Southern pepper sauce can kick most any soul food up a notch or two. Skip the tiny grocery store bottle; it is super easy to make your own!

Not to be confused with red colored hot sauce, Southern pepper sauce is a mostly clear brine of vinegar, pepper, and a few optional seasonings. No Southern table is complete without a jar (or two) of this liquid gold. It makes almost any soul food side taste better.

Most Southerners put pepper sauce on peas, beans, and any type of cooked greens. I can’t eat greens without it. In fact, I started making my own after being stranded without pepper sauce one New Year’s Day when stores ran out! I’ve made my own ever since.

Making greens: I have two blogs sharing how I make greens: the old fashioned way and using an Instant Pot. If your new to making greens, check out how easy it is.

I found this perfectly shaped bottle for making a big batch of pepper sauce that looks nice sitting on the counter. Shaped like a milk bottle, the mouth is just wide enough to fit large peppers through.  (I recently saw this exact bottle at Target for roughly the same price as amazon.) Any bottle will work as long as you can fit peppers through the opening and have a way to seal it, whether a lid or cork.

The photo shows the size difference in my store bought pepper sauce vs my homemade version. More than twice the pepper sauce….and in a novel container.

Peppers: I use a mixture of jalapeno peppers and small red peppers~basically a mixture of whatever is available. Since jalapenos are so hot, I add other types to balance the heat.

The good thing about pepper sauce is that once you start to run low, simply add more vinegar. If you eat the peppers (they are great on hot dogs or thrown into chili), simply add new ones to the bottle as you go along.

If you have your own Southern pepper sauce, please share your version~along with pics! I’d love to see all the varieties and how they are bottled. As always, thanks so much for stopping by. Be blessed, and stay savvy!!!

Southern Pepper Sauce

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Ingredients

• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 TB peppercorns (optional)
• enough assorted peppers to fill jar

Instructions

1. Mix together sugar, salt, vinegar, and optional olive oil in a stainless steel saucepan.
2. Cook over medium heat until it begins to boil.
3. Fill jar with peppers and pour hot vinegar mixture over the peppers.
4. Add peppercorns.
5. Seal when not using.