If you spicy sauces and fermentation, you're going to love this fermented maple hot sauce recipe. It can be hot or mild depending on the peppers you use and comes together with just a few ingredients. Easy to make and cheap, the most expensive ingredient is the time it takes to ferment the peppers. Read on and I'll explain two different ways you can make it.

A small dish of fermented maple hot sauce made with red fresno peppers or red jalapenos. — Fermented maple hot sauce made with red Fresno peppers.

Originally I called this maple sriracha and that's how it will be labeled in my next book. At the end of the day it's just a simple hot sauce made from fermented red fresno peppers and maple syrup. Many grocers carry Fresno peppers, but they can also be special ordered.

The maple syrup is the key ingredient here, and the combination of sweet and hot, with just a pinch of cumin, is a match made in heaven.

How to Make it

There's a few different ways to do this. My preference is vacuum sealing the peppers with salt for ease, but I know some people prefer fermenting in glass so I'm going to cover both methods. Either way is fine.

Grinding the peppers in a food processor saves space for large batches and encourages fermentation, while vacuum sealing is fast and easy. Both methods are shown below.

Different jars of peppers fermenting for hot sauce: mason jars, and a large polycarbonate cambro food container filled with ground peppers, water and salt. — Ground and sliced fermenting peppers. Canning connoisseurs will appreciate the 60's era jar on the right, courtesy of my Grandma.

Whichever method you choose, the first step is to trim and seed the peppers. I go out of my way to source red Fresno peppers for their dependability and consistent flavor, but you can make a similar sauce from any hot pepper. Red jalapenos or cayenne peppers are another option.

A knife on a cutting board showing red Fresno peppers being de-stemmed and seeded before fermenting into hot sauce. — Removing the stems and seeds from the peppers.

Many recipes don't remove the seeds. I like to remove most, but not all of them for textural reasons but there's some personal preference here. One thing to consider is that including all the seeds will increase the heat level. That said, the sauce is still plenty spicy made from seeded peppers.

Option 1: Salted and Vacuum Sealed

The first method is my favorite. Take the trimmed, seeded peppers and weigh them in grams, then add 1% of their weight in kosher salt. One percent salt is pretty standard here, but you can add up to 2%, just keep in mind it will ferment slower the more salt you add.

De-stemmed and seeded red Fresno peppers being weighed in a bowl before adding salt prior to fermenting. — Weighing the peppers.

Mix the peppers with a couple sliced garlic cloves, salt and vacuum seal. Allow the peppers to ferment at room temperature for two weeks. Sidenote: I've also done this with sliced, frozen ramp bulbs instead of garlic.

Vacuum sealed bag full of trimmed red Fresno peppers, salt and garlic clovers fermenting before being used to make hot sauce. — Vacuum sealing the peppers, salt and garlic.

As the peppers ferment the lactobacillus bacteria will create carbon dioxide, causing the bag to inflate. This lets you know the fermentation is active. I've had a 100% success rate using this method.

A vacuum bag filled with fermenting fresno peppers and garlic showing the bag's inflated from carbon dioxide after two weeks. — After a week the bag will be inflated from carbon dioxide.

Option 2: Traditional Pepper Mash

For a more traditional fermentation, you can grind the peppers in a food processor, mix with salt and a splash of water to keep them covered with liquid, then ferment in a clean glass jar.

Using the same weight of peppers, put them in a food processor with the garlic and blend until everything's finely chopped.

Grinding fresh Fresno peppers in a food processor before fermenting into hot sauce. — Grinding the chilis in a food processor.

Put the pepper mash in a jar, adding the water, salt, and stirring to combine.

Adding water to a jar of ground fresno chilis on a scale. — Adding ¼ cup of water to the jar.

A measuring spoon filled with salt hovering over a jar of ground Fresno peppers and water on a scale. — Adding salt to the jar.

Put a lid on the jar and allow to ferment at room temperature. It's important to note that as water from the recipe is added during the fermentation for the jar method, it should be omitted during the final cooking.

A jar of fermenting ground peppers, water and salt showing carbon dioxide bubbles floating through the mixture to show fermentation. — After one hour there's a couple bubbles.

A jar of ground red fresno peppers fermenting in a quart jar. — After 24 hours there should be visible fermentation and the pepper mash will float.

