Hot sauce is kind of like marinara in Italy, or mole in Mexico; everyone’s mom and grandmother have their own recipe, and none are quite the same.
The great majority of hot sauces, however, start with three simple ingredients: chili peppers, vinegar, and salt. These ingredients are cooked together, and then mashed or blended to make a sauce. And voila, you have hot sauce.
Ok, ok, obviously hot sauce flavors and heat can vary greatly. The heat level, or Scoville Heat Unit (SHU), is determined by the type of peppers that are used in the sauce, and the amount of capsaicin that those peppers contain. Capsaicin is the chemical that makes hot peppers hot, and the amount will vary depending on what type of pepper you’re using. The Scoville level assigns a number to the amount of capsaicin that is typically found in a pepper.
Something like a pepperoncini will have 100 to 500 SHU, while a jalapeño typically has 2,500 to 8,000. In comparison, a habanero (which is a standard hot sauce pepper) will have 350,000 to 500,000 SHU, while the infamous Carolina Reaper can top 2,200,000 Scoville units! That’s in the range of pepper spray used by law enforcement.
Not only is heat determined by the pepper that is used, but it can also be impacted by the concentration of peppers. In other words, less vinegar, less secondary ingredients, the more pure pepper being used, the hotter your sauce will be.
Peppers don’t just bring spice to the sauce, they also have their own unique flavor profiles. Jalapeños have a grassy, vegetal flavor, while habaneros have a smokier, earthy flavor. Ghost peppers (bhut jolokia) have sweet, fruity notes, while other peppers like the aji, have citrus notes.
Some of the most common peppers that you’ll see in host sauces are (and this is by no means a comprehensive list): anaheim, poblano, jalapeño, ancho, habanero, serrano, cayenne, Scotch Bonnet, Ghost Pepper (bhut jolokia), peri peri, 7 Pot, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Carolina Reaper, and many more that are cross-breeds, or more regional peppers.
You’re probably familiar with the tangy zing that most hot sauces are known for. But not everyone is a fan of strong vinegar flavors, which are common in certain styles and brands of hot sauces. Louisiana-style sauces (think Tabasco, Frank’s, Crystal, and many others) have very vinegar-forward flavors, with vinegar often the first or second ingredient in the sauce. This makes them a good pairing with fatty or rich foods, like pork, fried foods, and rich stews like gumbos.
But not all hot sauces lean on vinegar. Many new brands are downplaying the sometimes overwhelming flavor of vinegar, which not only lets other flavors shine through, but increases the types of foods that you can pair your sauce with. Many of these sauces are adding citrus fruits or acids, or using more flavorful vinegars, like champagne vinegar, rice wine, or balsamic vinegar.
Aside from flavor, vinegar does contribute one very important component to hot sauce: preservation. Historically the combination of vinegar and salt helped to preserve peppers long after harvest. Today, vinegar and other acids help hot sauces meet the very strict FDA guidelines for specific pH levels, which make bottled hot sauces have a much longer shelf life. It also helps to keep hot sauce from spoiling for months, if not years, after opening. (See our article about refrigerating hot sauce.)
Most hot sauces don’t just stop with the basic three ingredients. Common savory flavor additions include onions, garlic, carrots, bell peppers, tomato, and various spices like cumin, oregano, black pepper, and many more.
As hot sauces have increasingly become artisanal, you’ll see even more inventive ingredients, such as squash, sweet potatoes, black garlic, pumpkin seeds, ginger, and many more.
As you can see, much like any other food, the various recipes for hot sauce are only limited by the maker’s imagination.
Because many types of peppers can have a bitter taste, it’s common for sauce makers to level the flavor by adding sweet ingredients. This can include honey, sugar, molasses, and increasingly, fruits. In some cases, you may not even know that a sauce has fruit, since it’s there to subtly complement the flavor profile, while other sauces use the fruit as the main attraction. Some of these sauces even bill themselves more as dessert sauces, which can be used on ice cream, cream cheese, and other typically sweet dishes.
Many sauce makers are using fruit profiles in conjunction with the peppers, to make spins on Caribbean and Asian classic flavors, harvest and Fall flavors, berry focused sauces, and much more.
Hot sauce is fundamentally a simple product that can easily be made at home. Some peppers, some vinegar, and salt, and you can cut out the overly salty, overly processed stuff you find in most stores. As hot sauce becomes more and more popular, you’ll see even more experimentation and exciting flavors and ingredients that you may not have at home. We always look forward to trying exciting new flavors from our favorite brands.