Hot Pepper Vinegar Sauce Recipe
This hot pepper vinegar sauce recipe is so quick and easy to make. It goes perfectly with greens, cornbread, and black eyed peas and many other of your southern favorites.
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An Easy DIY
Out of all the plants that we’ve planted in our garden the past few years, the hot peppers always outshine everything else and produce tons of peppers with basically no upkeep other than watering and a little bit of weeding. Hot Pepper Vinegar Sauce is a super quick and easy way to use the bounty of hot peppers from your garden, or pick up a big batch of peppers from your local farmer’s market if you’re not the gardening type. Either way, it’ll be worth the effort to make!
What Kind of Peppers Can You Use for Pepper Vinegar?
You can use any kind of hot peppers that you have for pepper vinegar sauce but our favorites to use are small peppers. Last year I used tiny Bird Eye peppers for the vinegar that I made and this year I used Tabasco peppers. Eric said the sauce this year made with the Tabasco peppers is the best he’s ever had, even better than store bought! That’s quite a compliment coming from him since he loves condiments and pickled things so much! Each different pepper will give the finished pepper vinegar sauce a unique flavor so you can experiment and see which is your favorite.
A Southern Essential
Hot Pepper Vinegar is a staple of the traditional southern table. It’s the perfect sauce for mustard greens, turnip greens or collard greens. It’s a wonderful compliment to black eyed peas or turnips. So let’s get on to making some!
Hot Pepper Vinegar Ingredients
Your choice of hot pepper, washed and stems cut short or removed
1 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon oil, optional for extra kick
recycled bottles or bottles with a cork – you can find one similar to mine here
NOTE: when handling hot peppers, it’s a wise idea to wear rubber gloves or be sure to scrub your hands VERY well when finished. Hot peppers will leave oils on your hands and burn very badly if you accidentally rub your eye or other sensitive areas. Take it from me, it’s very unpleasant!
Hot Pepper Vinegar Sauce Instructions
- Wash peppers and cut stems short or remove them. Let peppers dry.
- Pack peppers into your bottles.
- In a pot, heat vinegar, sugar, salt, and oil until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved.
- Fill bottles with vinegar making sure to totally cover the peppers.
- Let sit for a few weeks before using to allow the peppers to flavor the vinegar.
Your finished pepper vinegar is shelf stable and can be stored in the pantry.
Hot Pepper Vinegar Sauce
Ingredients
- Your choice of hot pepper, washed and stems cut short or removed
- 1 cup vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon oil, optional for extra kick
- recycled bottles or bottles with a cork
Instructions
- Wash peppers and cut stems short or remove them. Let peppers dry.
- Pack peppers into your bottles.
- In a pot, heat vinegar, sugar, salt, and oil until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved.
- Fill bottles with vinegar making sure to totally cover the peppers.
- Let sit for a few weeks before using to allow the peppers to flavor the vinegar.
Notes
Use Your Pepper Vinegar With These Easy Greens :
Homemade Southern Style Greens
My Favorite Pepper Vinegar Bottles:
17 oz Bottle With Swing Top Stopper
34 oz Swing Top Bottles– Love the look of these!
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Can’t wait to make this once I get hold of some tobasco peppers or grow them, myself, next year! How do you get the old peppers out of these narrow neck bottles when it’s time to replace them?
It can be kind of difficult! If it’s a really tiny opening, a chopstick or something similar can help get the old ones out. You definitely should grow a few bushes! They’ve been super low maintenance and easy to grow in my experience.
Can olive oil be used?
Sorry for the late reply, Carol. Yes, olive oil will work just fine.
Could I add black pepper corns in this recipe and if so when and how much?
I’m sorry for the late reply. I’ve never personally tried but it should definitely be ok to do since vinegar is a preservative basically. I’d just add it into the bottle when i put everything else in.
What kind of peppers? I don’t have a lot of options where I live. If growing my own, what do you recommend?
Tabasco peppers are what is traditionally used, at least here in the south. I’d recommend growing some. They’re really easy to grow. That being said, any spicy pepper should work fine.
Thank you! If I add whole garlic cloves to the jars as well, it will still be shelf stable right?
Yes it should be fine although they could possibly turn a weird color, especially if it’s homegrown.
Great easy recipe. I’m trying the apple cider vinegar so the color may not be as clear and aesthetically pleasing but I’m looking for a more robust flavor… will report back results. In your instructions there was no mention of whether the vinegar should be cooled down before filling jars. I went ahead and filled them hot so it may just speed up the fermenting time?
I’ve not tried it yet, but will do so very soon. There’s some precautionary advice I don’t see in your recipe and many others:
*** Prevent Burns – NEVER pour boiling or extremely hot liquid into glass containers not meant for the purpose of canning and preserving!
My sister poured boiling water into a glass pitcher to make iced tea. The glass shattered causing third degree burns to her abdomen and thighs. Particularly bad was where the hot water heated the zipper and button on her jeans.
****Using only heat resistant glass made for the purpose of canning/pickling/preserving is extremely important to avoid serious injury****
This turned out great! I had so many Tabasco peppers that I didn’t know what to do with and this was the answer. Thank you for sharing this recipe
I’m so glad that you liked it! It’s a wonderful way to use Tabasco peppers. Thank you for the comment, Jessica!
Super easy recipe to get this done. Makes the peppers look really good. Made it from gift of peppers given to us by coworker. Will be used this winter with h our evening meals. I just used half quart canning jars.
Thank you, Lynn! It’ll be so good!!!
No drying required! This recipe uses fresh picked straight off of the bush.
Haven’t tried this yet but was wondering how long it usually stays good on the shelf.
I have some that has been in my pantry for a few years and it’s still good. Basically, the vinegar is being used as a preservative.
Hello,
In your you ingredients you list “1 teaspoon of oil for extra kick”. Please provide the type of oil and explain what kick the oil provides. Also, is there any difference in using apple cider vinegar vs white distilled vinegar? Thank you!
Any kind of liquid vegetable oil should be fine. I used coconut oil (mct oil) because it’s what I had. It helps brings out more of the pepper spice. I’ve never personally heard of using apple cider vinegar for a pepper vinegar. I would think it would give a very different flavor.
I’ve always used apple cider vinegar.
What vinegar is best used?
White or apple cider?
I’m sorry that I’m late replying. I would recommend regular white vinegar.
Where can I buy these bottles with cork tops??
Did you check the one with a cork top that I linked at the bottom? It’s not a clear top like the one I used though. If you want one like the small one I used, you may check places like Hobby Lobby or Michael’s. We were just in Hobby Lobby and saw some similar.