I want to make my own this year. So far I have bought jalapenos,habs,thai,and cayenne peppers for the garden. After searching the web and finding a few websites with recipes and instructions, I think I am more confused than when I started. Pepper mash or whole peppers? Am I better off "canning" any sauce I make? If I don't "can" it, what is the best way to store it?

I didn't ask Ram first, so I hope I'm not in trouble!

You CAN can peppers whole, or mash them up and can them.

If you do not have, or can not improvise, a canner; really should think about refrigerating the peppers.

If your canner is NOT a pressure canner, then you should "pickle" them.

If you canner IS a pressure canner, then you can simply can them in water (or presumably even without water).

For years, I simply made small batches of sauce and kept them refrigerated. More recently, I have begun to pressure can sauces........which is pretty much awesome.

Do you have, or do you plan to procure a canner, and if so, what type?

You CAN can peppers whole, or mash them up and can them.

If you do not have, or can not improvise, a canner; really should think about refrigerating the peppers.

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I guess when I say "mash" them up, I saw a recipe or two that said you can you the liquid from the mash to replace whole peppers. I also read about refrigerating the pepper mash to avoid mold.

If your canner is NOT a pressure canner, then you should "pickle" them.

If you canner IS a pressure canner, then you can simply can them in water (or presumably even without water).

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I don't have a pressure canner. I have to do the boiling water method. Am I better off using a pressure canner?

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For years, I simply made small batches of sauce and kept them refrigerated. More recently, I have begun to pressure can sauces........which is pretty much awesome.

Do you have, or do you plan to procure a canner, and if so, what type?

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As above I have one of the enamel lined containers for "canning or pickling" but not a pressure cooker. I do have experience with making jellys and bbq sauce, so I just figured if I can find one or two recipes that I can work with to understand what it is that I want to do I should be ok. Which I believe it what your said in my other post.

^OK........here is the diff between a pressure canner and a water bath canner (what you have).

A water bath canner can only heat the temp of the can contents to 212F......which is cool for high acid foods; or foods to which you have added acid (pickling). The reason IS that 212F may kill a lot of bacteria but it can not destroy bacterial spores which can "hatch" later. Some very harmful bacteria thrives in an oxygen free low acid environment (like a can of peppers).

A pressure canner is a sealed vessel with a pressure release device that allows you to heat the contents much hotter (up to 260F I think)........it CAN kill the spores which can lead to sickness.

So......in a nutshell......a pressure canner allows you to can just about anything regardless of acid content.

You could can peppers in water; thus preserving as much as the natural flavor as possible (no vinegar, etc added).

With a water bath canner, you HAVE to pickle the peppers......which is no biggie as long as you will be using vinegar in your recipe later.

Gary I have one of the old style pressure ones you can use if Andy thinks it will work for you. It is one of the ones with the weight on the vent.

Andy, have you done much as far as freezing or drying? Which do you recommend?

^weight on vent = pressure canner = SWEET!!!

I like to dry peppers for...well.....dry seasoning, although my recent experiments with a thai style sauce have started with dry peppers.......this requires some time to rehydrate the peppers but is OK I guess.

I have also frozen peppers and they seemed to work well to make sauce later.

Andy,

Thanks for all the good info. I think that my instructor in a food safety class talked about the possibilities of bacteria using the water bath method vs. pressure canning.

Lou,

I might take you up on the use of that pressure canner, but I may be able to convince the "financial secretary" of the need for one!

^if you have culinary tendencies, then you NEED a pressure canner.

Tips for gaining approval while petitioning the war department......

1) You can buy/grow mass veggies when fresh and cheap; can them, and store them for winter use. Pretty cheap, but they are fresher and better for you than tin can veggies.

2) You can make soups, chili, etc........can them for later. I actually "condense" my soups prior to canning by concentrating the stock a little more than usual; i.e. my wedding soup is excessively spiced and salted......but I add water when I reheat it.

3) You can also can meats.......fill a can of pork chunks cooked in tomato sauce, etc...........excellent.

4) It frees up freezer space, AND you don't have to thaw stuff before preparation.

There are also tricks for neat snacks, for example; you can pressure cook unopened cans of condensed milk to make delicious (and expensive) dulce de leche.

RE #5

Lou,

Some peppers freeze better than others. Thin walled peppers like Thai & cayenne peppers freeze well. Habaneros, despite being thin walled, have too high a water content and don't hold up well. Heavy fleshy peppers like jalapenos, serranos, fresnos, cherry and basically all larger peppers - anaheim, pasilia, poblano, etc, pretty much all turn to mush when you thaw them.

I grow a few hundred pepper plants each year, predominately Thai peppers, and for them I freeze them whole after removing the stems. For other peppers, I pulverize them in a blender with vinegar, salt and some powdered citric acid, then freeze the paste.

Jalapenos, serranos and fresnos, I'll wait until they fully ripen to red, and then either pickle them or smoke dry them into chipotles (yes, technically, only smoked red jalapenos are chipotle, but, I have to call the other ones something). I've even smoke dried red and green Thai peppers - you get a very interesting flavor there.

Take handful of these mixed dried smoked peppers, crumble them into a container of mayonnaise, then run a stick blender in it for a few minutes until the pepper pieces are evenly distributed and the mayo takes on a reddish-tan color. Put the lid back on and put it in the refrigerator for a few weeks for the peppers to rehydrate and the flavors to blend.

You can even do this with lite mayo and the peppers completely mask the icky low-fat flavor.

I wish I had the ambition to do this. I love hot sauces and would like to make my own, but just don't have the motivation to acquire the stuff needed and put in the work.

I'm not into the ultimate burn so I tend to avoid habaneros, I just love the flavor, especially the ones with the vinegar bite to them like Tobasco.

I can't hardly eat pizza anymore without spicing it up with some Tobasco or Sriracha.

^what?

you don't have a blender?

I do, but it's the canning part that I'm to lazy for. Plus I don't have a garden.

^you can just put the sauce into condiment jars and refrigerate it.

You can buy fresh peppers in the market.

It is real easy to make a tabasco-style sauce.

1. Put a boatload of peppers in a food processor and chop.

2. Cover them with vinegar, add some salt and boil for a bit (I recommend you do this outside if you're married).

3. Pour it all into a blender and puree.

4. Put it in a jar and let it sit in the fridge for a month.

5. Strain it and bottle it.

I refrigerate but can't see how any organism could exist in this concoction.

Andytv has a method that produces similar results but has about 15 more steps.

^yeah......mine is harder to make.......and therefore better.

Give niteorday a shout. His is the best I have ver had so far. He makes all kinds of varying spice levels also

^ Hopefully he will see this thread

He makes great salsa....dont know about the hot sauce. Ill email him.

I should have read closer. Not sure ifbhedoes the sauce, but his salsa and giarrdinera are amazing.

this is true