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
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.
Henk says
Totally off topic but you have a bit of a lookalike....Andrew Rooney from NZ from the Andrew Rooney Drums YT channel lol. Love your channel and website. Making this hot sauce tomorrow! Can hardly wait those 10 weeks 😉
Mike Hultquist says
Haha, hey, that's one good looking dude! I hope you enjoy the sauce, Henk!
Katerina says
Hey Mike can I use frozen peaches for the fermentation? Thanks
Mike Hultquist says
You can do that, yes, Katerina. The other fresh ingredients will help get the fermentation going. Enjoy!
Sheila says
Thinking of trying this recipe with some scotch bonnets gifted to me. Do I need to peel the tomatoes or peach? Thanks!
Mike Hultquist says
Sheila, you don't have to peel them, but you can if you'd like. My blender really obliterates the skins. I DO peel the peaches usually, but not the tomatoes.
Severin says
Hope this turns out well for Christmas!
6 ounces in the recipe sounds like a LOT! Is it really 6 ounces and not 6 peppers? I'm doubling the recipe and the bag of peppers that I bought looks like it could kill a horse. (I'm using Habaneros since I couldn't find Scotch Bonnets at the moment, apparently they have similar spice levels)
Gonna start fermenting tomorrow.
Mike Hultquist says
Thanks, Severin. Yes, I used 6 ounces of peppers. You can scale down as needed, or use fewer peppers. Or, replace some with other peppers. It's very adjustable.
Megan in Ontario says
Made this last year, was afraid to give it as gifts in case it wasn't great. Good thing because it was so good we needed it all. Fermenting lots more right now. My own tomatoes and peppers, local peaches. Next year I will grow my own garlic too. Fairly mild as far as hot sauce goes but nice balanced heat. Super on eggs!
Love your site, Mike!
Mike Hultquist says
Awesome to hear, Megan! I love it! Glad you're enjoying the recipe. A perfect gift!
John says
Need a little help! I’ve made the peach and the mango recipes with Scotch Bonnets from your site. Awesome flavor but no bite. Straight out of the bottle they were comparable to original Tabasco in heat. Once applied to food it completely disappeared. I altered the recipe to 12 habaneros with no difference. What am I missing or doing wrong?? Followed recipe exactly. Please help.
Mike Hultquist says
Sorry to hear, John. Sometimes the cooking process CAN result in a hot sauce that's milder from the original peppers, and the fruits can tame them a bit, but not that much. I'm wondering if there is some issue with the original peppers being used. If you want more immediate heat, you can process the whole batch with a bit of hot chili powder, like cayenne or ghost powder. Let me know how that goes. Or, you can make another batch with superhots, like ghosts or scorpions, then combine the two.
Zuzanna says
do you remove the seeds? the seeds are the most spicy, maybe you should leave some in?
Mike Hultquist says
Zuzanna, the heat is actually in the whitish pepper innards, not the seeds, though the innards do get removed along with the seeds. But yep, coring them will result in much milder sauce.
Sara Elizabeth Murphy says
Greetings! I am the happy beneficiary of a loquat tree that's dripping with ripe fruit right now. I searched your site for recipes that included peach, figured loquat would stand in nicely, and that's how I got to this one. I'm wondering if I could replace both the peach and the tomato in this recipe entirely with loquat. In that event, I might perhaps reduce the amount of honey I add at the end. Do you think there are any down-sides to this? Also, I adore your site and really appreciate you!
Mike Hultquist says
Hi, Sara. Absolutely, you can do that, no problem at all. No downside, really. You can very easily taste and adjust as you go. Glad you're enjoying the site! Let me know how the hot sauce turns out!
Shannon says
How long will these last after putting in jars? Can they be water processed?
Mike Hultquist says
Shannon, this should last a few months, even longer (and shelf stable) when processed in a water bath. However, check the pH first. Shoot for a 3.5 or lower for home preserving.
Chris says
How do you keep the mixture covered by brine. Mine floated to the top when I put the brine in and no matter how much I mix it, there’s still pieces above the brine.
Mike Hultquist says
Chris, I use small glass weights, but you can use a baggie filled with water stuffed into the top. Works great, and is pretty easy to do.
Chris says
Mike, great idea with the bag of water! I couldn’t find a screw top jar big enough, so I’m using a Ball spring top jar with cling wrap under the lid. Hopefully this is enough of a seal.
Mike Hultquist says
Enjoy!!
dave says
I've used a small funnel, the type I use to fill my woozy bottles, turned upside down. The lid holds the funnel down.
Chris says
Would it be possible to use dried reapers in this recipe? I have plenty still from a previous season. Would I need to reconstitute them if I ferment the sauce?
Thanks for a great site 🙂
Mike Hultquist says
Absolutely, Chris. Yep, reconstitute them in hot water. I have a post on this you can check out: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/recipes/how-to-make-hot-sauce-from-dried-peppers/
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.