Hot Sauce 101

[browneyesvictim]

Im no pepper plant expert, but I have learned...
1. They like full sun
2. Don't water them too much- Over watering is the most common problem. Wait until you start to see them wilt.
3. They like lots of room. Plant in the ground or us a BIG pot.
4. Grow several plants (not just one or two) for pollinating.
5. I believe in a product - Alaska fish fertilizer/Morbloom. It lowers the PH of your soil to increases the yield.

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Smokininthegarden,

I’ve never had an issue with habanero plants. They’ve always produced like crazy. Crazy like 50-100+ peppers per plant and I usually plant 6-10 of them.

Now my scorpion only produced 3 peppers this year. It wasn’t looking healthy at all. I did that one in a pot.

And about 4 years ago my first ever ghost peppers were lousy. But ever since then they each produce dozen and dozen of peppers.

I till the garden every year, and mix in fertilizer. Then I cover the whole thing with black plastic and stake it down. This helps weeds from growing and also soaks up the sun and keeps the ground warm. This I assume really helps with the hot peppers as they love the heat. Then I cut holes in the plastic, scoop out dirt, and put a plant followed by good garden mixed with the soil i scooped out in the hole. Usually once a summer I hit the plants with another dose of fertilizer.

Seems to work for me. Pick peppers through October most years.

Good luck with your garden peppers next year!

Scott

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

I like it vol!!

This is exactly why I posted this tutorial. I hope to see your sauce on this page soon! Let me know if you have any questions.

Scott

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

I Appreciate it bear!

Agreed, labs rule the roost at WDR.

Scott

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

All great advice brown!

 

[smokininthegarden]

Smokininthegarden,

I’ve never had an issue with habanero plants. They’ve always produced like crazy. Crazy like 50-100+ peppers per plant and I usually plant 6-10 of them.

Now my scorpion only produced 3 peppers this year. It wasn’t looking healthy at all. I did that one in a pot.

And about 4 years ago my first ever ghost peppers were lousy. But ever since then they each produce dozen and dozen of peppers.

I till the garden every year, and mix in fertilizer. Then I cover the whole thing with black plastic and stake it down. This helps weeds from growing and also soaks up the sun and keeps the ground warm. This I assume really helps with the hot peppers as they love the heat. Then I cut holes in the plastic, scoop out dirt, and put a plant followed by good garden mixed with the soil i scooped out in the hole. Usually once a summer I hit the plants with another dose of fertilizer.

Seems to work for me. Pick peppers through October most years.

Good luck with your garden peppers next year!

Scott

Thanks for the suggestions maybe I’ll give them another try next year, I love habaneros.
It was probably 30 years or so ago when I tried them, long before most people had even heard of habaneros, at least they weren’t common in grocery stores then, like they are now.

Maybe it was just a bad pepper year that year, who knows.

Cal

 

[indaswamp]

pepper seeds love heat. I put my pepper seeds in a wet paper towel then in a plastic bag. I put this on top of my water heater where the heat is 85~90*. This starts the germination with 90% of seeds starting. I pick the best ones with the longest tap roots and plant those in flats. Shoots spring up in about 5~7 days. Water from the bottom until plant has at least 8 leaves. Those very hot peppers are finicky to germinate, this has a high success rate. Happy gardening....

 

[indaswamp]

5. I believe in a product - Alaska fish fertilizer/Morbloom. It lowers the PH of your soil to increases the yield.

I trench compost all the fish remains after cleaning from the fish I catch over the summer. This year I guess I have buried close to 300# of fish parts in one of my 24'X4' raised beds. That along with the yard of compost, makes one great garden come spring time....

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Great info inda! I guarantee this helps a lot of pepper growers next season including myself! Thank you!

Scott

 

[indaswamp]

BTW, I finished my sriracha yesterday...best batch I've made in a while. I let the peppers turn very very ripe red, almost to the point where the peppers were wrinkling on the vine then I picked and processed them. Money! I will keep doing this from now on as it makes a big difference in the quality of the sauce.

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Sounds light out inda! Wish I could sample it my friend!

Scott

 

[forktender]

Damn, that looks good Scott.
What are those ugly grey and black things on your truck?:D:rolleyes:

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Fork,

We call them sky rats out this way. Lol!

Scott

 

[indaswamp]

Great info inda! I guarantee this helps a lot of pepper growers next season including myself! Thank you!

Scott

Forgot to mention that it takes about a week for the seeds to germinate on the water heater in the bag. The super hot varieties might take a little longer. Doing this will speed germination by a couple weeks for the hot varieties.

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

I’m gonna try this next spring!


Thanks

 

[gruntz13]

I want to try every one of these. I'm really interested in the Cherry bomb . Any chance of sharing that recipe?

Well done

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Gruntz,

I don’t ever write down my quantities. I did two batches of ghost mango sauce this year and they are two totally different colors.

I can tell you cherry bomb ingredients are:

1. A lot of cherry peppers. Probably 4-6 dozen.

2. 3-4 bell peppers

3. 1 whole onion

4. 1/2 dozen or so garlic cloves

5. 1/2 or so habaneros

6. Cherries. I used frozen cherries as I couldn’t find any fresh ones this year.

This is a Sauce I’ve made for 3-4 years now and this is the first year I’ve actually added cherries. The cherries or something else really put a dent in the heat of this sauce. It’s almost non existent. This was the one sauce that disappointed me this year. If I had it to do over again I’d add at least a dozen habaneros, and I wouldn’t cut the seeds out. I’d probably add a few ghost peppers as well.

