Some Like It Hot

And that's me.

I admit it.

I'm a Pepperhead.

Now, I'm not into the extreme heat like some folks enjoy, but I do like a lil' sweat on the brow.

So much so that I attempt to make my own hot sauce. Pull on your flame retardant suit and follow along.

First, I grow my own peppers:

Then I harvest them, wash them, and prepare them for sauce time:

This time I used a mix of jalapenos, serranos, and habaneros:

The habs are the hot ones (hence the gloves):

All of that white membrane contains the capsaicin, which is what causes the heat. The seeds are hot as well, but it's their proximity to the membrane that lends them their heat. Remember, capsaicin is the main ingredient in pepper spray. Yum!

Here's a pic of some habs in different levels of ripeness:

And here's a beauty of a jalapeno:

And a big bowl of hotness:


All the trimmings. Even the parts I can't use are pretty:

The next step is to boil the peppers in a bath of vinegar and salt:


This is when you wish you had more windows in your kitchen:


It's quite caustic. And the next step may be even more so....the blender:


Oh yeah, we can't forget the carrots:

And the final product:

I ended up with about 7 quarts of hot sauce. Enough to strip the paint off of a really big building. And it's yummy!