like both Dan and Brad, and I love both cats and dogs.
Dogs rule; Dan rules. Brad is cool, but just okay. Cats suck.
A Brad leone/Dan collab would be like matter and anti matter coming together
I'm sure Vinny would agree.
I still want to see it. BA and America's Test Kitchen, BRING IT ON!
Wait, that wasn't Dan he went noodling with?
@@tbabubba32682 that would have been hilarious.
I really don't like Brad.
My favorite is Valentina. My daughter bought me a bottle when I was visiting her in El Paso about seven years ago, and it's become my go-to ever since.
Note: He used a brine weight vs. a water weight in case of popping. If the bag pops, it doesn't mess up your brine's ratio.
Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce is my 'go-to' hot sauce for decades. It seems to have a good balance among spiciness, vinegar, salt and pepper flavors. It was just this year that I could buy and have delivered Crystal Hot Sauce from Amazon to Paris where I live. In the past I had to import it in a suitcase or beg visitors to bring me a couple bottles. Recently I have added local harissa sauce (north African) to my selection. I can buy it in bulk in tubs at the local fresh market. Harissa is along the lines of Sriracha but thicker. It is quite salty.
My late wife used to carry a little bottle of Crystal in her purse, so that she always had it available when we went out to eat.
Brilliant vid, love the pacing and narration - it's an onslaught of delightfully digestible information.
666 comments
Lemon drop peppers, aka aji limon. Fairly hot with a mild lemony citrusness. Fermented flavors come together well. I made a fermented hot sauce from these earlier this year. The peppers are bright yellow, making a beautiful finished product.
My favorite is my own blend. Living in Trinidad and Tobago, I have access to the Scotch Bonnets, Moruga Scorpions anda host of other mild chilies. So my sauce is usually flavorfully spicy. 😊
I like to use a blend of red poblanos, red jalapenos, and red cayenne peppers. I roast them on the grill until slightly charred, add some roasted onion and garlic, pulse them in the processor, and then I let it all ferment in a valved glass jar for 4-6 weeks.
My favorite? Tapatio!! It works on everything! Of course, I use others as well.
I like hot sauce, like Frank’s, but I LOVE mustards. How about a video on that?
Secret Aardvark sauce is definitely my #1, but I’ll eat any hot sauce in front of me.
Most used is Chipotle Tabasco. Favorite is what I use for breakfast tacos/burritos: BLiS Blast hot pepper sauce.
It's aged in for a year in barrel that's held bourbon, then Founder's KBS beer, then maple syrup, then finally the hot sauce.
That slight maple sweetness with breakfast tacos is the best
Had a bunch of chilles sitting in my fridge when I came across this video. Just started fermenting my first ever batch of hot sauce thanks to you Dan! Also this series is fantastic, keep up the great work.
For years I ate Tobasco. Three years ago a friend introduced me to Tapatio, and never went back.
I've been making my own hot sauce with fresno peppers I started growing. Just with the peppers, pearl onions, salt, and vinegar, this has become my favorite hot sauce. Looking forward to trying this recipe!
Another pepper that has a great taste is datil, kind of a sweet flavor.
The green Yucateco is my favorite hot sauce, perfect blend of spice and fruity flavor
co-signed x100,000. right behind that is their light-grey-ish smoked xxxtra hot sauce. really unique flavor on that one. those yucatan folks know what they're doing.
I was worried my new best friend Dan abandoned us! D:
Same here! This series has quickly become my favorite on TH-cam
I was keeping him preoccupied 😉😊
@@Phoenix85006 You lucky bastard ;-)
Dan, your teaching makes me so happy. I love learning about food science. I always imagine there could be a Khan Academy for food with you and Hannah at the helm.
My current favorite is D.L. Jardines Texas Champagne. My brother told me about it and I will forever be grateful. He just so happens to live about 5 miles from Puckerbutt Pepper Company where they grow the Carolina Reaper.
Us Trinis love spicy food. All we do is add peppers in vinegar and blend pure homemade pepper sauce after we may add pieces of unripe fruit.
Any of the Marie Sharp's Hot Sauce are my favorite, but it also depends on what I'm cooking. My condiment section holds many., e.g. Reds, Jersey Death, 357 & Cholula to name a few.
For anyone attempting to make this, the recipe states 3TBSP Kosher salt : 1Qt of water; this translates to a 5% Brine.
