How to Make Tabasco Sauce

Co-authored by Amber Crain

Tabasco sauce is easily made from tabasco chili peppers, vinegar, and salt. The taste of the sauce will vary depending on where the peppers are grown and the quality of the vinegar used. In order to make tabasco sauce, combine the ingredients, cook the sauce, then strain and store the sauce.

Ingredients

1 pound (.45 kg) of fresh tabasco chili peppers
2 cups (474 ml) of vinegar
2 tablespoons of salt

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Combining the Ingredients

1
Choose high quality white vinegar that's been distilled. Since this recipe has so few ingredients, it's important to use the best quality available to you. Avoid off-brand jugs of white vinegar and opt for something quality in a glass bottle. Make sure it's white vinegar that's been distilled.^{[1]
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2
Select fresh, ripened tabasco chili peppers without blemishes. Choose peppers that are bright red and evenly colored. Avoid gnarled and blemished peppers. If your local market doesn't sell tabasco chili peppers, or if you grow other kinds of hot peppers yourself, you can experiment with any of those.^{[2]
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- If you're experimenting with different peppers, choose spicy varieties. Ideally, they should be red, but you can experiment with color, too.
- Good alternative hot peppers candidates are serrano, habanero, and cayenne varieties.
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3
Be careful when handling and chopping hot peppers. If you have sensitive skin, you may want to put on a pair of disposable gloves before you begin. The pepper juice is very strong and can sting your skin. Wash your hands thoroughly after handling the peppers, as well. Avoid touching your eyes and face while handing the peppers.
4
Remove the stems from the peppers. Wash the peppers thoroughly with cold water to remove any dirt or debris. To remove the stems, simply cut off the top of the pepper, including the stem, with a sharp knife.^{[3]
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5
Chop them up by hand or in a food processor. Place all of the peppers, with the stems removed, into a food processor or blender. Turn the machine on and process them until they are roughly chopped.^{[4]
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Research source} If you don't have either of those appliances, you can chop them roughly by hand.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Cooking the Sauce

1
Put the peppers, vinegar, and salt in a sauce pan. Pour the chopped peppers into a medium-sized sauce pan on the stove. Add 2 cups (500 ml) of distilled white vinegar and 2 tablespoons (29.6 ml) of salt. Turn the burner to medium-high.^{[5]
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2
Heat the mixture until it begins to boil. Bring the pepper mixture to a boil and stir regularly to ensure that the peppers do not stick to the bottom of the pan.^{[6]
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3
Let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes. Once the sauce is boiling, turn down the heat to low. Let it simmer for approximately 5 minutes. To ensure that you don’t heat the peppers for too long, set a timer. Remove them from the heat immediately.^{[7]
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- Stir occasionally, but try not to stand right over the sauce pan and breathe deeply. The steam rising from the hot sauce can irritate your lungs and nasal passages.^{[8]
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4
Cool the mixture completely. Turn off the stove and remove the sauce pan from the heat. Cover the mixture loosely and allow it to cool completely before pureeing the sauce.^{[9]
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- Don't move forward with pureeing until the sauce cools. When hot, its consistency is thinner and the final result may end up too thin.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Straining the Pulp and Storing the Sauce

1
Puree the sauce in a blender. Once the peppers have completely cooled, transfer them to a blender. Blend the peppers thoroughly, until they create a pureed liquid sauce.^{[10]
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- You can use a food processor if yours has a puree setting.
2
Pour the sauce into an air-tight container and refrigerate for 2 weeks. Use a funnel to transfer the sauce into a glass jar with an air-tight lid. Seal the jar and store it in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. This will allow the sauce to steep. The seeds in the sauce will make it spicier as it steeps.^{[11]
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3
Strain the mixture. After 2 weeks, remove the sauce from the refrigerator. Pour it through a fine strainer to remove any seeds that are still in the sauce. Make sure to place a bowl or jar under the strainer to catch the sauce as it drips through.^{[12]
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4
Return the sauce to the refrigerator. Once the sauce has been strained, place it into a tightly sealed glass jar or plastic container and return it to the refrigerator.^{[13]
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- Tabasco sauce, if stored in the fridge, can keep for over a year.
- Freezing isn't recommended, since it will alter the flavor and consistency of the sauce.
5
Finished.

Community Q&A

Question

What are the health benefits of Tabasco?

Community Answer

A teaspoon of Tabasco sauce contains 0 calories and 0 grams of fat. The capsaicin it contains can temporarily increase your metabolism, helping you burn more calories.
Question

Can I water-bath can this or can it with a pressure cooker?

Community Answer

You can use your pressure cooker as the large pot if you do not seal the lid. Sealing the lid would build pressure, and you would no longer be water-bath canning.