NOTE: This recipe was updated on 11/26/21 to include new information, photos and video. It was originally published on 11/20/15. I grow a big variety of chili peppers every year. I love a range of heat and flavors, from flavorful sweet peppers all the way up to superhots with their incredible heat. I use them in so many ways, and one of my favorites it making homemade hot sauce. I do enjoy milder sauces that focus on flavor over heat, but every now and then, I want some seriously heat in my hot sauce. That’s when this hot sauce comes in - a hot sauce made from superhot chili peppers. NOTE: Alternatively, do this on your grill outside. Process the ingredients. Add peppers to a food processor. Squeeze garlic out of their skins and into the food processor they go. Add basil leaves and process. Vinegar. While processing, add in vinegar until it is nicely pureed. Watch out for the fumes! Salt and strain, if desired. Add salt and stir. Push the sauce through a strainer or use a food mill to really strain it, if desired. Adjust with more vinegar or water to your desired consistency. NOTE: I don’t always strain. It really depends on how thick you want your hot sauce. Bottle it up. Pour into bottles and enjoy. Give to your friends! The longer you let it sit, the more the flavors will meld. The heat depends on many factors, such as soil and growing conditions of the particular peppers. Well, my peppers must have been grown under some ideal conditions, because they were HOT. I didn’t want them to go to waste, so I turned the majority of them into a hot sauce that I still have today. This is a Louisiana style hot sauce with a few extras added in for flavor. A Louisiana style hot sauce consists of peppers and vinegar, and they’re extremely popular. With good reason. This superhot version brings in the variety of superhots and adds in roasted garlic and basil. That’s it, with a bit of salt. You can expect variable results depending on the chili peppers you choose to work with. To push for the top end of the scale, use only Reapers or 7-Pot Brain Strains if you can get them. Pure Scorpions would be crazy killer hot. Or vary it up like I did. You can also make this with roasted jalapenos, or pretty much any pepper you prefer. Choose your peppers with love. That is always a good place to start. I have not measured the ph of this sauce, but I won’t have it around very long anyway. If you’re concerned, add more vinegar to lower the ph. The best ph meters that I recommend are from Thermoworks. Get yourself a ph meter from Thermoworks today. I am a happy affiliate. See my post on “Does Hot Sauce Need to be Refrigerated?”
