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Grow and Make kits provide fun activities for parties or do-it-yourself sessions with family and friends. Founded in 2008, the Portland, Oregon based company teaches you how to make cheese, candles, soap, kombucha, chai, wine, and more.
The Deluxe Hot Sauce Kit is beginner-friendly and designed to teach you the basic skills needed to create your own bottled hot sauce. Our Virginia Home received a kit for a review.
All of the ingredients are in separated packages and clearly labeled with the contents. The hot sauce kit includes a short instruction booklet. The booklet I received had sections with faded ink, so I think the print quality could be improved. I plan to laminate my copy to prevent damage from spills.
Homemade Hot Sauce Kit Supplies & Ingredients
- Instruction Booklet with Recipes
- 6 Glass Hot Sauce Bottles
- 6 Blank Hot Sauce Bottle Labels
- 1 Plastic Funnel
- 1 Pair of Gloves
- Sanitizer Powder
- Distilled White Vinegar
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Dried Peppers (Guajillo, Chipotle, Arbol)
- Seasoning Powder (Cayenne, Ancho, New Mexico Chili, Curry)
- Brown Sugar
You will also need:
Suggested Additions: Canned Tomato, Onions, Garlic, Cilantro, and/or Puréed Carrots
Also, depending on the homemade hot sauce recipe, you may also want to use lemon or lime juice.
You need a blender or food processor to blend the dry and wet ingredients.
Making the Homemade Hot Sauce
Cleaning the Bottles
Prior to making the hot sauce, I used the sanitizing powder to clean the bottles. You need to remove the glue from the tamper seal to prevent it from coming off and floating around your sanitizer solution. (You don’t want it to get inside your bottles.)
Making the Base Hot Sauce
The instructions for making the base sauce are not separated into numbered steps. I found that I needed to read the paragraphs a few times to make sure I didn’t skip anything. The directions with the kit teach the proportions of liquid and dry ingredients as well as the required steps to bottle the sauce. Example ratios for the spices and peppers are suggested to help you make mild or hot sauces. The base hot sauce recipe is for 3 bottles so you will need to adjust the ratios depending on how many bottles you need.
Recipes are also provided for the following blends of homemade hot sauces: Sweet Heat, Louisiana Style, Caribbean Sauce, Chipotle Sauce, Garlic Sauce, and Garden Sauce.
My Homemade Chipotle Hot Sauce
I decided to try the chipotle hot sauce recipe so I can add it to homemade dressing for chicken tenders, salad, and tacos. As I was preparing the ingredients, I was not sure how much water I needed. Concerned that my sauce would be too liquidy, I held off on adding more water until I saw how much the sauce thickened as I boiled it. By adding spices and sugar gradually, I was able to create just the right amount of sweetness and heat for my liking.
The best part of making your own hot sauce is that you can tweak it as you go.
Learning how to make hot sauce at home was a fun experience. I still have several recipes to try and plenty of supplies left after my first batch.
Do you remember the recipe for the chipotle hot sauce? A friend with this kit made it and gifted it to me when he didn’t like it and it was AMAZING so I’d love to make it myself but the kit won’t deliver to my area.