How To Ferment And Make Your Own Hot Sauce, Easily

Everybody has their own favorite hot sauce .

Everybody .

The main problem here is that you have to succumb to the overlords of hot sauce , the maker .

But what if you are the maker ?

So hot sauce is great .

But how can you improve on the already delicious flavor of a pepper ?

It's me .

So you already know that the answer is going to be fermentation 100% all the way .

The greatest hot sauce makers in the world usually age their peppers and what they're really trying to say is they're fermenting them and they accumulate all of these extra delicious flavors that weren't initially there that really lift the flavor of the pepper .

It's no longer just a pepper now , just be sure to watch this video all the way to the out because there's going to be a hot sauce surprise and a Q and A and so it's coming , it'll be at the end of this video where the out usually is .

But anyway , let's do this .

Shall we ?

Now , I know for people who might not know fermenting these sounds kind of scary , but the reality is it's super duper easy .

All you're gonna need to do is make a brine .

So to do that , you're going to start with some sort of pepper .

I chose red Fresno chilies .

To me , that's the perfect pepper for this sauce .

Or you can use something like jalapenos or .

So you're gonna start with one and a quarter pounds or 540 g of red Fresno chilies .

And you're just gonna remove all the tops from those , mainly just the stem , then slice them in half lengthwise .

I know this is gonna get obliterated in a blender .

So I'm not gonna waste my time with a bunch of teen tiny little knife cuts .

Let's just , just chunk it up and throw it in there .

Right .

So basically , all you're gonna do is you're gonna place your chilies in a half gallon mason jar and separately , you're gonna mix one and a quarter quarts or 1150 mL of water filtered ideally and 51 g or 3.5 tablespoons of fine sea salt .

Then just pour your brine in the mason jar on top of your vegetables .

It should be enough to cover , weigh the vegetables down so that they're submerged .

Find a way to make sure to keep them submerged under that brine .

Uh I use a little rain , just kind of pushed it down in there and then filled up with water and that kept them underneath , you know , whatever works .

You can also use a plastic bag filled with water and then you're just gonna let it sit at room temperature for anywhere between five days and two weeks .

Now , you may notice a white webby film up here on top of it and this is very different from mold .

This is actually called calm yeast .

It's totally safe .

Mold is fuzzy fuzziness is bad .

So that's how you can tell the difference .

And that's literally it .

That's all you have to do to ferment these just let them sit .

It's very low effort .

You'll also notice the brine started to turn cloudy .

Totally normal .

Don't worry about it .

Now , once your peppers have reached the point where you think that they're ready to go , it's up to your tastes , then you're going to strain them through a mesh strainer or reserving that brine don't throw it away .

And then now is the perfect time for me to show off my new blender .

I'm the proud owner of a Vitami .

You know , this is , this is a live event .

This is a big deal .

OK ?

We'll talk about it later .

OK ?

Maybe the blender Flex was a little premature because it was actually some stuff we have to do first .

So to make this hot sauce , you're gonna take eight cloves of garlic peeled , thinly sliced and you're gonna put it in a small sauce pan with a half a cup of neutral tasting oil like canola oil .

Now , toasting garlic is a very delicate process .

It's very easy to go from delicious to absolutely horrible .

So , I pay close attention .

So over medium low heat , you're just gonna cook this bad boy and let them sort of lightly fry in that oil just until they begin to turn about golden brown .

Don't let them get too brown .

Just a little golden brown , you know , a little , little bit of , little bit .

Then you're just gonna strain that through a fine mesh strainer and reserve the oil and the garlic separately .

So now in a blender top , you're gonna combine all that toasted garlic .

Just your fermented peppers , not the brine , half a cup , plus two tablespoons or 100 and 50 mL of white vinegar and three tablespoons or 42 mL of your pepper's brine .

Then you're just gonna start blending that on high speed .

Now , once it begins to turn a little smooth , you're gonna stream in half of your oil from your toasted garlic .

So you get a little , little bit of toasted garlic oil action .

You know what I'm saying ?

And then a little bit the salt to taste and give it a taste , you know , does it need more vinegar ?

Does it need more salt ?

Ideally , this should be balanced at this point .

But hey , maybe for your taste , you want some more salt and that's it .

Additionally , you can also push this through a or a fine mesh Shrier to get it even more smooth and just cool it down put it in your refrigerator and you've got hot sauce , you have your own lacto , fermented hot sauce .

It really is that easy ?

So , I , I figured I would put my hot sauce to the test by making buffalo wings .

Just sounds right .

So to do that , you're gonna take £2 or one kg of Chicken Wing , two teaspoons or 10 g of baking powder .

A little bit of salt to taste .

Toss that together in a bowl , place it on a baking sheet line with a wire rack and a pro tip place foil on the bottom .

Please .

You , you , you'll thank yourself for it .

Then you're just gonna bake those at 425 degrees Fahrenheit or 218 degrees Celsius .

That's right .

I didn't forget about you for 30 to 40 minutes .

Now , we're not just gonna sit around during that time .

No , no , no .

We're gonna make our buffalo sauce now to do that , you're gonna need 2.5 tablespoons or 35 g of unsalted butter , a quarter cup or 60 mL of hot sauce .

Uh You know , the one that we made two dashes of Worcestershire sauce , that's totally optional .

Half a tablespoon or 10 g of honey and a small pinch of salt to taste .

Then just bring those up over medium heat , stirring often just until it starts to come to a boil , remove it from the heat and well , that's it .

