If you love sweet and spicy you’re going to love this fermented habanero hot sauce recipe! After our previous homemade fermented hot sauce turned out so delicious, we thought it’d be interesting to try making hot sauce with pineapple. Then we kicked up the spice level a notch by using habaneros instead of jalapenos and wow!
We had a homemade fermented hot sauce with tons of flavor and very spicy! 🍍+🌶️=😮
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Fermented Hot Sauce with Fruit
Fermenting hot peppers with fruit creates an amazing mix of unique flavors! Fermented peppers alone are amazing, but add in the sweet taste of fruit and you can make a killer hot sauce that you won’t find at the store.
You can also try flavor experiments of fermented hot sauce with fruits all kinds like pineapples, apples, pears, mango, kiwi, oranges, limes, and many other fruits with great flavor. Or you could try combining fruits or using different parts of the fruit like the zest. Whoah!
Fermented Pineapple Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe
Makes 1 quart mason jar
This homemade fermented hot sauce is a serious level up with its sweet pineapple flavor. We feel like we’re enjoying a special tropical hot sauce every time we taste it! Enjoy on tacos, burritos, and anywhere you love hot sauce. Maybe even get crazy and try it on ice cream?!? Whoah!
Equipment:
- 1 quart Mason Jar
- Wide-mouth leak-proof mason jar lids – for shaking up the jar without leaking
- Fermentation weight <– We love these!
- Fermentation lid <– These silicone lids work well for us
Ingredients for homemade apple jalapeno hot sauce:
- 2 1/2 cups pineapple
- 2 habaneros
- 1/4 onion, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 tsp ginger, minced
- 3 sprigs fresh cilantro
- Salt brine: 1 1/2 cups non-chlorinated water + 1 tsp sea salt
Cut the top and bottom off of a fresh pineapple.
Cut the peel from the outside of the pineapple and quarter the pineapple lengthwise. Once you have it in quarters, it’s easy to slice out the hard core. Don’t throw away the peel and core! Try making a fermented pineapple tepache drink. It’s delicious!
Cut the pineapple fruit into chunks or slices. This is to make it easier to measure and also easier to fit into the jar.
Slice habaneros into quarters and onion into thin slices and layer into jar.
Smash garlic, remove skins and add to jar. Peel ginger and slice into small chunks. The smaller the better since ginger tends to have tough hairlike strands.
Wrap fresh cilantro into a loop and layer on top of the jar.
Mix salt brine mixture and pour into jar to cover ingredients enough to submerge but leave enough headspace for your fermentation weight. You can arrange your ingredients in any way that you like to create pretty layers in the jar.
Add fermentation weight and weigh all ingredients down below the brine. Alternatively at this point, instead of using a fermentation weight, you can also blend the entire contents of the jar and ferment the liquid instead. Your choice! We like seeing the layers and knowing the contents are submerged with a weight.
Add fermentation lid or cover.
Ferment on counter at room temperature from 1 to 3 weeks.
Once fermentation is complete, add all ingredients from jar to blender. Blend until smooth. At this point you can enjoy your hot sauce with the thick pulp like we like to do or strain off pulp using a strainer, cheesecloth, or nut milk bag. Straining the pulp will create a more liquid hot sauce similar to store bought.
Store in the fridge and enjoy often! The flavor tends to degrade after six months or so but should still be perfectly fine if you don’t see any mold and everything is below the brine.
Homemade Pineapple Habanero Hot Sauce – What To Expect During Fermentation
On the first day of fermentation, not much is going to be happening. The ingredients in the jar should still be very bright and vibrant. By day two and three you should start seeing bubbles trapped between the layers.
Alternatively if you blended your ingredients instead, by day two you’ll start seeing the hot pepper mash separating into pulp and liquid. It won’t be as obvious but you’ll also start seeing bubbles forming on top of your ferment.
Your jar will continue fermenting for several days up to a week with lots of bubbles but will probably start slowing down. You’ll also notice the jar getting more cloudy. Once you open the jar and test it, your hot sauce or liquid in the jar should be fairly liquid and not thick.
The aroma will smell nice and tangy and the taste pungent, sweet, and of course very spicy! You can ferment from a week up until a month
Homemade Lacto-Fermented Pineapple Habanero Hot Sauce!
It’s really so good! With a nice sweet and spicy flavor, this homemade fermented hot sauce goes so well on rice bowls, sandwiches, and everywhere else you enjoy a good hot sauce.
If you have any unique ideas for flavor combinations or tried this recipe, let us know how it’s going! Leave a comment below and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Happy fermenting!
This recipe looks fantastic! I’ve been searching for new ways to use fermented pineapple. I can’t wait to try this out! Thank you for sharing!
Your so welcome Brittany! We hope you love it!