What Is Hot Sauce Made Of?

If you’re a big hot sauce lover like us, you probably finish off many of your meals with a tasty, bright red sauce. But chances are, you’ve wondered what ingredients are in hot sauce that give it all that spice while making it delicious.

Keep reading, and we’ll explain what hot sauce is made of, which gives it its unique, spicy flavour and long-lasting shelf life.

Pepper Paradise
When browsing through hot sauce bottles in a shop, you’ll notice that the main ingredient in most hot sauces is some type of chilli pepper. While it depends on the brand of hot sauce and the heat level, most hot sauces use chilli peppers for flavouring and heat because they provide a foundation for natural flavours and that powerful spice.

Most commonly, the majority of hot sauce producers will use one of these variations of chilli peppers to make their hot sauce:

Habanero Peppers
Habanero hot sauce tends to be hotter than the others on this list due to the habanero pepper’s Scoville heat ranking, which we’ll explain in a moment.

Jalapeño Peppers
You may know them as either green or red jalapeños. These are the spicy, crunchy peppers usually found in your burrito order.

Chipotle Peppers
Though they’re of the same heat level as jalapeños, chipotle peppers are distinguished by their deeper, bold flavour. Just like the others on this list, chipotle peppers are often considered one of the many types of Mexican chilli peppers due to their Mexican origin.

Cayenne Peppers
Cayenne peppers aren’t as hot as habanero peppers, but they’re far less mild than jalapeños or chipotle peppers!

Not only are they often used in hot sauces, but cayenne peppers are also frequently seen in kitchens and spice cabinets as red pepper powder used in recipes. They are a staple ingredient in Louisiana-style hot sauces and were used in the first American-made hot sauces called “cayenne sauce.”

 

Measuring Heat

Earlier, we mentioned that all peppers have different heat levels specific to their type. All types of peppers, whether they are or aren’t used in hot sauce, have an assigned heat level. This means all hot sauces have an assigned heat level as well. An essential part of understanding the hot sauce you eat is knowing what this heat level is and what it means. Without it, you might find yourself eating something much hotter than expected.

 

The Scoville Scale

If you’ve ever seen advertisements for hot sauce, you might recognise the abbreviation ‘SHU.’ It stands for Scoville Heat Units — the unit of measurement most commonly used to represent different heat levels in chilli peppers and hot sauces.
The Scoville scale ranges from as high as 1.6 million SHU — as seen in one of the hottest peppers in the world, the Carolina Reaper — to something milder like the poblano pepper’s 1,000 to 1,500 SHU. Something lacking any heat, like a bell pepper, ranks at 0 SHU.

But what causes this heat to arise in chilli peppers in the first place, especially when it can come to be as intense as over 1 million SHU?

What Creates the Spice in Chilli Peppers and Hot Sauce?

As we explained, hot sauce gets its heat from the chilli peppers, which are the main ingredient. For chilli peppers themselves, this heat comes from capsaicinoids, the compounds in peppers that create the heat you feel from eating spicy food.

The main capsaicinoid in all peppers is known as capsaicin. It is responsible for the strong physical sensations eating peppers can cause — especially in higher doses. The more capsaicin found in a pepper, the hotter the pepper will be.

Hotter peppers like ghost peppers, which can be ranked at over 1 million SHU, will have much higher amounts of capsaicin than milder peppers like the serrano pepper, which ranges from 10,000 to 20,000 SHU and contains much less capsaicin. Now that we understand where all the spice is coming from in hot sauce, let’s see what goes into creating the rest of the flavours.

What Else Is Hot Sauce Made Of?

When it comes to a hot sauce’s ingredients, recipes always depend on the specific hot sauce and the maker’s intentions regarding flavour. However, there are some common ingredients that many hot sauce producers use to complement the hot peppers and emphasise their heat.

Most hot sauces will use some sort of vinegar to add a sour element of acidity to the sauce. Most commonly, hot sauce makers use either white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or, in some cases, lime juice to create that sour flavour. Some hot sauce producers may also ferment their hot sauce to add a unique flavour profile to the condiment.

Another key ingredient is xanthan gum, a thickening agent added to hot sauces. But don’t worry, xanthan gum is natural and vegan — just like the vast majority of hot sauces. Xanthan gum is also completely plant-based!

Specialised Hot Sauces
Some hot sauce types stand out from others and might not use the same ingredients that most popular hot sauces do.

A Thai hot sauce, Sriracha, is made differently than the Sriracha most Australians may know today. It uses Thai chilli peppers, vinegar, and sugar, which is not common in traditional hot sauces.

We can also note that most hot sauces use fresh chilli peppers as the main ingredient, though some sauces use the less common option of dried and/or smoked chillies. For instance, the New Mexico chilli pepper and the chipotle pepper are both dried chillies often used in hot sauces.

How Can You Make Your Own Hot Sauce?
Here’s something you might not see in traditional cookbooks: how to make your own hot sauce at home. It’s much simpler than you think. It’s relatively easy to make in a food processor or blender.

Here’s an easy hot sauce recipe to try:

First, choose your base pepper. If you’re looking for something mild, maybe try jalapeños, or if you’re a hot sauce aficionado, we’d suggest something hotter like Scotch bonnet peppers.

Simply take the hot chilli peppers of your choice and add them to your blender or food processor. From there, add some vinegar, salt, a bit of water, and perhaps even sugar, all based on your taste preferences, and puree.

There you have it, your very own homemade hot sauce! It’s all up to you how you’d like to create your sauce. Just adjust the ingredients based on your own texture and flavour preferences. Feel free to add any additional ingredients, such as garlic or honey.

Pairing Hot Sauce With Foods
Now that you know what goes into making hot sauce, what about making food with hot sauce? Let’s look at some dishes that go well with hot sauce so you can enjoy your sauce to its fullest potential.

Since so many hot sauces are made with Mexican chilli peppers, the spices and heat in hot sauce go great with Mexican dishes like tacos, huevos rancheros, or chicken taquitos. All of these dishes pair wonderfully with our TRUFF Hot Sauce to bring out those Mexican flavours.

Another classic way to use hot sauce is in buffalo sauce, often used as a topping on buffalo wings. Note that buffalo sauce itself is not considered hot sauce, but it uses hot sauce as its key ingredient alongside butter, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce.

You can try our TRUFFalo™ wings recipe for a taste of buffalo sauce with an added hot sauce kick. It uses our black truffle-infused TRUFF Hot Sauce, though you can also choose our TRUFF White Hot Sauce for a taste of white truffles. Or, for an even hotter version, use our TRUFF Hotter Sauce.

So go ahead and use your new hot sauce knowledge. Make your own, or don’t (your choice!). Just know your ingredients, and we know it’ll be fantastic!