This Easy Homemade Hot Sauce Makes the Perfect Gift

Chile-heads are always searching for new hot sauces to try, which makes them easy to find gifts for. But if you’re looking to knock their socks off in an even more thoughtful way, try whipping up a batch from scratch. It’s a great option for a Father’s Day gift or as a token of your appreciation for a host. But first, you have to learn how to make hot sauce.

This hot sauce recipe includes half of the seeds from Fresno chiles to make a medium­-spicy condiment, but you can customize the heat level by using more or less seeds. You could also use red jalapeños instead of Fresnos. Pro tip: Wear rubber gloves when handling chiles to avoid burning your skin or eyes later on.

The leftover brine is a little cook’s bonus for you: Refrigerate it and use it in marinades, dressings, cocktails, or even on its own as a condiment to spice up soups or braised greens.

Easy Homemade Hot Sauce Recipe

Makes: 1 cup | Total time: 15 minutes, plus 4 days brining

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon table salt for brining
• 8 ounces Fresno chiles, stemmed and halved lengthwise
• 4 ounces (1 cup) coarsely chopped red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  

Instructions

1. Whisk 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon salt together in 4‑cup liquid measuring cup until salt is dissolved. Remove seeds from half of Fresnos. Place Fresnos and bell pepper in 1‑quart Mason jar, pressing peppers firmly into bottom of jar. 
2. Pour brine into jar with peppers, making sure liquid covers peppers. Fill 1‑quart zipper-lock bag with ⅓ cup water, press out air, and seal bag. Place bag of water on top of peppers in jar to keep them submerged in brine. Affix jar lid but only partially tighten, leaving lid loose enough to allow air to escape as mixture ferments. 
3. Let jar sit at room temperature away from direct sunlight for 4 days. Check container daily, skimming residue from surface and ensuring that peppers remain submerged. (After 2 or 3 days, brine will become cloudy and bubbles will rise to surface when jar is moved.) 
4. Drain peppers in fine-mesh strainer, reserving brine for another use, if desired. Process peppers, sugar, and salt in food processor until coarsely pureed, about 1 minute, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add oil and pulse until combined, about 2 pulses. 

How to Gift This

Packaging: Put into a glass jar or a repurposed hot sauce bottle (remove the stopper insert, since this is a chunky sauce). Have some fun — give your hot sauce a name and make customized labels!

Storage: The hot sauce can be refrigerated for about 3 months.

Big-batch it: You can easily scale this up to make multiple gifts; just be sure to use a 1‑quart Mason jar and 1‑quart zipper­lock bag for each batch. I often do this and give the sauce in 4-ounce bottles.

Label it: Homemade hot sauce demands that you come up with a fun name, so I like to give my gifts an equally fun label. Here are some options:

• Buy colorful waterproof labels to write on with permanent marker.
• Use an embossing label maker for a retro touch.
• Several websites allow you to custom-design and order personalized labels for your food gift creations.

Recipe from Food Gifts: 150+ Irresistible Recipes for Crafting Personalized Presents, by America’s Test Kitchen and Elle Simone Scott.