Thanksgiving Hot Sauce Recipe

Thanksgiving is just a few days away and I decided to have a little fun with the plethora of peppers I have stored in the freezer. I’ve never really made a holiday-specific sauce prior to this attempt, but a quick search online proved quite valuable in gathering ideas and ingredients. Much like the other sauces shared on this site, this one, too, is fairly simple and easy to make.

Ingredients

• 12 oz bag of cranberries
• your pepper of choice – I went with 5 Carolina Reapers
• ¾ cup porter or stout – I opted for a Devils Backbone Danzig Baltic Porter
• 2 cloves garlic or more depending on your tastes
• ¼ cup light brown sugar

Cooking Instructions

The directions here are pretty darn simple with this sauce. Just toss everything into a properly sized sauce pan and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Once your boil is achieved, reduce the heat to low and simmer — stirring occasionally — for 10 minutes. Just a heads up, the cranberries will pop a little as they heat up. You want your mixture to be fully incorporated and the cranberries and peppers soft for blending.

After the 10 minutes were up, I let the concoction cool a bit before adding to a blender and pureeing until super smooth. The sauce turned out pretty thick and may require a bit more beer be added to bring to your desired consistency. The flavor is spot on for the holiday as it’s dominated by the cranberries as expected. The beer and brown sugar do come through nicely. The heat will vary based on the peppers you add, but this one is a creeper, eventually building to a full sting across the tongue. I can’t wait to slather left-over turkey sandwiches with what we have affectionately dubbed, “The Turkey’s Revenge.”