Some like it HOT
By: Hess Sahlollbey
Are you a hot sauce fanatic? Addicted to that fiery sensation you feel when you take a bite of your favourite spicy dish? Whether it’s a drop of Tabasco on that cheesy slice of pizza or ghost peppers in your stew, most of us like a little bit of kick in our food, yet very few of us have actually thought to make our own hot sauce. Well, I’m about to let you in on a little secret: it’s not very hard.
I will teach you how to make the perfect hot sauce without any fancy equipment — you don’t even need to have any cooking skills.
What you'll need
Hot sauce is arguably the most internationally varied and popular condiment in cooking. So popular that you would be hard pressed to find a diner or restaurant that doesn’t have it in a condiment caddy next to ketchup and salt and pepper.
Brodie Dawson, a Hamilton born and raised entrepreneur, is a global player on the international scene and is carving out a name for himself with his signature line: Dawson's Hot Sauce.
Despite the rabid success of his product among locals and international hot sauce connoisseurs, Dawson had no background in entrepreneurship, or the culinary arts.
Direct contact with skin or eyes will cause discomfort and pain, sometimes lasting up to a few days. Never try to use your hands to pick out seeds either — trust me, it won’t end well.
"When I stopped playing in my band, I got really bored and started picking up weird hobbies and trying stuff out like making my own soap and ChapStick instead of watching TV all night," said Dawson.
This eventually extended to making his own condiments that he shared at barbecues, pool-parties and sharing as gifts around the holidays.
The positive reception from friends and family eventually led to Dawson designing a logo and transitioning from hobbyist to entrepreneur.
After slowly developing his business and refining his hot sauce sense, he began formally selling his sauce in November 2013 with a launch party in Club Absinthe. However that first night would take an unfortunate turn — Dawson's office was broken into later that night and all of his generated revenue was stolen.
Despite a discouraging start, Dawson’s business steadily grew. An industrious and staunch businessman, Dawson is no longer learning on the fly. Purchase orders continue to pile in and his business becomes more efficient.
As things continued to flourish, it dawned on Dawson that his hot sauce company was running parallel to the revivification of the downtown core and the demand for higher quality products. Dawson decided to cold-call local businesses and presenting his product.
His business was gaining momentum, and his sales began to snowball, which lead Dawson's father joining the team and the hiring of additional staff members to handle marketing, packaging and cooking.
While the artisanal and hand-made aspects of the product make for an excellent retail product, the Cannon, an Ottawa Street coffee shop, has incorporated Dawson’s sauces into their menu items. The product has fared well in Ontario, but the largest growth has been in Quebec and in the United States.
Vegan and gluten-free, the sauce is now sold internationally with carriers in three different continents. The inclusion of the sauce on the popular YouTube show “Hot Ones” garnered even more attention. The show features Sean Evans and his celebrity guests eating progressively hotter chicken wings prepared with sauces that get progressively hotter.
"I have been sold out that sauce and consistently backordered since it's been featured on the show. It's really crazy right now especially since it’s been less than a month," said Dawson. The reception of the sauce has been positive amongst hot sauce enthusiasts who actively send feedback and communicate with Dawson.
"With Reddit, people buy it and bring it home and talk about it. It’s really fun to see people responding well," said Dawson.
Hot sauce is now Dawson’s full-time job, and he admits that it has been just as life-consuming as any entrepreneurial venture. But with an avid following of online and local heat enthusiasts, he can continue to explore push the envelope with new peppers, new flavours and new levels of heat.
You need a blender, a small pot and a high pain tolerance.
As students, we don’t always have the time or resources to keep a fully stocked fridge. Fortunately, there’s a lot of flexibility as far as ingredients go.
The first thing one needs to consider is how spicy they want their sauce to be. If you’re a newbie, you don’t want to make something overwhelmingly spicy that you can’t handle — this is why choosing the right pepper is important.
As we’re going for the Caribbean taste, I wouldn’t recommend anything less intense than scotch bonnet peppers. The use of these peppers are good for individuals with a moderate tolerance with spice.
What many people don’t know is that the heat bulk of the capsaicin — the chemical responsible for the heat and pain sensation — is located in the seeds, not the cortex. What does this mean for the weak-hearted? Just take out the seeds if you want to want to make your hot sauce even less spicy. Habaneros are a very popular choice, and a personal favourite of mine, as they perfectly combine a sweet taste with bold heat.
Advanced spice eaters with a high tolerance can add ghost peppers. If you want to punish yourself, go for Trinidad Scorpion or Carolina Reaper peppers. To make a cup (250mL) of hot sauce you only need about twelve peppers in total.
This is a good time to make a very important disclaimer, please read carefully. Hot peppers secrete very irritating compounds and should never be handled without gloves. Direct contact with skin or eyes will cause discomfort and pain, sometimes lasting up to a few days. Never try to use your hands to pick out seeds either — trust me, it won’t end well.
Now that you have your chosen your pepper it’s time to actually make your hot sauce.
What you decide to put in it is up to you but there are a few key ingredients you want to have: two tomatoes, six baby carrots, two crushed garlic cloves and a touch of vegetable oil.
Although you can make great tasting hot sauce with these simple ingredients, you may add the following: half an onion (diced), one tablespoon of brown sugar and some herbs (parsley, basil, thyme).
Making the sauce
Once you’ve got your ingredients chosen, put them all together in a blender or food processor. You may add a quarter of a cup of water to facilitate the blending process, but it should be fairly smooth because of the tomatoes.
Last you want to add in some seasoning; I said you don’t need a fully stocked kitchen to make your hot sauce, so an all purpose seasoning mix should do. Alternatively, you may season with salt, onion powder, black pepper, nutmeg and cumin.
Once you’ve got your pepper sauce paste, transfer it to a small pot and let it simmer for a minimum of 15 minutes. Some argue that cooking it will reduce its level of spiciness, while others vehemently contest this notion. That said, cooking it will definitely give it the smooth taste we’re looking for — just be sure to ventilate the room as some people may have difficulties handling the fumes. If you did want to reduce the heat level, it should be done by diluting the sauce with more tomatoes or removing the seeds.
And there you have it, you made your own hot sauce! Remove the pot from the heat and enjoy your sauce when it comes to a cool — refrigeration may expedite this process. It may take a while to get the proportions just right for your taste, and even longer for you to get used to handling the heat, so have some patience with it.
The key is to embrace the pleasure, and pain, of the process.
Ingredients
-Your choice
of peppers
-2 Tomatoes
-6 Baby carrots
-2 Crushed garlic cloves
-Vegetable oil
Optional
-Half an onion
-1 tbsp Brown sugar
-Herbs
Instructions
- Put all ingredients together in a blender or food processor. (You may also add a quarter of a cup of water).
- Add in some seasoning. You may season with salt, onion powder, black pepper, nutmeg and cumin.
- Once you’ve got your pepper sauce paste, transfer it to a small pot and let it simmer for a minimum of 15 minutes.
- If you did want to reduce the heat level, it should be done by diluting the sauce with more tomatoes or removing the seeds.
- Enjoy the heat!
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