hot stuff!

Last year, I made hot sauce with hungarian hot wax peppers using the recipe below. Loved the stuff because it had great pepper flavor, but was only mildly hot. I like it in tuna salad, on hard boiled eggs, in baked beans, almost anything that could use a little kick (which is most stuff). This year I decided to expand my repertoire and use three more types of peppers, so I went to the ag auction and bought habanero, cayenne, and jalapeno peppers in addition to the hungarians and made a sauce of each type. For a point of reference as to how hot each is, I looked up their scoville heat ratings. The hungarians are rated 300-700, jalapenos are 3,500-6,000, cayennes are 30,000-50,000, and habaneros are 100,000-350,000. Safe to say that the habanero sauce is not for the faint of heart, but for the true heat seekers. 

I've included the recipe below and as you'll see, is incredibly easy! I encourage you to try your hand at it - especially if you can find the hungarian hot wax peppers.

Recipe for Hot Sauce

1 pound peppers, roughly chopped, stems removed

2 cups white vinegar

2 teaspoons salt

• Combine everything and heat in a saucepan, simmering for 5 minutes.

• Cool, and puree in a blender until smooth.

• Pour into a jar and allow to steep in refrigerator for 2 weeks.

• Strain, using cheesecloth or a fine sieve and store in clean jar.

• Keep refrigerated.