Red chilli peppers sweet sauce

Surprise surprise .
The only red chilli pepper plant I have has produced about forty , two inch long  red peppers.

Now from past experiences I know I need to wear some decent rubber gloves when harvesting them because of having chilli oil on my hands I went for a pee....  was that warm or what for several hours.

I want to try and make some sweet chilli sauce for splashing on fish , meat  , chips (french fries to you guys over the pond ) or using it as a slight background flavour in curries , stews etc as well as dry some of them for grinding up and making a fiery  tabasco type paste ( AKA ARSON FIRE  ) .

 Do any of you make your own sweet chill sauce or tabasco paste & would you share the recipe please. I'm not after something copy /pasted or printed off the internet unless you have actually made that recipe yourself

 Thanks Plantoid

Plantoid, here's a recipe for the chili sauce I've made in the past, it can be as hot as the peppers used, or mild as mild peppers. The last time I made it, our jalapenos were quite hot.




4 qts. peeled, diced ripe tomatoes (drained somewhat)
1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper
1 quart red wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
2 rounded Tablespoons brown sugar
2 tblsp salt
1 large hot jalapeno chili, minced
2 tsp. ground cloves
2-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2-1/2 tsp. allspice
2 tsp. celery seeds
1 tsp ground Aleppo chili pepper 

Plantoid, Making Tabasco sauce was featured on the TV program "How It's Made." It's a one-of-a-kind, family held secret recipe.

Nonna's recipe for sweet hot sauce sounds close to what you are looking for.

http://www.tabasco.com/tabasco-products/how-its-made/making-original-tabasco-sauce/

This idea of making hot sauce like Tabasco sent me on an internet quest where I found a recipe featured in Bon Appetit where you de-stem and smash the desired peppers, then add 2 tablespoons kosher salt to every pound of pepper mash.  Place pepper mash in clean jar, loosely cap it and let it sit 12 hours to ferment, then strain off  and add 1-1/2 cups distilled vinegar then pour into small jars and let sit a week or so or until you like the flavor.  Now, it appears the McIlhenny folks put the mash in oak barrels for three years, but what kind of oak barrels? New oak or used oak?  If new oak, European or American oak?  If used, who used them first? Winemakers, bourbon makers, other whiskey makers?  Any residual flavors from those barrels would definitely add to the flavors.  A couple of artisan breweries here in Oregon age dark beer in used bourbon barrels, the result is totally delicious (especially McTarnihan's Bourbon Blackwatch).  
My favorite Scotch whiskey is aged in Spanish sherry barrels.  Which would you choose for your hot sauce, Plantoid?  Nonna

Think I'll be using a big Weck preserving glass jar as it is fire proof & free of the demon alcohol fumes & flavours ....  We can't have my wife & munchkin imbibing indirectly can we ?

 So it is left to ferment ..... Now that could be interesting.

We can't?  Perhaps on your side of the pond, but remember: I'm married to a guy the kids and grandkids all call PapaVino.  Nonna

Hold the presses! I found on a favorite site of mine, Wild Fermentation, more information about fermenting peppers for hot sauce.  check it out, see if it would look good in a Weck jar:
http://www.wildfermentation.com/?s=hot+sauce&submit.x=23&submit.y=6

Nonna, I just picked red chilis and red/green bells today. I wonder if if it would make a decent Gringo version of hot sauce . . . Thanks for the recipe.

Sanderson, I'd recommend the Cowboy Chili Sauce (not the hotsauce) for your peppers...just use TAM jalapeños (flavor but no heat) and leave out the Aleppo chilies.  Makes a nice tame chili sauce that you can heat up with real hot sauce, or leave mild for shrimp cocktails.  BTW, TAM stands for Texas A&M university that developed the mild but flavorful TAM jalapeños.  Bon appetite! Nonna

Nonna,
A big Thank you . That recipe looks do-able, I can get it started and pick up an air lock when I'm next in town  .

 Think I'll start it off in a sterilized wine bottle and plug the top with a wine saver type flip over cork or a sterile cotton wool plug till I get the air lock for once the CO2 gets going  it will have the same effect as an air lock for a few days .
Then every day remove the saver plug and pour the contents in to a big clean jug to aerate it and feed the bacteria & replace it in the bottle .

 I suppose what happens in  the wooden barrels is the same process &  the excess liquid evaporates through the wood just like the Angels share of alcohol in  wines & spirits when maturing in wooden barrels  ( About 4% - 8 % per year depending on temperatures ? ) SO.... a small one pint wooden barrel ornament type barrel could be the eventual solution  to a Tabasco type hot chilli sauce .
I must keep and eye out for one on Freecycle  or in a charity shop etc.

Plantoid: Keep us apprised of your progress.  I'm going to try a semi-hot sauce with the fish peppers that have all of sudden produced.  Such a beautiful plant.  Nonna