5% brine is what I use for pickles. Use chlorine-free water for best fermenting results (Brita filter plus brief boil) and salt free of added iodine and anti-clumping agents (sea salt or kosher salt). Best measured by weight, not volume. I'm gonna make some hot sauce!
@@happysalesguy you know whats up buddy!
Thanks! Gonna try it!
You should have mentioned that the longer you let ferment there is a change in flavor. Hot Ones Los Calientes is a great sauce comes in at 30-50K and has great flavor.
Dan Sheldon how many days do you think the fermentation should go ? Like the longer the better?
@@timagomedova 7 to 10 days is the fastest, I started a batch of peppers 2 weeks ago and plan to let them ferment for 8 to 15 weeks
Dan Sheldon thank you!
@@DanSheldon48 I heard from a author of fermentation that about 2 weeks is enough for most vegetables. Since after that time the pH is to low for more fermentation and the sugary vegetables juice is mostly gone.
@@DanSheldon48
I'm not even sure it would be safe at room temperature for 8-15 weeks.
Once the sugar is used up the lacto fermentation will stop, and once the pH drops other, less helpful organisms start to move in.
Maybe adding a bit of sugar every now and then would help, but don't know.
I do know that it's a pretty small jump to get from delicious to lethal when fermenting.
Texas Pete...it is great on a salad with ranch. I like the taste; love the consistency. When I make my hot sauce from the peppers I grow it may be hotter or milder by I want the consistency.
Tapatio is my family's favorite sauce. I prefer a sweet and floral hot sauce, like a scotch bonnet or ghost chili sauce.
Stephanie Morgan try matouks!
Tapatio is my go to everyday sauce. If you're looking for some more heat, try (in no particular order) Mezzetas habanero, Adobolocos smoked ghost pepper and their Trinidad moruga, Hard Times' High Foot (goes amazingly well with breakfast foods), Hot Ones' The Last Dab Dedux (the scoville rating is really high but the heat actually isn't insane and it tastes reaaaally good).
Secret Aardvark habanero hot sauce is so flavorful and not that spicy. Incredible on eggs.
Have banana pepper, garlic, carrot, and onion fermenting right now. Last batch was cherry bombs, jalapeño, garlic and onion..thanks Dan!
Welcome Back! Would you recommend adding mustard seeds or whole peppercorns during the fermentation process or at the end when you blend? What about fruit/fruit juices like pineapple? Thanks for the hot sauce information. This is definitely something I would like to make at home, but didn't feel I had the right background knowledge for.
this channel inspired me to make my ferment my own sauce. for now, scotch bonnet + cayenne from PC.
Dan's way of explaining things reminds me of listening to some of my favorite teachers, with how they would make it seem as they were talking to me individually, even though they were teaching a whole classroom of students.
My favorite hot sauce is whatever I had last! BUT I recently had habanada peppers for the first time - as the name suggests kinda, they’re habaneros without all the heat. They’re delicious and would be perfect for a super floral habanero-ey hot sauce without all the heat!
I love Poto Rojo from Benito's in VT. It's no-joke hot, but packed with flavor. Excellent on tacos.
My favourite everyday hot sauce is a 50/50 mix of Chipotle Tabasco, and Green Tabasco. Do try it.
For store-bought hot sauces, you cannot go wrong with El Yucateco. Their lineup is fantastic. Having said that, I would love to create my own someday.
I've been making my own hot sauce for about 6 months, and I'll never go back. Being able to play around with the peppers in the mix, the spices we add, and the level of heat, has been life changing. I can't believe I ever bought boring versions of this at the store.
My favorite commercial sauce is Cholula.
I just started a ferment of half Fresno and half dried Ancho. In another week I should be able to process into a sauce. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Turned out great. Not buying any more commercial hot sauce.
El Yucateco. It's made with habanero from Mexico. I use the XXXtra hot one on tacos, quesadilla, etc with a little sour cream. I use the regular one that has tomatoes in it to spice up other foods, like Kung Pao chicken while it's cooking. It does not have a vinegar aftertaste like Louisianna hot sauces do so it doesn't fight with whatever flavors the dish has. I found out about El Yucateco when I was at a local Mexican restaurant and requested something hotter to put on my food - the waiter came back with their chef's favorite that he put on his own food, El Yucateco. Not every market has it, but I know that Kroger markets do.