Good luck with your batch! Add more heat!

Scott

 

[gruntz13]

Thank you much! Can't wait to give this a try.

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Not a problem. Let me know if you have any questions.

Scott

 

[gruntz13]

hillbillyrkstr Sorry to revive an old thread, but I wasn't able to send you a dm. Do you do anything special when bottling the sauces or just boil to clean then add the sauce, close the lid and be done with it?

Well the garden really produced this year and the harvest is over. We had great success with our cucumbers, beans, zucchini, different varieties of leaf lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers, peppers, peppers!!!

I wish I had taken some pics of the garden this year. Probably our best one yet. The tomatoes, leaf lettuce, and beans were enjoyed all summer long. The cucumbers were eaten and turned into a variety of pickles as usual. We pulled and ate a lot of peppers. But we had so many and we were on frost alert last week so I had to pick them quick. That meant it was hot Sauce time!

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to make an easy hot sauce. This is the way we do it around Wonder Dog Ranch every fall.

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Here’s a tray of the hot peppers I pulled the day before the frost. Left hundreds of habos out there. Just didn’t need them. They produced like champs this year.

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The sweet bell and carmine peppers in another tin.


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More bells on the kitchen window ledge.


I did a to many sauces this year and took more pics on some and less on others. You get busy and forget. Sorry about that. I have the most pics of the last Sauce i made this year which I named 13 Ghosts. Because of this place I’m going to use this sauce as the tutorial.

Wonder Dog Ranch 13 Ghosts Hot Sauce:


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Here’s why’s it’s named 13 Ghosts.


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Ghost peppers with seeds removed. I don’t waste a ton of time getting every single seed out. If I miss a few it is what it is.


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Keeping with the 13 theme let’s add 13 habos to the mix.


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Pots starting to look hot.


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Add garlic.


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Add bell peppers.


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Add onions, jalapeños, and a few salsa peppers.


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Cover all ingredients with water and bring to a boil. Boil for about 10-15 minutes on high then bring down to a simmer.

CAUTION: these hotter peppers will turn your home into a police, pepper spray training course! I cannot over emphasize this. If you have kids or anyone who is sensitive to this take it outside and use the grill. After making this sauce my wife complained and coughed for a few days. Tender times at the ranch....


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Simmer until almost all the water is gone. But be careful you don't want to burn on the bottom.


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Put what’s left in the blender. Again be careful with this. Hot in The blender can bad. BE SAFE.


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All blended up.


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Strainer ready.


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Sauce strained.


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Nice smooth sauce.


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Salt, pepper & some honey added.


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Add vinegar and distilled water to reach your desired flavor & consistency.


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Wash & Boil your bottles. I also reheat the sauce in a pan before bottling. It thins it out and helps it to pour better.


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13 Ghost sauce bottled up! These were the last of over 75 bottles I had this year. I made this overly hot, hot sauce just to use them up.


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Bottle labels being printed over at xtreme robs. Rob is out local graphics guy and he can do anything from decals, to shirts. To banners. Thanks a lot rob for the great decals for this years hot sauce!


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Ladies & gentlemen I give you the 2018 hot sauce’s from Wonder Dog Ranch.

We started with Orange Habanero, Peach Habanero, Cherry Bomb, and Ghost Mango.

We used a great pic of Wonder Dog Ranches Hooper the Wonder Dog in Arkansas hunting last January for the hot sauce labels. Here it is:

View attachment 378744
I love this pic of ole hoop! Eyes to the sky! Any duck hunter can tell this dog is all business! Dogs my best friend and it’s killing us both that she tore her acl the day after the fattie contest and lost this years hunting season. For those who want to know she’s doing well, and healing up pretty good.

The Cherry Bomb sauce was cherries, and cherry peppers. The heat got lost durning the process. I think it just wasn’t enough heat with those mild peppers and then adding the vinegar....

Orange Habo is a habanero based sauce with real oranges and some OJ used for the sweetness.


Peach Habo sauce was a Habo based sauce with white flesh peaches used for the sugar. Some honey as well.

Ghost Mango was a ghost pepper sauce that used mangos to offset the heat. It’s not nearly as hot as the “ghost” makes it sound. I really added a lot of mangos to offset the heat.


On the last day of early goose season my buddy Robby, @chocdog , myself, and Wonder Dog Ranches Super Champion Scout limited out in 28 minutes and took this great pic:

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I knew I had to make a special hot sauce for this occasion. So we made Wonder Dog Ranch Limited Out 2018. This sauce was cherry peppers mixed with Habos, and a few ghosts. I believe there’s a bit of molasses in this one as well. No fruit. Just heat for this limited edition sauce. Here’s the label:

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Scout sitting with her retrieves like a champion! This day was worth a special sauce!


No label for the 13 Ghost sauce as I already bothered xtreme rob twice for labels. And the 13 sauce was only a few bottles for a few people I know who like to torture there mouth.

I hope y’all enjoyed this post and I hope it might have taught somebody something. It’s no @Bearcarver tutorial but it’s the best I can do. I think it shows the basics of making hot sauce and I hope it inspires someone who wouldn’t give it a try to jump into it! It’s easy and a great gift!

Quick note: xtreme rob asked me how much I sell this stuff for... told him I always give it away. When we started looking at what I had into it I needed a few more beers. Lol! He said I should sell it. I think that’d take all the fun out of it!


Enjoy SMF,
Scott, Hooper, and Scout