Hot, citrusy, and packed with natural good bacteria. This lacto-fermented hot sauce is inspired by Tabasco, but boasts somewhere around 200’000 SHU (Scoville Heat Units) since it substitutes Habanero peppers, so buckle down guys…
Ingredients
- 2 Pounds of Red Habanero Peppers, washed, stemmed, crown on, seeds in.
- 8 Cloves of Garlic
- 20 Grams of Salt
- 3 Bay Leaves
- 1 Cup of White Vinegar
- 1 Cup of Fresh Lime Juice
- Zest of 1 Lime
- (optional) 1tsp Xanthan Gum
Method
- Place the peppers, garlic, and salt in a food processor and blend until completely smooth. Leave the green crowns on the peppers when doing this as they add a floral taste. Leave in the seeds, this is hot sauce game for real.
- Transfer the mixture to an appropriately sized jar and add the bay leaves. We used a 1gal Jar and there was more than half space. Cover with the lid, don’t worry it won’t explode.
- Set in a warm, dark place for a minimum of 3 weeks, shake the contents and burp the jar daily for the first week and a half while the sauce is getting really hyped up with good bacteria.
- After your sauce is done fermenting you will notice a slight but mild funky smell on the sauce, this is the fermentation done right. If it smells actively BAD it probably is, but that kind of thing happens so rarely don’t even worry.
- Add in the vinegar, lime juice, zest, and mix well.
- (optional) Add the xanthan gum and blend the sauce again to avoid any separation, though we don’t bother with this, is it that hard to shake a bottle before pouring?
- Keep your sauce refrigerated and enjoy within 6 months for best results. But what’s really gonna happen?
Enjoy making this awesome sauce but USE WITH CAUTION, this stuff is crazy.
OOCH