Make Your Own Hot Sauce, Jim Long

I love hot sauce! I annually grow about 3 dozen varieties of hot peppers and turn them into sauces and other hot foods. I’ve been amazed at how many people don’t know the difference between hot sauce - a condiment you use by the drop, and salsa - which is used for dipping chips. Make Your Own Hot Sauce is a collection of my favorite recipes. I’ve also included directions for canning, freezing and fermenting sauces from the peppers you grow. The methods are easy, fun and give you the option of adding as little, or as much, heat as you’d like. I've included the pepper scale, so you can see the various heat levels, known as the Scoville Heat Units scale, for deciding how much heat you want in your sauces.

Hot sauce is not the same thing as salsa. Salsa is a dip, or a topping for foods, while hot sauce is a seasoning, used by the drop to give heat as well as flavor to a wide range of foods. You'll find recipes for easy, mild sauces, as well as tongue-scorching sauces made with ghost and scorpion peppers. You adjust the heat by the kind and amount of peppers you use.