Cooking and Processing the Sauce

After two weeks of fermentation the sauce is ready to process, bottle and store. Empty the contents of the jar or bag into a small, non-reactive pot. Add the maple syrup, cumin, water, and vinegar.

Emptying a jar of fermented peppers and garlic into a pot to cook and make hot sauce. — Empty the peppers into the sauce pot.

A hand holding a small dish showing ground cumin to be added to a pan of hot sauce. — Adding ground cumin to the pan.

Adding maple syrup to a pan of fermented peppers cooking for hot sauce. — Adding maple syrup.

Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for sixty seconds, there's no need to reduce the liquid, all you need to do is soften the peppers.

A pan of fermented peppers, maple syrup and vinegar boiling. — Bring the mixture to a boil before pureeing.

Once the mixture's cooked for a minute or so it's done. Pour the contents into a blender, then carefully puree until nearly smooth.

A top-down image showing fermented red fresno hot sauce being pureed in a vita mix blender. — Puree the sauce until smooth.

Safety note: pureeing hot liquids in a blender is dangerous if there's no way for the pressure to escape. Make sure there's a way for air to release through the lid while pureeing before turning on the blender. Most blenders are designed with a hole in the lid for this purpose.

Finally, taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning. This is a lightly salted sauce, but I will usually add about ½ teaspoon of extra salt to taste after it's been pureed.

A pan of finished, red fresno fermented maple hot sauce. — The sauce should be smooth, season it to taste if needed after pureeing.

As long as it was fermented for a full two weeks the sauce will last for a very long time in the fridge.

A hand holding a small wooden spoon filled with a small amount of fermented maple hot sauce. — A little spoon will do.

I love it on all kinds of things, but especially smoked food. Below is the smoked, pulled bison from my upcoming book, served with sweet potatoes and sweet potato leaves.

Pulled bison with maple hot sauce, sweet potatoes and their leaves.

Fermented maple hot sauce in a small dish with a wooden spoon.

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Fermented Maple Hot Sauce

A simple sriracha-inspired hot sauce made from fermented peppers and maple syrup. Makes about 3 cups

Prep Time15

Cook Time5

Fermenting time14

Total Time14 20

Course: Condiment

Cuisine: American

Keyword: maple hot sauce recipe

Servings: Servings

Calories: 21kcal

Author: Alan Bergo

Cost: 5

Equipment

1 gallon vacuum bag and sealer or a 1 qt mason jar, ideally narrow mouth
1 Blender like a Vitamix
1 3 quart sauce pot ideally stainless steel
1 Spice grinder or mortar and pestle

Ingredients

1 lb red fresno peppers or other hot peppers
½ tsp Kosher salt 1 % of the peppers weight, plus more to taste
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup water
½ tsp cumin seed lightly toasted

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Fermentation

Remove the stems from the peppers and most of the seeds.

Vacuum Sealed Method

Toss with the salt and garlic and vacuum seal. Allow the mixture to ferment at room temperature for two weeks.
I like to ferment the peppers in a warm room where I have a dehydrator going in the summer which helps speed up the process.

Glass Jar Method

Grind the peppers to a paste in a food processor with the garlic.
Transfer the pepper paste to a jar, add the salt and water, stir, screw on a lid and allow to ferment for two weeks.

Cooking and Finishing the Sauce

Toast the cumin seed and grind to a powder.
Pour the fermented pepper-garlic mixture into a non-reactive pan, adding the water, vinegar, and maple syrup.
If you use the ground pepper method you will skip adding the water as it was added prior to fermentation.
Bring the pot to a boil, turn off the heat, then carefully puree the mixture in a blender until smooth-ish.
Pureeing hot sauces can be dangerous as it causes pressure to build in the blender. Make sure there's a way for air to escape through the lid before pureeing so the top doesn't blow off.
Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning for salt. I usually add an additional ½ teaspoon or so.
Transfer the sauce to a jar, cool, and store in the fridge. If it was fermented for the full two weeks it will last a long time. It can likely be water-bath canned but I haven't tried it yet.

Video

Notes

Maple syrup is my first choice for sweetening this sauce, but honey will work fine too. Maple sugar works too, but is more expensive than syrup.
This can be a good recipe for dark maple syrup or syrup of lower quality as it's used as a sweetener instead of all by itself.
To speed up fermentation, you can add a few scrapes of fresh ginger, or a piece of sauerkraut.

Nutrition