For Louisianna hot sauce I use Crystal as it seems to have the best flavor for Buffalo sauces.
I also use Tabasco, a few drops in eggs and a few other things.
I love the flavor of Good old fashioned Tabasco sauce! And found out by accident you can completely kill - neutralize- the heat by merely cooking it. Sprinkle it over your eggs or BBQ wings before cooking; the broiling/ cooking process will eliminate the heat yet leave all the Tabasco flavor in. If you want the "hot" sprinkle on after cooking.
I’m a classic man I like Tabasco. There’s two 3 hot sauce camps the sweet/heat, sour/heat and heat/heat. I like the sour heat of Tabasco over sweet heat of shiracha.
Dan my favorite Hot Sauce is Melinda's Hot Sauce. They make all kinds of sauce and it's so good.
Melinda's habenero is the best
Omap totally agree!!!! Best well balanced hot sauce on the market in my opinion. Especially on pizza 🍕😉
@@Omapk Stolen recipe from marie sharp, but the original.
Melinda’s has been my go-to for years. I’ve dabbled with others, but always come back to her
I really can't handle pepper heat at all, but I love the flavor (mango habanero is my fave sauce for flavor) but my dad loves hot sauces, especially Tabasco. I now have a garden where I am growing organic jalapenos, poblanos, and dragon chillis (cayenne x thai chilli hybrid) plus a variety of sweet peppers. The dragons are hot, but have really good flavor, so trying to find a good enough balanced recipe to make a hot sauce for dad, plus I'm going to grow 'heatless habaneros' for myself.
Great video Dan! Not a heat guy. Much prefer spicy and flavor. Favs are Garlic Tabasco and Garlic Chilula: Zesty! Someday, I'll make my own.
My absolute favorite will have to go to Marie Sharp's habanero hot sauce.
Check out chiltepin hot sauce. Made from a huckleberry-sized hot pepper. They grow wild in very southern Arizona in the hills around Nogales and in Sonora, Mexico. I think they come in around 60,000 Scoville units. I've only seen the sauce at Mexican grocery stores so I stock up when I find it.
For me, flavour first, heat second...... too many "sauces" are hotter than Hades but taste pretty darn awful, I would assume these are the ones frat boys dare each other to drink at parties because I have no idea what edible substance would match their flavour profile. Nice vid, thanks Dan.
My favorite brand overall would be Secret Aardvark out of Portland Oregon.
I use a 5% brine for pickles, that would probably work well here. It's best measured by weight, not volume, easy-peasy with a digital scale and metric. I use chlorine-free water for best fermenting results (Brita filter plus brief boil) and salt free of added iodine and anti-clumping agents (sea salt or kosher salt). I'm gonna make some hot sauce!
Dan, your face when you said 'That'll do". Perfect comedic timing.
I am Trinidadian. Making hot sauce or pepper sauce as we call it is quite common but scotchbonnet is the lowest common denominator. You can buy pepper sauces in most supermarkets here right up up scorpion blends. The best ones are flavourful in addition to the heat and generally have a lot of spices beyond the peppers. Homemade sauces are the best by far in that regard.
Tapatio for me but it does depend on what I’m eating. Chicken wings I mix Franks, Tapatio, and Valentina extra hot.
Great video.
For eggs in particular, and any other foods where you don't want to test your capsaicin tolerance, Cholula is the best, widely available bottled sauce I have found. Thicker consistency and less vinegary than most brands out there. For a good burn and delicious fruitiness, Matouk's West Indian Pepper Sauce is awesome! I'm a chili-head and I use Matouk's on a lot of dishes. It's thick, green and has body to it (i.e., it isn't pureed).
Note: I would not use either in Indian/Pakistani dishes. Make your own masalas and use fresh green chilis to taste.
My favorite hot sauce brand is Cholula. Right now, I have a bottle of the green stuff in the cabinet.
Chipotle version of Cholula is the FUCKING BEST.
The garlic and the sweet habanero flavors are amazing.
Best brand of Mexican hot sauce is Tapatío. Cheaper, brighter, less bitter, and slightly hotter than Cholula and less earthy than Valentina. For Tex-Mex hot sauce: Green Tabasco. Middle Eastern: whatever brand you can get for sambal oelek. Sambal oelek goes great on a "sandwich" of hummus, chicken, shepherd's salad, and spinach chiffonade wrapped in a toasty, warm naan. Sriracha works great with any of our "Asian Fusion" dishes or to liven up one of our "what's in the fridge" dinners like "Asian" tacos.
