Tabasco Style Hot Sauce

Am having another go at home made hot pepper sauce, Tabasco style. This will be an American style sauce rather than Caribbean. The boy won’t like it but this actually doesn't make that much. Ideally these will be home grown, though I'm trying Habaneros this time and I've never had success with them in the garden – I think they need a longer sunny growing season than we get in the UK.

I tried this recipe last year but at the bottling stage, when I was boiling the bottles, waiting for the lids to pop down, they both opened in the pan and I lost everything. The boy laughed his head off.

500g chillies

15g salt

White wine vinegar to taste

As I said, this year I’m using Habaneros but there is of course a variety called Tabasco, which would be more sensible. I cut the stems off but leave the seeds in. Grind them really well in a blender. You’re looking for what the Tabasco folk would call a mash. Add the salt and mix well. This doesn’t need to be a special salt – ordinary kitchen stuff will do.

Put this in a kilner jar/mason jar and leave it to ferment for 4 to 5 weeks. It should become quite liquid and you’ll see it bubbling occasionally.

When you’re happy that it’s ready, add some vinegar. As Habaneros, are very hot, I will use almost the same amount of vinegar as the chilli mash, as it can take it, without losing much heat. Use less with a milder chilli, but bear in mind you're looking for a pourable sauce. It has another week to sit in the jar so it all comes together.

Strain and bottle and, "Well, there it is" (as the Emperor in Amadeus was so fond of saying).

I tried this with green chillies at the same time, but ended up with mould on top. Again the boy thought this was funny as it took forever to de-stem half a kilo of chillies.  I think I may have done two things wrong – not blended the mash finely enough and not added enough salt. I should have added a little heavily salted water to cover it. My red Habaneros are now liquid though so I’m hopeful. The boy will no doubt push the bottles to the back of our pickle cupboard. If he does I wonder if I will come across them, years later, and discover something I can patent.