Peach-Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce features a perfect balance of sweet peaches and fiery scotch bonnet chili peppers! You can drizzle this homemade hot sauce onto chicken, fish, or whatever else your heart desires.
Peach-Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce
If you're new here, welcome! You should know right off the bat that we like to make our own hot sauce recipes here at Chili Pepper Madness, and this peach-scotch bonnet hot sauce just might be a contender for our favorite one of all time. Well, it's at least in the top 5! I don't know if I could ever pick a true favorite.
This is a fermented hot sauce that features the most incredible balance of naturally sweet and spicy flavors. Scotch bonnet peppers have an inherent fruitiness that is complimented by the peaches, making this a truly killer combination.
Drizzle it on anything you want - we've found that chicken and fish pair with it best.
Ingredients in Peach-Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce
- Scotch bonnet peppers
- Tomatoes
- Peach
- Garlic
- Apple cider vinegar
- Honey
- Mustard powder
- Salt
- Ground cardamom (I used green cardamom)
- Black pepper
How to Make Peach-Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce
Chop the veggies and peach. Chop the peppers, tomato, peach and garlic. Pack them into a large jar and leave at least 1 inch of head space. The mixture may rise a bit when fermenting.
Add the brine. Mix 1 quart unchlorinated water with 3 tablespoons of sea salt. Pour just enough of this brine over the mixture to fully submerge it, pressing it down a bit as you go. It's important to keep the mixture covered with brine to avoid spoilage. Check this daily!
Ferment. Screw on the lid and set the jar away from direct sunlight to ferment for at least 1 week. I fermented for 10 weeks. Ideal temperatures are between 55-75°F. The most active fermentation period is between 1-2 weeks, so be sure to monitor it during this time. “Burp” the jars often by unscrewing the lid a bit to let out some of the accumulating gases. Or, use an airlock or membrane for easier fermenting.
Boil, then simmer. After 1-2 weeks, the fermenting activity will diminish and the brine will turn cloudy and taste acidic. When satisfied with your fermenting time, pour the contents, including the brine, into a pot along with the remaining ingredients. Bring to a quick boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Blend. Cool to room temperature, then process with a food processor until nice and smooth.
Enjoy! Pour your scotch bonnet hot sauce into sterilized jars and seal. Refrigerate and enjoy. Tastes even better if you leave it mingle a week or longer.
Recipe Tips & Notes
- You can process this hot sauce. Just be sure to use proper canning/jarring safety procedures.
- Use a good bottle. Here's a link to some bottles I like (affiliate link, my friends!): Swing Top Glass Bottles, 8.5 Ounce - Set of 4. If you like the smaller bottles that most hot sauce makers use, here's another link: Hot Sauce Bottles, 5 Oz - 24 Pack.
- Learn more about how to ferment properly. Check out our page “How to Make Fermented Pepper Mash” for more detailed instructions.
Storage
This peach hot sauce keeps for a few months in the fridge, or even longer. It's all about the acidity. To be technical, target level ph for shelf stable foods is below 4.6 ph, but should probably be lower for home cooks, around 4.0 or so, to account for errors. If you're concerned, add more vinegar to lower the ph. Sauces made with fermented chili peppers will last even longer.
The best ph meters that I recommend are from Thermoworks. Get yourself a ph meter from Thermoworks today. I am a happy affiliate.
Can I make this hot sauce without fermenting?
To make a non-fermented version of this hot sauce recipe, just skip the brine process and start with fresh ingredients. Add everything to a pot but add only a half cup of water or so.
Simmer the ingredients to break them down, then process it. Add a bit more water until you reach the consistency you'd prefer.
Or, reverse the order and process the ingredients first with water to your consistency preference, then simmer the processed sauce.
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #ChiliPepperMadness on Instagram so we can take a look. I always love to see all of your spicy inspirations.
Peach-Scotch Bonnet-Peach Hot Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 ounces Scotch Bonnet peppers chopped
- 1 pound tomatoes chopped
- 1 peach peeled, pitted and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon mustard powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom (I used green cardamom)
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- First, roughly chop the peppers, tomato, peach and garlic. Pack them into a large jar, leaving at least 1 inch of head space. The mixture may rise a bit when fermenting.
- Next, mix 1 quart unchlorinated water with 3 tablespoons sea salt. Pour just enough brine over the mixture to cover it, pressing them down a bit as you go. It is important to keep the mixture covered with brine to avoid spoilage. Check this daily.
- Screw on the lid and set the jar away from direct sunlight to ferment for at least 1 week. I fermented for 10 weeks. Ideal temperatures are between 55-75 degrees F. The most active fermentation period is between 1-2 weeks, so be sure to monitor it during this time. “Burp” the jars often by unscrewing the lid a bit to let out some of the accumulating gases. Or, use an airlock or membrane for easier fermenting. See our page, “How to Make Fermented Pepper Mash”, for further instruction.
- After 1-2 weeks, the fermenting activity will diminish and the brine will turn cloudy and taste acidic.
- When satisfied with your fermenting time, pour the contents, including brine, into a pot along with the remaining ingredients. Bring to a quick boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Cool, then process with a food processor until nice and smooth.
- Pour into sterilized jars and seal. Refrigerate and enjoy. Tastes even better if you leave it mingle a week or longer.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Shelley McLeod says
Hi Mike! I was wondering if I could use canned or frozen peaches. It's not quite peach season yet and our grocery store doesn't have fresh ones yet. Thanks, Shelley
Mike Hultquist says
Hi, Shelley. Yes, frozen will work just fine for this. Let me know how it turns out! Enjoy!
Mal says
I was so excited to find your recipe as I love doing things like this. I have fermented the peppers for two weeks. I found some mold. I also found some white residue at the bottom of the jar after removing the mold, It does not have a rotten smell. Is it still good or do I dump the lot? If it is good then do have to cook the peppers before blending and bottling it or can I leave it raw? This is my first try. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Mike Hultquist says
Hi, Mal. It's hard to say, as some people are OK with scraping a bit of mold from the top, as long as it hasn't affected your batch. White residue in the bottom likely isn't mold, but this is a case where it's best to trust your eyes and nose. Any fuzzy growth is bad, as is a bad/rotten smell, even slightly.