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.
- 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
Tom says
Finally made the Peach-Scotch Bonnet hot sauce. It is a hit especially with those in my family who love hot sauce. "Best hot sauce I have ever tasted" was my son's comment. I am a bit of a coward when it comes to hot spicy sauces however this one is really, really good.
I should have read the recipe better. I fermented the scotch bonnet peppers only for over ten weeks. Then I added the rest of the ingredients (unfermented) afterward. This obviously worked well too. No fresh peaches available so I used canned peaches. I also substituted cinnamon and nutmeg (half and half) in for the cardamon. I cooked it outside in a SS camping pot and camp cook stove just to prevent any accidental release of fumes in the house. This worked well.
Love the sauce. Thank you for the recipe.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Excellent, Tom. 10 weeks is plenty of time for fermentation. Super happy you enjoyed how it turned out! I love to hear it. Thanks for sharing your comments! I greatly appreciate it.
Bigfoot says
I can't comment on the sauce yet because I just got everything into the fermenting vessel. Being my first sauce I underestimated the volume of the ingredients and could not get everything to fit into my mason jar. I transferred the ingredients to my food processor, chopped everything up, added 3% sea salt by weight and put it back into the jar to start fermenting. I'll update in about 4 weeks once I've let the lacto do it thing and I get to taste this sauce! Also, I had to use habaneros because that's all I had available to me.
Thank you for taking so much time to create this amazing site!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Best of luck, and enjoy!
Hardeep Chowdhary says
Hi Mike, I have 2 versions fermenting and both smell phenomenal. They're 8 weeks in. I've done some experimentation as well and I've noticed some batches aren't as cloudy as others, even though they've got almost exact same ingredients. Has that happened to you?
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Hardeep, yes, there are many factors that go into the fermenting process. It's pretty normal, though. Some brines will become cloudier than others.
Kelsey says
Hey Mike! Awesome site, recipes, guidance and inspiration. I’m always learning....
Comment regarding your recipe for fermentation:
Once fermented - the sauce is pretty much ‘bombproof’ (ph, salt and dominant bacto)....
My question is:
Once brought to a boil - much of the freed up and available nutrients (vitamins and lacto flora) are temperature destroyed with boiling, no?
Better to not boil or can it?
I’ve been successfully (mostly hahaha) fermenting lots of stuff for a long time (everything from veg to meat) but always know that I need to learn more.
Thanks for doing what you do!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
You are correct about the boiling, Kelsey. You don't have to boil it if you don't want to. Just store in the refrigerator. You may need to burp your container, though. Or can it.
Hardeep Chowdhary says
Hi Mike, I'm making a version with the chocolate habaneros I grew and some peaches from the market. I had question about the fermentation. I used quart of water with salt for brine like you suggested. I put ingredients in the jar and then added the brine, but only used half the brine; all the ingredients are completely submerged. I used a 64oz jar for fermenting. I'm wondering if that's enough brine for the fermentation since it's covered, but only has half the brine amount. Thanks
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Hardeep, as long as the peppers are completely submerged, that is all you need. You can save the extra brine for another batch, or discard it.
Tim says
Hi again Mike,
Thanks for your last response.
Well, things look really good so far. I have continued to burp the jars every couple days. There seems to be a new yeast film on top but not as much as the first one, but no more mold.
When I smell the ferment it smells like alcohol. Is that what it should smell like? It doesn’t smell rotten or anything putrid like. First time doing this So I am that it turns out.
Thanks again!
Tim
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Tim, you're most likely smelling the sour smell of the ferment, which is common in fermenting. As long as it doesn't smell or taste bad or off.
Tim K. says
Hi there,
I made this peach hot sauce. It’s fermenting nicely, but I noticed a skin on top that had a few spots of mold. I was able to remove the skin and dispose of it. Is the sauce no good anymore? Do I need to start over?
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Tim, you can usually skim things off of the top, but if you have mold inside the ferment, that's not good. Trust your nose. If it smells rotten or bad, I would dump it, but if things smell okay, you're probably fine.
laurie says
The recipe looks great. I think I'll do it tomorrow. I wonder though why you cook it at the end? Fermenting makes it probiotic, but when you cook it, it's no longer probiotic. Why not just bottle it and put it in the fridge?
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Laurie, you don't have to cook it at the end. I do so so stop the fermentation process, but you can skip it to keep the probiotic benefits. Just keep it refrigerated, but you may need to burp the bottle/jar on occasion.
Cindy Potter says
I don’t have enough ripe habañeros, but tons of serranos. Do you think it would be okay to add them to the habeñeros to make the 6oz.? Also, for jar size does it make a difference using pint size jars or quart size? Is one size better than another? Thanks.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Hi, Cindy. Yes, you can make this with serranos. No problem. You'll get a different final flavor and color, but it will still be quite delicious. The jar size doesn't matter, as long as you can fit the sauce! Let me know how it turns out for you.
Dan says
How big of a jar do you need to ferment in? I'd like to double the batch. Think I can fit it in a 32oz Ball Jar?
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Dan, you can fit quite a lot in a 32 ounce Ball jar. That's a good size.
Josh says
Hi,
I really want to make this recipe, currently I only have dried Scotch Bonnets?
Will these work if I hydrate them, and do I need to adjust the amount I use?
Thank you!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Hey, Josh. Yep, you can absolutely use dried pods. Dried pods are typically 1/4 the weight of fresh. I have a link on how to make hot sauce from dried pods that you can check out. Let me know if this helps: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/recipes/how-to-make-hot-sauce-from-dried-peppers/
Stephen says
Hi Mike. I'm very excited to try this recipe out, thanks so much for sharing. So if I'm using dried pods I would use 1.5 ounces (6oz / 4) of the dried scotch bonnet pods?
Mike Hultquist says
Yes, should be good, Stephen. Enjoy!
Andrew S says
If the mash rises am I supposed push it back down? I've done one batch of this and as it fermented it would rise to the top, I pushed it back down but I worried about contaminating the jars.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Andrew, yes, the mash needs to be below the water. The best thing to do is use some sort of weight to keep it all down, like a baggie filled with water. Try chopping the peppers larger next time if the bits keep rising above the surface. You do run risk of contamination each time you open the jar, yes, so be quick and use best cleanliness practices. Let me know how it goes.
Jessica C O'Malley says
Hi Mike,
My first time try to ferment. I did have a bit of the yeast growth, not much. My veggies were soft (color is good, though) and there is definitely an odor. I don't know if I'd describe it as bad, but it is pungent. Has my ferment gone bad?
Thank you for the help and inspiring recipes.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Hi, Jessica. It probably did not go bad. The smell can be pungent and a bit sour, and the peppers do soften in the brine. You'll know it has gone bad if you notice fuzzy mold growth and/or if you notice a fetid odor. Just beware of those signs of rot or infection.
Jessica C O'Malley says
Thank you for your response. Mine came out a little thin so I reduced down. I didn't have ground cardamon so used 3 pods and strained my sauce before bottling. Flavor is really nice, balanced, not too hot. Beautiful color. Looking forward to trying it again after a week or so. Thanks again.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Great, Jessica! Glad you're enjoying it! I appreciate the comments.