Caribbean Pepper Sauce
Homemade Caribbean Pepper Sauce – The most amazing combination of sweet and spicy flavors that will leave you wanting more.
Happy New Years guys!!! Wishing you all the best for 2016 and may God continue to guide and protect you during this New Year.
Whether you’re a hardened pepper-head or a newcomer to the world of hot pepper sauces, this will take your taste buds for a ride. I can say for sure there isn’t any definitive way of making pepper sauce. Cause each and every person has their own way of making it. Some even have their own secret ingredient, which they will never reveal, even if you offer them your first born child.
Making pepper sauce though is quite easy, the tricky part is getting the right balance of heat and spice, and to tell you the truth it’s based on personal preference and taste…. Mine changes everyday depending on my mood. But the one spice that’s a must for me is garlic. Always have to throw in a few.
This hot pepper sauce here has a tropical and sweet spin to it. Yes, mango and pineapple are used here not only to sweeten things up but also to temper the pepper. If you are a hardened pepper-head then leave it to the chickens like us and leave out the mangoes and pineapple.
What kind of pepper can be used here? Well just about any pepper, in my neck of the woods habanero is fairly common. Available in most major supermarkets, obtaining fresh scotch bonnet pepper is another story. Only a select few carry them and sometimes it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.
I was lucky enough to get a bunch of these on one of my trips to the East Coast – they have them in abundance.
To cook or not to cook? Well again, personal preference. Some say cooking tempers the heat level while others vehemently disagree. Me, I don’t know. I have never conducted a scientific experiment to compare both. Just know if I want to temper the heat I dilute the pepper with more ingredients and leave out the seeds.
Caribbean Pepper Sauce
Ingredients
- 2-4 Habanero or scotch bonnet peppers (as per your spice tolerance)
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- ½ cup fresh fruit Mango or Pineapple
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- ¼ teaspoon cumin spice
- ¼ cup vinegar I used mixture of lime and vinegar
- ½ teaspoon mustard
- 1-2 Tablespoon brown sugar optional
- Salt and white pepper to taste
- Herbs parsley, cilantro, basil, thyme optional
Instructions
Method 1
- Blend scotch bonnet pepper, garlic, fruit and onions in a food processor or blender. Add vinegar to facilitate blending. Then mix in cumin, mustard, white pepper, and brown sugar. Adjust for salt and seasoning. Refrigerate and use when ready.
Method 2
- Add about a table of preferred cooking oil to a medium saucepan followed scotch bonnet pepper, garlic, and onions. Sauté for about 1-2 minutes. Let it cool, place in a blender or food processor together with other ingredients and blend to desired consistency.
- You may return to sauce pan, add about more oil as needed bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes or more
- Adjust for seasoning and salt. Refrigerate and use when ready.
Looking to try this recipe for a class practical exam. For the vinegar is that a white, red wine vinegar?
Hi Amber. If you’re using yellow hot peppers, apple or white vinegar would be better. If using red peppers, red wine vinegar will work. You can also use freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice. Please let me know how your exam goes.
Is that dry mustard in the recipe or the prepared mustard sauce
I used dry, but you can use either. The mustard ramps up the yellow and adds more zing.
Hiya! This is my fav go to recipe for making my pepper sauce! Just a quick question- the herbs you mentioned (basil, thyme etc) must they be fresh or can dried ones also work??
You can definitely use dried herbs. But they’re more concentrated so use half the amount, then taste test to see if you need more.
Very good recipe. I have used 2 Roatan Habanero an 5 Trinidad Perfume using Method 2. Added a few non-crushed allspice while simmerimg and removed them before canning the jars. Exactly my type of hot sauce. 5 Stars from germany!
Yayy, Thank you so much for your love and support. Much love from USA:)
Wow – I really love this recipe. Like…. Loooove! Thank you for sharing!
And thank you for taking the time to leave a message, Karen! Let me know how this turns out for you. Enjoy!
Just made the sauce, I used black pepper instead of white and added black opal basil.One of my first homemade hot sauces. Used it as a rib dip.Yummmmmmm! Makes me glade I decided to grow Jamaican yellow scotch bonnets.
Great! Thanks for the feedback.