I agree
@@Boogers32150 I gotta try that love me some Cholula and chipotle flavored everything 👍
Love the shooting the peppers part
Thanks for granting my request and making this video!
My favorite store-bought sauces are Huy Fong's Sriracha and Frank's Red Hot.
I like to make a fermented sauce with ripe jalepeńos and a fresh sauce with sweet peppers and Thai hot peppers.
Aardvark Hot Sauce has a nice complex flavor. I could eat it on anything.
On Ice-cream?
Sure, ice cream with a creme fraiche base, and a bitter sweet chocolate sauce. It would be fantastic. I now have plans for dessert this weekend.
I hate the crunch of pepper seeds so I remove them from both fresh and dried chiles. The trick is leaving enough of the placenta, not discarding it with the seeds. Recently made a bitter melon dish with serranos and lost a lot of the heat because of removing the seeds carelessly - but they were really embedded, so I couldn’t help it.
Of course, if making a sauce, leaving the seeds in is quite reasonable.
Tabasco is still a favorite. Some of the El Yucateco sauces are good too. Low power sauces like Crystal come in handy and the generic ones are adequate and cheap.
I went down a rabbit hole of hot sauces during the pandemic, ordered many bottles of hot sauces with different flavor profiles and spice levels to try. Marie Sharp’s Hot Habanero pepper sauce with its few simple natural ingredients is by far the best tasting and my favorite of all the ones I’ve tried, and I hope they never stop making it. Of the supermarket hot sauces, Sriracha (the one in the wide mouth bottle with no sugar added) is my favorite.
Yummy! We love Tapatio and Sriracha! But are limited to what we have in our tiny town😁
My favorite hot sauce is Texas Champagne by D. L. Jardine's - but it's awfully hard to find, so mostly I make do with my second choice: Crystal. Not as good as Texas Champagne, but not bad, by a long shot.
I prefer a longer ferment and the use of air locks. I usually go 3-4 months with mine using a mix of different pepper varieties.
Wow! Great reviews and fun to watch. I really enjoyed the overall vibe. Thank you!
I was exposed to Huichol hot sauce when I visited Mexico. It has the perfect amount of heat and the flavor was unlike other hot sauces I've had. My favorite peppers to make my own sauce with are the tabasco and the habanero. Thanks for the video!
I live in Fresno and I have never seen a Fresno Chili for sale here, yet I see them all the time on cooking videos...
Thai pepper is my favorite. The spice is just right
Made my own hot sauce last year, not so much heat but LOTS of flavor, was similar to what you made, but didn't ferment my veggies. I will absolutely try that , thanks! And may I say friends and family LOVE getting a bottle of homemade hot sauce ♡
It’s all about the balance of flavor and spice. All Melinda’s Habanero Sauces, original, or XXXtra, or XXXX reserve. I choose the heat level depending on what I’m eating.
We're heat junkies in our house; our favorite is Hot One's Last Dab. I put 4-5 dabs on pretty much everything. It's delicious; I don't like vinegar-forward sauces, and this one is super tasty and super hot.
I really like Macarico's Piri Piri hot sauce. It's a bit salty but it taste great with a nice kick.
I also really like sambal oelek.
Although I like some hotter sauces, my actual favorite is Trappys Louisiana hot sauce. I love when the viniger compliments the hot in a sauce
Thanks Dan for all you do.
My favorite hot sauce depends on what I'm eating. For breakfast it's always 3 over easy eggs with Tabasco. Frijoles de la olla, home made salsa or Tapatio.
Homemade is my fave! Typically skip the vinegar and sugar unless trying out recipes. Boil some tomato, Serrano, garlic, onion, and habaneros to soften then blend them up with salt and pepper. Try that on that perfect egg Dan!
Dan: Love your videos! Very humorous and very educational. Perfect!
YellowBird Serrano Condiment is my favorite. Just right heat, and great flavor.
A bottle of Texas Pete sets on my table at all times. Flavor + heat. The hottest sauce I ever got near was my ex-husband's 80 year old Panamanian aunt's home brew. Whew! Just a whiff of it would literally snap your head back! You could use it to bring back an unconscious person! LOL
Valentina (Black Label - hotter) is my go-to sauce. However, for (Southern) fried foods I prefer vinegar forward flavour like Louisiana sauces - Frank's RedHot and Tabasco.
