I took a few minutes to make a fresh batch of vinegar pepper sauce, which I find delicious in chili and gumbo!
I am using a regular Ball canning jar to make this batch, only because I dont have an empty soy sauce bottle available (I find that the soy sauce bottle works best because the neck is slightly wider, allowing for larger peppers to be pushed in).
Heres how I do it: I boil enough water to fill soak the bottles to be used for the sauce. (I completely submerge the bottles in the boiling water). After the water cools, empty the jars and allow to dry completely, while protecting them from contaminants.
After the bottles are dry, youre ready to start. Smash up 3 or 4 cloves of garlic and set aside. Also, set aside about a teaspoon of whole peppercorns.
Put enough vinegar to fill the bottle into the microwave or on the stove and get it towards a boil. Pick your favorite peppers (I always use a combination of jalapeno, habanero, banana and chili peppers). Cut a slit in each pepper (to allow the vinegar access to the seeds inside).
Put the peppercorn and the garlic into the bottle, and then put the peppers into the bottle, stopping when the peppers reach the neck.
After your bottle is stuffed with peppers, bring your vinegar to a boil. Once boiling, pour the vinegar into the bottle, until it is at lease half way up the neck. Use the handle of a long spoon to gently push the peppers down until the air bubbles quit rising. Then check the vinegar level again, making certain that it is at least half way up the neck of the bottle.
Put the bottles aside (on the cabinet or stove top) and cover with a paper towel. Do not “cap” the bottle until the vinegar is COMPLETELY cool!
Once cool, cap the bottle and put it in the pantry or the refrigerator for a few weeks. (It is not necessary to refrigerate the sauce, though; some people prefer it to be at room temperature. To each his own!).
After 2 to 3 weeks, the sauce should have a good pepper flavor, and some heat! The longer it sits, the better it gets.
One of the cool things about making pepper sauce this way is that when the bottle gets low on vinegar, you just boil some more vinegar and refill the bottle. The sauce will last indefinitely this way!
The peppers in Texas Pete Pepper Sauce can you eat?
In Texas Pete Pepper Sauce, Tabasco peppers take centre stage (literally). Whole fresh chilies are crammed into a bottle along with a delectable vinegar, salt, and turmeric infusion. It’s tasty and entertaining visually. Additionally, it is very adaptable, from basic greens to Cajun cuisine.
What is Pepper Sauce Made of?
You can play around with adding other whole, dried spices such as peppercorns if you’d like to add a different flavor to the mix.
Fill the Jars – Stuff your peppers into your jars making sure to pack them in.
Boil It – First you combine the vinegar and salt and bring it to a boil.
Pour It – Pour the hot liquid over the peppers in the jar, filling the jar to the top before screwing on the lid.
Wait – Now you wait. Place the container in a cool dark place for 2 months to let the flavors come together.
For this recipe I used 2 wide mouth pint jars. Wide mouth mason jars make getting all of those peppers in there so much easier! Since we aren’t actually canning this sauce you don’t have to use a mason jar. You can use any glass jar that can be tightly sealed.
Not exactly. Hot pepper sauce is peppers marinated in vinegar for a few months until the vinegar takes on that spicy flavor making it a pepper vinegar. Hot sauce uses the same ingredients but often has a few other spices added and then everything is blended together into a liquid. It has a stronger pepper flavor and much less vinegar.
Yes! When your vinegar starts to run low you can top off your jar with a little more white vinegar. The peppers will begin to lose their potency over time but you can keep a jar going for a year or more this way without losing that spicy flavor!
The vinegar is very acidic and because we use so much of it in this recipe you don’t have to store this dish in the refrigerator. Just make sure it has a lid the tightly fastens to keep it sealed and store it in a cool, dark place like your pantry. It will last indefinitely this way.
Can I get more vinegar with pepper?
Before screwing on the lid, pour the hot liquid over the peppers in the jar until they are completely covered.
Your wait is now. For two months, keep the jar in a cool, dark location to allow the flavours to meld.
I used two wide opening pint jars for this recipe. Wide mouth mason jars make it so much simpler to fit all of those peppers inside!
You don’t need to use a mason jar because we aren’t actually canning this sauce. Any glass jar that can be tightly sealed will work.
Not quite. When peppers are marinated in vinegar for a few months, the vinegar develops a fiery flavour, transforming it into hot pepper sauce. The same ingredients are used to make hot sauce, but frequently other spices are also added before everything is mixed to form a liquid. It has much less vinegar and a greater pepper flavour.
Yes! You can top off your jar with a little extra white vinegar if your supply of vinegar starts to run low. Although the peppers will start to lose their power with time, you can use this method to preserve a jar for a year or longer without losing its fiery flavour!
The Highland Park Cafeteria now offers table service thanks to the current management. You still have to carry your own tray (unless, like many of the customers, you’re too frail to do this), but a kind individual will pass by and inquire if you need your ice tea to be refilled and if you need anything else “Would you want some pepper sauce, please?
That final statement might be absurd to a person from the north, but it’s music to our ears down here. Pepper sauce is not Tabasco (we refer to it as “tabasco”) or a less well-known hot sauce like Louisiana or Crystal (we refer to it as “hot sauce”).” Green peppers that have been preserved in vinegar and packaged in a tiny bottle with a shaker top make up pepper sauce. You shake the flavoured vinegar into collards, turnip greens, black-eyed peas, and, if you’re like me, fried foods like okra and chicken. The peppers never leave the bottle. A light base flavour is given tanginess by the vinegar, and the pepper adds just the appropriate amount of heat.
When the liquid ran out, my family would buy whatever brand was available at Tom Thumb (often Trappey’s) and replace it with white vinegar. It was time for a fresh bottle once the peppers started to look thin and shrivelled after a few refills. There might not be a best practise for this, I thought as I set down to write this essay; aren’t there additional elements that give flavour complexity to a freshly opened batch? It’s time to taste!
There is unquestionably a difference between a brand-new and a well-used bottle of Cajun Chef, the brand that is now served at HPC. The newest pepper sauce has a vegetal muskiness that is missing from the older bottles and is saltier. My new rule is two refills and then gone.
Some claim that sport peppers are a/just larger Tabascos, b/serranos, c/Italian-style pepperoncinis, d/a particular kind termed “a cultivar of capsicum annuum, or capsicum annuum itself. This is when the sport begins since at least some of these people are blatantly speaking their bunghole.
I will vote for options a and d and concur with the commenter who said “Rather than a pepper offered at a sporting event, they represent a sport or its offshoot (yes, others say that). Anyone who has experienced a hot pepper losing its heat due to proximity to a bell pepper plant in the garden is aware of how quickly this can occur. And it turns out that capsicum annuum is the entire jovial family of capsicum peppers; they even have a website.
FAQ
Can you refill Texas Pete pepper sauce with vinegar?
What kind of vinegar is in Texas Pete Pepper Sauce?
How long does Texas Pete last after opening?