Made this recipe as written, doubled the recipe but stayed with 4 habaneros. It was WAY too spicy for my wife and me. Dumped it and started over. Again doubled the recipe but this time used only one habanero. Still very spicy but edible and tasty.
Thank you for sharing, Jim! And I’m sorry it turned out to be too spicy for you and your wife. Please feel free to adjust on the measurements/ingredients to get your preferred spiciness. You can also make sure to remove the seeds and dilute the pepper with more ingredients (method 2). Please share again once you’ve made another one. 🙂
Agreed. Used 4 habaneros and it is insanely spicy. I live near Mexico and eat spicy stuff all the time. Be warned. I’d suggest one or maybe two max.
Thanks for your instructions
Your welcome!
Should I store the jars in the fridge after or are they fine on the counter?
The vinegar helps it last longer, but since the recipe uses fresh ingredients, I’d store it in the fridge. Thanks for trying out the recipe.❤️
I made the pepper sauce. I removed the pepper seeds. I used preparation method 2. The heat is just right for me.
Glad you enjoy it . Thanks
Hey there. Would you say that white pepper is definitely needed versus crushed black pepper? Thanks.
Not really. White pepper has more heat. Either works just fine in this recipe
Hello I’m making the sauce with papaya
Hello,
I’m planning to make this tomorrow. Do you recommend yellow or Dijon mustard? Thanks!!
Hello,
I recommend Dijon mustard.Happy cooking
I made a 4 ounce mason jar of this sauce with a little extra habanero’s this morning and it’s already gone. I’m about to make some more . It’s absolutely tasty and flavorful. Thank you. Your recipes are amazing
Aww.. Thanks So much.
i made this yesterday w Datil Peppers…the party LOVED it. Thanks much!
Yay! Glad it worked out well.
I made this!
I can’t smell, and my sense of taste seems to be duller than that of most people, but I found this recipe to be tasty.
I left out the mango and bulked it out with sweet peppers, a few teaspoons of honey for additional sweetness. Used a mix of 6 scotch bonnet, 3 rocoto and 3 scorpion peppers for heat. Cooked it in a saucepan for ten minutes.
This is my go-to recipe now. Thanks for sharing!
Awesome!! I am so glad this worked out for you, Haggis :)!
I just used this recipe for this hot sauce, and it turned out great, i did make some tweaks after tasting it, as i wanted it a bit sweeter because i used a couple more peppers, i just added 50g more pineapple, and the juice of an entire lime, i didn’t add salt, as quite often i use soy sauce or something similar with my food.
Hi Robbert. Thank you for the tips. Will try them out!
My mouth is watering just reading all o this! I just bought a few datil pepper plants, plus peppers…….
Between u n Chris from carribeanpot.com I’ll def stay inspired and busy in da kitchen!
Blessss up good ppl❤️
This is amazing! I dipped some of the left over mango in it afterwards to test it, so tasty!
I’m addicted to making recipes from this website!
So happy to read this, Danny! Now my mouth is watering after I read mangoes. 😀
Hi from The Netherlands..
I got alot of scotch bonnet peppers (Madame Jeanet peppers) for free. Searched online and found this lovely site and yums looking hot sauce. Had everything on the list. Choose method 1 and Lord did I make it Wayyyy 2 .
Family members that can handle this kind of heat will be gifted the pretty looking, delicious tasting hot sauce tomorrow 🙂
Ps: will definitely make this recipe again. Thnxo.
Yaaay! Glad you love it. =)
Wow…. so, I didn’t make the recipe exactly, as I didn’t have Scotch Bonnets, but I did make it with Fresno peppers and Jalapeno’s. I made the recipe as written with those, the seeds removed from the Fresno’s and left in the Jalapeno, and 1/4 cup of pineapple and mango each. I did the cook method and in the end, threw it in a blender… It’s so good it could be a little hotter and I wouldn’t mind. Next time I will try a Scotch Bonnet maybe added WITH the seeds. This recipe is SUPER AWESOME. After I made it like that, I tripled the recipe and added some ground Allspice and about a tablespoon of fresh ginger. I couldn’t be happier in recipe land than right now. Thank you for sharing this.