This fermented hot sauce recipe is a delicious and simple hot sauce with a complexity of flavors and beneficial probiotics. Spicy and tangy, it will give any dish a nice kick of heat.
We are no strangers to spicy foods. We absolutely love adding fermented jalapeños to sourdough pizza with a hint of sweetness from some date paste. Or topping tacos with some fermented salsa.
If you like the kick of delicious spicy flavors, you need to make this homemade fermented hot sauce. There is a lovely complex flavor that comes from fermenting your own hot sauce that is much more delicious than anything from the grocery store.
Fermenting the hot peppers in a salt water brine creates beneficial lactic acid bacteria and yeast that adds a delightful tang to the peppers. It is a natural process that creates good bacteria, amazing taste, and the best hot sauces. Regular hot sauce just can’t compete.
The recipe is simple, yet versatile! Use red and yellow bell peppers for lovely color, green peppers, ghost peppers, sweet peppers, hot chilis, or any variety of hot chili pepper you like. Fresno chili peppers are very popular for hot sauce and have a beautiful red color. Jalapeños are another great choice.
This fermented hot sauce recipe is also a great way to use up homegrown peppers from the garden.
Add this delicious and healthy sauce to your favorite dishes. It has a wonderful flavor profile that complements everything from eggs to avocado toast, fajitas, white chicken chili, pizza, pumpkin sheet pan nachos, your favorite Asian-inspired dishes, chili, and so much more.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Healthy and delicious – It’s no secret that fermented foods are good for you. This hot sauce is good for both your gut and your taste buds! Fermented vegetables are the best way to sneak in healthy probiotics. Ferments are full of beneficial bacteria and yeasts.
Versatile – Mix in your favorite flavors. Add cloves of garlic, a little bit of lime juice, even fresh fruit to your hot sauce bottles. You also control the heat level with the peppers you choose.
Makes a great gift – Everyone loves good hot sauce – and a homemade gift! You could gift the final sauce or even make a hot sauce kit with a fermentation vessel full of peppers, an empty hot sauce bottle, and a print-out of step-by-step instructions.
Ingredients
Fresh peppers – I like a combination of Anaheim peppers and yellow hot peppers. If you want the hot sauce of have a vibrant color, choose red, orange, and yellow peppers. If you use chilies, remember that the heat in chilies is found primarily in the ribs, not the seeds. You may want to remove the ribs, as well, if you want a milder hot sauce.
Non-iodized sea salt – Use non-iodized salt for best results. Peppers do better with a 3% saltwater brine solution rather than the typical 2% brine, because peppers are more prone to mold growth.
Filtered or distilled water – I always use my Berkey water filter. City tap water often contains chlorine and bad bacteria which can kill the beneficial bacteria in this ferment.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Tools You May Need
Mason jar or other glass jar – Choose jars that are tall enough to accommodate the size of the peppers.
Kitchen scale – I use a kitchen scale for fermenting vegetables, because it takes out so much of the guesswork and cuts down on food waste from ferments that go south.
Glass fermentation weights – Glass weights help to keep the peppers below the brine in the glass jar.
Pickle Pipes – I love these that turn a regular jar into a fermentation jar and let out carbon dioxide so easily.
Recipe Variations
- Add a lemon twist by adding 1 teaspoons of lemon juice and zest from half a lemon to the blender when you purée the sauce.
- Try roasted garlic hot sauce. Add fresh garlic to the high speed blender when making your sauce.
- Add fresh ginger for another twist.
- Add pink peppercorns and onion powder for even more flavor.
- Add xanthan gum to create a thicker hot sauce.
How to Make Fermented Hot Sauce
Ferment The Peppers
Step 1: Choose which peppers you’d like to ferment. I chose a combination of Anaheim peppers and yellow hot peppers. Fresno and jalapeño are another great choice. Remove stems, slice in half, remove seeds if you wish. Remove the ribs and seeds if you want a milder hot sauce.
Step 2: You will need 3% salt solution of water to have a successful fermentation when fermenting peppers. Using a kitchen scale, weigh your peppers and filtered water (minus the weight of the jar) to determine how much salt you need. Example: If the peppers and water combined weigh 900 grams, then you’ll need to add 27 grams of salt. (900 x .03 = 27). Add one cup of water at a time to cover the peppers, up to about 3 cups. Then add the needed amount of salt for the salt brine.
Step 3: Add a fermentation weight and ensure the peppers below the brine.
Step 4: Seal the jar loosely or use a pickle pipe, to accommodate for bubbles during fermentation. Place in a dark place at room temperature and not in direct sunlight.
How To Make Fermented Hot Sauce
Step 1: Remove the fermented peppers from the jar. Reserve the brine.
Step 2: Roughly chop peppers and combine in a blender with leftover brine from your ferment, vinegar, sugar, and oil.
Step 3: Purée in a high-speed blender or food processor to create a very smooth sauce, and then taste and adjust salt if necessary. This is your opportunity to get creative and add other flavors, such as ginger, fresh garlic, lemon, fresh lime, etc. Pour the strained sauce into the smaller jars and voila!
Tips
- It’s important to keep the peppers submerged in the brine. The easiest way to do this is by using fermentation weights, especially if this is your first time fermenting vegetables.
