While learning to sail in Antigua I fell in love with Caribbean style hot sauce!
I have had a life-long obsession with hot sauce. I love, love, love hot sauce.
In college I would make batches of homemade hot sauce and give bottles to my professors as Christmas presents.
When Scott and I went to Antiqua to learn how to sail last year, we stumbled upon “Susie's Hot Sauce”. This stuff is as good as it gets. It's light your A** on fire hot, but the flavor is so great you beg for more. After our 5 bottles of sauce ran out from our trip back home, I became obsessed with finding Susie's recipe.
Suzie's original hot sauce from Antigua.
This was no easy feat. I played around with many combinations until I finally stumbled on a book called “Hot Licks – Great Recipes for making and cooking with hot sauces” by Jennifer Trainer Thompson (affiliate link). It seems the author had stumbled upon Caribbean hot sauces when she was on a sailboat delivery to the British Virgin islands and her boat had motor trouble and she was stuck in the outlying parts of the Bahamas chain. She then, too, became obsessed with this style sauce.
Jennifer, all I can say is “THANK YOU!” for getting stuck in the Bahamas so you could stay long enough to learn this basic hot sauce recipe and enlighten the rest of the world.
This recipe is slightly modified from the original, Jennifer Thompson “West Indian Pepper Sauce”.
Caribbean Hot Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ripe medium mango or papaya the smaller version, use only 1/2 if you use the large kind
- ½ medium yellow onion chopped
- 2 medium garlic cloves
- 1 inch piece of ginger root coarsely chopped
- 5 scotch bonnet of habanero peppers de-stemmed
- ½ tsp. turmeric
- 1 tblsp dry mustard
- pinch of cumin pinch of coriander
- ½ tblsp honey
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup cider vinegar
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Puree ingredients # 1-9 in a blender. Transfer this mixture into a bowl.
- Next bring the vinger, water and salt to boil in a non reactive saucepan. Pour this mixture over the mango mixture and mix well. Allow to cool before putting in bottles.
- Keep the sauce in the refrigerator up to 6 weeks.
If you love hot sauce, try my SMOKED SRIRACHA!
I can’t wait to try out your recipe, sounds so good!
I want a bottle!
And that looks more like falling overboard than sailing??? It’s an awesome shot!
This is a great hot sauce I use for wings!
Your Jerk sauce recipe looks good! I was just in the Caribean and enjoyed a delicious “Jerk Burger” in Ocho Rios. I purchased some Jerk sauce to bring back and design my own grillsport burger recipe that will surpass my Jamaican experience but I might try to use your sauce in the making instead.
Thanks! If love spice- let me know how it turns out. Also, if you like jerk rub, try this recipe http://grillgirl.wpengine.com/2010/11/florida-bbq-associations-ricky-ginsburgs-award-winning-jerk-rub-recipe/
it won the Jamaican jerk festival a few years back and is my friend Ricky Ginsberg’s recipe from hanging out in Jamaica.
Regards,
Robyn
you’re welcome! i have a new hot sauce book coming out next year, to be published by Storey/Workman. Love the photo.
Jennifer,
I love hot sauce and really liked HotLicks so I will be first in line to purchase! 🙂
Thank you for the comment and the recipe! I will link that blog post to your book on amazon!
Cheers,
Robyn
hi. i have been using your hot sauce for a very long time, its the best thing since cavalier rum,here in new york, i cant find it any where,could u tell me where i can find it.
Hi Gordon,
This is a recipe from a cookbook but I think you can buy suzies hotsauce online at one of those hotsauce sites. I”ll see if I can find the site I’ve used in the past and email it to you.
Thanks for the recipe Robyn!
Yes you can buy Susie’s online, just ordered a case of the original. It is one of the best………Bob
http://www.susieshotsauce.com
Tried a variation of this sauce.
Used lime juice instead of vinegar,
Used an inch of fresh grated turmeric
Dejon mustard and
3 teaspoons of molasses added depth of flavour.
All good for a Caribean recipe
Cheers and thanks
Hi Will I Am- I will definitely give your version a try. Oh how I love hotsauce!
OMG I love love love this recipe it is soo delicious and has a perfect amount of heat for me…not too hot but definitely puts my mouth on fire. I can’t stop eating it, but i don’t know what to eat it on, i even dipped my peach in it last night lol. I just love this and will certainly make it again!
I just completed the recipe but with 12 carribean red habaneros from my backyard instead of 5 and, OMG, this is the best hot souce i’ve ever made. Fantastic smooth, butter-like sensation and not so hot, just a bit more of Tabasco sauce. I definitely love it. Thank your sincerely for the recipe, fantastic again over grilled chicken and toasted italian bread.
I tried your recipe — although with homegrown Thai chiles and with a blackened sweet red bell pepper — it was absolutely delicious!! Great recipe!! I tried it again with peaches as mangoes were already out of season and it was even better (although obviously less authentic.) Thank you so much for this treasure of a recipe!!
Hi Suzanne- so glad you enjoyed it. I searched far and wide for this recipe from a cookbook as I was on a search myself!
I was recentky in the USVI and BVI and tried Aunt hatties, a delicious hot sauce made with papaya. Do you know ehere i can get it or do you have a recipe for making something similar? I lived in South America for many years and I have travelled all over Africa and Asia and I love the heat, but I really liked the Caribbean hot sauces the best.
Thanks,
Alan
Alan,
Speak of the devil I’m in the BVI right now. I have a book at home that I believe has a recipe- it was written by a woman when she was living in the BVI on a boat. I’ll get it for you when I get back home to Fla!!
I just busted out my first batch of Caribbean hot sauce, but I used manzano chilli’s (can’t seem to find scotch bonnets in New Zealand) and it is good, I mean really good. Thanks for the recipe. I’ll be doing it again.
I stumbled upon your site while looking for a use for all my habanero peppers. We honeymooned in Antigua and became addicted to Susie’s at our resort and brought a few bottles back with us. I’m excited to experiment at home.
Hi Lane- yes, Susies is the best! If you try this recipe, let me know what you think! 🙂
Hey Robin,
I spent lots of time in Antigua and fell in love with Susue’s as well. I tried your recipe and the sauce was very yellow….maybe it the type of mango I used, what type do you use.
thanks…Steve
Hi Steve-
What were the color of the peppers you used? I use the mangos found in Florida… I think there could be variations on color based on ingredients, -how was the taste?
Its fabulous. I made it according to the recipe severaltimes but once I couldn’t find a mango and I was forced to substitute with a fresh peach…it was amazing!
How long would this sauce last in refrigerator?
I’ve kept mine in the refrigerator at minimum a few months!
Fresh peach sounds like a great swap out!