Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce

This past weekend, my husband tried his hand at making hot sauce for the first time. I love spicy food – really spicy food – which is the inspiration for the hot pepper container garden we’ve been building over the last few summers. Now that we have a yard (woo hoo! We’re still giddy over this!), we’ll have a pepper-specific garden bed next year and I can’t wait until we pick out the different varieties to plant. We save seeds from the peppers we grow and already have a good-sized stash set aside, but I’m eager to research some new-to-us varieties and plan next year’s garden with the family.

My husband picked over 20 ghost peppers from one of our plants to share with friends and to put into this amazing hot sauce. It is a blend of several different kinds of peppers to ensure good flavor along with the heat. The smokey pasilla peppers and apple cider vinegar added a sweetness I wasn’t expecting, but I really like it. After making the sauce he canned our finished jars, which was another first for us and they all sealed properly! It was a much easier process than I realized and now I want to make more sauces to can! These would make great gifts too, if you’re starting to plan your handmade presents for the holidays.

I love ghost peppers particularly on pizza or other cheesy dishes, but I’m eager to try this with chili once the cool weather sets in, and on wings.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups white vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 tsp garlic
• 5-6 red ghost chili peppers
• 5 habanero peppers
• 2 poblano peppers
• 5 serrano peppers
• 1 pasilla pepper

Instructions