- Store the jar in a 8×8 baking dish as the peppers ferment to catch any liquid if the fermentation liquid bubbles out of the jar.
- It is a good idea to “burp” the jar once or twice a day to prevent pressure build up. Simply open the lid to allow pressure to release.
- If you choose really hot peppers, be sure not to touch your eyes and wear gloves.
- Store your hot sauce in the refrigerator. After the fermentation process has happened, you want to slow it down by storing it in a cold place. Ferments that go too long are not very tasty and can mold. This will last up to 12 months in the refrigerator. Before using, look for any signs of mold. It should have good color and not have any off-putting smells. If in doubt, toss it out.
Recipe FAQs
It is better on a few different levels. It has more tang and flavor than the non-fermented versions. It’s also better for your health, since it contains gut-healthy probiotics.
No. The spiciness will actually mellow out with age, while other flavors will become more complex.
No. Cooking will destroy all the beneficial bacteria and yeast. Some recipes recommend it, but then you are destroying the part you were waiting for!
Fermenting hot sauce gives it more a more complex, tangy flavor. It also produces good bacteria that are healthy.
Something called Kahm yeast may appear at the top of your ferment. It looks like a white, thin film and it is typical in vegetable ferments. If the brine is cloudy that’s totally normal.
More Fermented Recipes from the Farmhouse
- Water Kefir Soda
- How To Ferment Fruit
- Fermented Garlic
- How To Make Milk Kefir
- How to Make Fermented Carrots
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Fermented Hot Sauce
Ingredients
Fermented Peppers
- Hot peppers – Anaheim, Fresno, jalapeño, or a combination
- Non-iodized salt
- Filtered or distilled water
Hot Sauce Ingredients
- 400 grams fermented hot peppers, approx 4 cups of roughly chopped pepper
- 3-4 tablespoons saved ferment brine , **less is more so that the final product is not too watery
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1-2 teaspoon organic cane sugar
- 4 tablespoons neutral tasting oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Ferment The Peppers
- Choose which peppers you’d like to ferment. I chose a combination of Anaheim peppers and ‘yellow hot’ peppers. Fresno and jalapeño are another great choice.
- Remove stems, slice in half, remove seeds if you wish. Remove the ribs and seeds if you want a milder hot sauce.
- You will need 3% salt solution of water to have a successful fermentation when fermenting peppers. Using a kitchen scale, weigh your peppers and filtered water (minus the weight of the jar) to determine how much salt you need. Example: If the peppers and water combined weigh 900 grams, then you’ll need to add 27 grams of salt. (900 x .03 = 27). Add one cup of water at a time to cover the peppers, up to about 3 cups. Then add the amount of salt needed.
- Add a fermentation weight and ensure the peppers are below the brine.
- Seal the jar loosely or use a pickle pipe, to accommodate for bubbles during fermentation. Place in a dark place at room temperature and not in direct sunlight.
- Taste your ferment after three days to see how it’s progressing. Depending on the temperature of your house, it may take anywhere from three to seven days.
How To Make Fermented Hot Sauce:
- Use a mesh strainer to strain the liquid from the fermented peppers and reserve in another container.
- Roughly chop peppers and combine in a blender with leftover brine from your ferment, vinegar, sugar, and oil.
- Purée in a high-speed blender or food processor to create a very smooth sauce, and then taste and adjust salt if necessary. This is your opportunity to get creative and add other flavors, such as ginger, fresh garlic, lemon, fresh lime, etc.
- Pour the strained sauce into the smaller jars and voila!
Notes
- It’s important to keep the peppers submerged in the brine. The easiest way to do this is by using fermentation weights, especially if this is your first time fermenting vegetables.
- Store the jar in a 8×8 baking dish as the peppers ferment to catch any liquid if the fermentation liquid bubbles out of the jar.
- It is a good idea to “burp” the jar once or twice a day to prevent pressure build up . Simply open the lid to allow pressure to release.
- If you choose really hot peppers, be sure not to touch your eyes and wear gloves.
- Store your hot sauce in the refrigerator. After the fermentation process has happened, you want to slow it down by storing it in a cold place. Ferments that go too long are not very tasty and can mold. This will last up to 12 months in the refrigerator. Before using, look for any signs of mold. It should have good color and not have any off-putting smells. If in doubt, toss it out.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Would love a smokey flavor. Any ideas how to achieve that?
You could smoke the peppers before you ferment them.
What are some names of “yellow hot” peppers?
How much xanthan gum did u add to get the jar of yellow sauce pictured in the swing top bottle?
I have quite a few chili peppers. Does it make sense to ferment in one huge jar, blend, then separate the sauce into smaller jars? How would you store so much sauce? Fridge? Shelf? Canning? I’m brand new to fermentation 😛
This is day 5 ,used Himalayan salt
Made the fermented peppers , but peppers have a bit of white stuff on them . Is that normal, or have I messed up
I’m going to try to make this fermented hot sauce! Sounds delicious and nutritious 🙌
Thank you for all the information on fermenting peppers, it a big help with a great understanding and picture work also. I enjoy your emails and keep up the great work and stay cool.
you’re so welcome! I’m so glad that my content is helpful to you