The Saucecode
I’m a big fan of homemade chili-sauces. Here are the recipes I have made so far.
2024
Dried Chilis
Drying them is the easiest way to preserve them in a useful form. I like to cut them in half and put them in a warm and very dry place. In summer they will dry out in a day or two.
Once they are bone dry, they will last forever without refrigeration. Carolina Reapers taste incredible when they are dried. Some people even prefer the taste of dried reapers over fresh ones.
I like to put them in a special herb grinder to easily dose them on my food. The device looks like a pepper grinder but has rotating knifes at the bottom instead of a grinding mill.
Roasted Garlic and Pepper
My personal favorite so far. Goes well with all salty and hearty dishes.
Put a very liberal amount of chilis, it should be unbearably spicy just after preparation. The flavors in this sauce will taste better and better as it matures over a month or two. Also, its spice level will decrease over time.
Preheat an oven to 230 °C
- Onions, skin removed, cut in half
- Garlic! a lot! 2 whole bulbs. Don’t cut, don’t peel!!
- 2x Carrots, peel the skin, cut into thick slices
- 2x Bell peppers, remove stems and seeds. Quarter them.
Put everything on an oven tray or in a casserole, pour some liberal amount of olive oil over it and in the oven it goes.
After 5 - 10 minutes, when things start to fizzle, add the chilis and stir things around a bit:
- 5 - 7 Carolina Reaper chilis. Whole.
Cook it until everything is well roasted. It shall smell a little bit burned. This gives the smokey flavor. Be aware, the air in the kitchen will turn spicy.
When done, take it out of the oven, throw everything in a pot and add:
- White vinegar. 200 - 300 ml. It should appear very sour during cooking. Trust me, the flavors will equalize after a few days.
- 2 tespoons of salt or more
Ginger
Pineapple
Blueberry
2025
Strawberry
An extremely fruity, sweet and spicy sauce. An all time favorite.
Our neighbor had an abundant harvest of strawberries this year. Sometimes it’s difficult to eat them all fresh, so some of them were turned into a Compote for preservation. Some of this Compote was turned into chili sauce.
The Compote is made by boiling the Strawberries with sugar to get a sauce-like consistency.
- Strawberry Compote (300 ml)
- 3 - 5 Carolina Reaper chilis
- A bit of vinegar. The more acidic the sauce is, the better it will preserve.
Fanta
I wasn’t planning to make this sauce taste like a popular soft drink with a very spicy afterglow. But if happy accidents happen, just roll with it :)
- 200 - 400 g peaches from the farmers market. Better if they are very ripe and a bit mushy
- A lot of grated Lemon Zest. Use at least the whole skin of 1 big lemon
- A few leaves of fresh mint
- A tablespoon or 2 of sugar. This sauce must be very sweet.
- The right amount of white vinegar. The more you put, the less sweet the sauce will be, but the better it will preserve. Keep in mind that this sauce tastes amazing when its very sweet, but then it only keeps 1 - 2 weeks in the fridge before it starts to grow mold
- 3 - 5 Carolina Reaper chilis
Put everything in a pot, boil it, add some water if needed. Use an immersion blender to turn it into a sauce. Fill it into sterilized jars. Use boiling water to sterilize the jars.