Cholula for Mexican food, Sriracha for Vietnamese food, and Frank's Red Hot for wings.
My exact list except sometimes I use green Tabasco for Mexican that isn't tomato based.
I'm a Texas Pete man myself as far as generic sauces go but I like all hot sauces. I got one in a sauce shop called Lethal Gator that was absolutely amazing. I'm also pretty partial to the black label valentinas
Love all of your videos. I’m an avid consumer of foottubers and always enjoy the pace and thoroughness of your vids.
wow.. i will use this technique. My favorite is a salsa Mexicana from my grocery produce department.
I learned something new: the heat is in the ribs; I always thought it was in the seeds. At any rate, I’m not a big fan of peppers. I like flavor, not pain.
Yeah, I always thought the capsaicin was mostly in the seeds too. Good to know.
Very old school -- I go with standard Tabasco, except sometimes if I'm making red beans and rice I'll use Louisiana (if available ) because that's what the man down at Buster Holmes in New Orleans nearly 30 years ago told me they used.
As someone who likes hot food, the flavour is important. You mentioned the difference between fruity and grassy, that's spot on. I personally don't like the grassy type at all.
I'm no Heat Head but I love trying out new hot sauces and have had well over 100 different brands and craft bottles, and as basic as it may be, I always go back to Frank's and Cholula.
Secret Aardvark is one of my current favorite hot sauces
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Though there were a handful of ways to reach HOT - peppers being most common. McIlhenny smoked Tobasco sauce. Love it on hashbrowns and as a base for chilli
Pico Pica, the most underrated Mexican-style hot sauce!
Thank you for the video. Could you do a follow up on making hot sauce without vinegar? I have a friend who has developed an intolerance for it but he loves hot sauce.
I would suggest using a vapor lock when fermenting peppers :-)
A vapor lock is used to keep things sterile, right? Like when you added your own yeast to beer and don't want other microbes muscling in. Didn't the lactobacillus come from the environment here? And the salt keeps the bad microbes at bay?
@@doctorbobstone , the lacto bacteria is already on the vegetables and it is anaerobic, meaning it will do its thing without oxygen. Immersion in salt water allows the lactobacillus to go to work without allowing other bacteria and fungi to consume the food. The same process is used to make sauerkraut and kimchi.
@@tshimkus2 thanks for the explanation.
Presumably oxygen doesn't kill them since they were exposed to it before being put into the brine. Do they do better in a low or no oxygen environment? Or is there some other advantage?
@@doctorbobstone , it allows this "good" bacteria to out-compete the "bad" bacteria for those precious sugars. Molds and other microbes are killed by the salt brine and the lactobacillus bacteria are the sole survivors. The food is still being decomposed by germs, just not the ones that normally result in food being tossed in the trash.
My favorite brands are Franks for traditional US hot sauce, and a Siracha product that is called Thai Chili Sauce. This is not the typical rooster sauce, but milder and fruitier, and usually only available at Asian markets...in large bottles. Simply delicious.
Valentina is for Fritos, popcorn, jícama and huichol for seafood.
For real Mexicans Valentina is comfort food
Keep bringing the food science, Dr. Daniel. It’s what we need and it’s what we want.
I am a huge fan of Heartbeat Hot Sauce and Pirates Bay hot sauce, very different and each is perfect for its job.
I like Sriracha but I got bottle of sweet chili sauce and packets of Tom Yum paste from instant noodles.
Weird: as I got older my taste buds can't fathom the heat of the great hot sauces I used to really enjoy, I miss the subtleties/hidden nuances (and heat) that so many sauces would emulate! Now, I'm forced to settle for the milder offerings that the grocery stores provide. I really miss those old days of seeking out all of the crazy concoctions? And the NAMES! (LOL). The one sauce I can eat without worries is the old standby: Mc.ilhenny co. tabasco brand pepper sauce. It's great for general purpose, but it really shines when you're cooking with it. There, I said it........
I love this one. And cooks illustrated fans and cooks country fans love Dan.
No clue what it's called, but the home-made sauce my local taco truck has with their carne asada burritos is FANTASTIC.
So, if the bacteria in it is lacto bacillus, you can make the fermentation process more successful and quick if you add a tiny bit of yogurt or buttermilk to the brine.