Updated October 2026
How to Make Hot Sauce: Fermented and Canned
Can hot sauce only from a tested recipe. Keep fermented hot sauce in the refrigerator.
For shelf-stable hot sauce, follow a tested recipe exactly, such as the National Center for Home Food Preservation's Cayenne Pepper Sauce (hot pack, pints, boiling water canner 10 minutes at 0 to 1,000 feet and 15 minutes at 1,001 to 6,000 feet). Fermented pepper mash and sauces made from it have no USDA-tested canning method, so refrigerate them and use them within a few weeks. Hot peppers are a low-acid vegetable; tested recipes control the acid.
Fermentation brine calculator
Hot Sauce Ferment Brine Calculator
Enter the weight of your chili peppers and pick a salt strength. The calculator assumes you add water equal to the pepper weight so the chiles sit under brine, then works out the salt across the whole batch. Weigh in grams for accuracy (1 pound is about 454 grams).
For a fridge-stored fermented sauce only; this is not a tested recipe. Use non-iodized canning or pickling salt, weigh it, and keep every piece of chilli under the brine.
Fermented hot sauce (refrigerated)
- Wash and stem the peppers, wearing gloves for habaneros and hotter.
- Weigh the salt from the calculator and dissolve it in non-chlorinated water.
- Pack the peppers in a clean glass jar, pour the brine over, and keep everything under it with a weight.
- Ferment at room temperature, ideally below about 75°F, venting daily unless you use an airlock, for 1 to 3 weeks.
- Blend with some brine and 5% vinegar, bottle, and refrigerate.
Discard any batch with fuzzy mold, slime or a rotten smell. Some online recipes acidify a fermented sauce to a target pH and store it on the shelf; that has not been tested for home use, so we recommend refrigeration.
Canned hot sauce
Choose a tested recipe and change nothing: not the vinegar, the pepper weight or the jar size. NCHFP's Easy Hot Sauce (tomato based, half-pints) processes 10 minutes at 0 to 1,000 feet, 15 minutes up to 6,000 feet and 20 minutes above that. Tested pickled hot peppers are another shelf-stable option.
Oil and peppers
Never store peppers or garlic in oil at room temperature. Refrigerate homemade infused oils and use them within 4 days, or freeze them.
When to make it
Peppers peak in late summer across most of the country. In the South and Southwest they crop for months. Freeze ripe peppers whole after washing and stemming until you have enough for a batch.
See also: Chili Heat Scale and pickling.
Sources we checked (October 2026): National Center for Home Food Preservation: Cayenne Pepper Sauce, Easy Hot Sauce, Pickled Hot Peppers, Freezing Hot Peppers, Freezing Garlic-in-Oil, General Information on Pickling.
Common questions
Can I can fermented hot sauce?
There is no USDA-tested method for canning fermented pepper sauce. Refrigerate it and use it within a few weeks, or make a tested canned recipe instead.
How long do I water bath hot pepper sauce?
NCHFP Cayenne Pepper Sauce: pints 10 minutes at 0 to 1,000 feet and 15 minutes at 1,001 to 6,000 feet.
Is it safe to store peppers in oil?
Only refrigerated for up to 4 days, or frozen.