You know , just make sure that you're stirring it sort of MSF together .

And , well , that's , that's actually it , at that point .

I think , you know what to do .

Take a cook chicken wings , put them in a bowl drizzle in all that buffalo sauce .

Toss it together and , well , you're done , you can add a little more salt if you need it .

And that , that's buffalo wings with our own hot sauce .

You know , you can take a very special level of ownership over that .

Now , I know I said that there would be a special out , but before we do that there's one important thing and that is B roll .

Welcome to Hot wings .

Ok .

I'm not gonna do the whole shtick first thing .

I'm sorry about the echo .

I'm working on the audio issue .

I'm working on it and if you hear any passing cars , explosions and , or crashing outside , totally normal .

So I figured since we're making hot sauce , we might as well make hot wings .

I might as well make a hot ones .

Reference hot ones if you're watching , if you're coming to Vidcon hit me up .

But I figured it would make sense to kind of , do you know , an homage to hot ones and do a little bit of A Q and A while .

I eat these hot wings and I guess I'll just start by eating one of these .

Yeah , these are really good .

They're not really spicy though .

This is why buffalo wings aren't really that , that big of a deal .

I'm like a spicier .

This shit is spicy to me it is , I'm white .

You know , I was gonna share these with it .

Is that enough for you ?

OK .

I'll start with the wing .

It's not that bad .

It's really good .

Mm The desert sprout on Instagram asked me , why did you decide to become a chef ?

Were you ever confused about pursuing this line ?

And how did you deal with difficult situations in the kitchen ?

The terminology chef , I don't know how I feel about that .

I don't know that I would technically consider myself a chef typically because to me , a chef is like specifically the chief of a restaurant , it's hard to call myself a chef .

It's considered an honorable title typically reserved for those people .

So that's my thought on it right now .

But I do work in a restaurant as a lead cook .

So there's that I gotta keep the spice in this .

Who there was about two years where I had like no money .

I had no idea what I was doing and it was purely purely based off of just complete and total .

I had to just put faith in , in the craft and just commit it to it .

Uh How do I deal with difficult situations in the kitchen ?

You just do it .

If we're talking about in a professional environment when you're in an actual restaurant , you just do it .

There , there is no questions .

You don't sit there and ponder and complain .

Although there is complaining involved line cooks , I'm talking to you .

Any restaurant that does high volume or does fine dining is gonna understand .

There is no time to fuck around as gary beer .

Chuck would say adjust , you know , I can make these spicier , this chili oil .

Yeah , I'll just ruin my life right now .

Why not ?

It's not chili flakes .

That's Cayenne Ariel Benz .

Where did you learn to film the youtube videos ?

And why did you start the channel ?

Uh , I'm completely self taught in photography and video .

I've been doing food photography since I was like 17 .

I'm 23 now .

Just kind of learned along the way .

Peter mckinnon is amazing .

I learned a lot of good stuff from him .

Just testing .

That's , that's pretty much it .

That's the secret to getting good at most things , in my opinion .

Doing it yourself .

What the hell is this ?

This is hot sauce .

Who's your biggest inspiration from a professional standpoint as a cook or a chef ?

If you want to say that I'm not gonna say it , but they're both very different in the way that they have chosen to do things is Gordon Ramsey and Rene Redzepi of Noma .

Now , Gordon Ramsey , he doesn't really work in restaurants as much .

He's more of a TV personality .

A lot of people don't understand it .

They don't know his background , but a lot of the stuff that he's done is super respectable .

And I love what he does and I love how he's turned into this huge career for himself .

And then Renee Red Zippy , probably one of the most important chefs in the world right now .

You should look them up , best tips to keep kitchen clean and organized .

Well , I'll let the video do the talking , but I have a video for a kitchen organization on my youtube channel and I'll put a link below in the description .

What is your food training been ?

Do you think people need to go to culinary school or can they be successful in the food industry being self taught ?

OK .

This is a big one .

Uh Again , completely self taught .

I've been cooking my , I come from a family that cooks long story short , I've always just driven myself into mastering everything that I can within cooking and baking and all that jazz .

So it has always been my goal to just be like , OK , what else can I learn ?

What else can I learn ?

What else can I learn ?

No formal training whatsoever ?

Uh Do I think that people need culinary school to be successful in the restaurant industry ?

Man , that is a touchy subject .

Obviously , from my experience , I'm gonna say no , you know , some people have gone to culinary school and spent thousands of dollars on it .

I think that that is crazy to spend that amount of money .

But also I understand , I think some people , it could be super , super helpful .

Some people really may need it if they , if they want to like get the , get the one up .

You know , there are plenty of successful chefs that have gone to culinary school .

Plenty , some of the best in the world have gone to culinary school .

So there's nothing wrong with going do .

I think that it's an absolute necessity to be successful in the restaurant industry .

No , honestly , the best place to learn is out on the field , cooking in a restaurant .

There are so many things that they're not going to teach you in culinary school that you're gonna pretty , pretty much purely learn either within a restaurant or through the thousands of repetition within that restaurant .

That's what's actually gonna teach you .

That's what's actually gonna make you good .

Long story short to be good .

It just takes repetition and forcing yourself to learn everything that you can .

I think .

I think that concludes today's video .

So anyway , if you enjoy this video or you learn something , leave a like subscribe and I will see you next week and by next week , I mean , like in a couple of days , I need to figure out a different thing because I'm uploading like twice a week now , except this upload was late .

OK ?

We're done .

I will see you later .