Trini Pepper Sauce

Whenever I eat doubles, I have it with some Trini pepper sauce. So, I figured that I should share my recipe for pepper sauce. If you’ve purchased Trini pepper sauce at a grocery store in Canada, you might have noticed that it’s a bit pricey. However, it’s very easy to make and a lot cheaper when you make it yourself.

You can use Trini pepper sauce to season just about any savory food. It tastes great with doubles, off course, but you can also have it with rice, grilled meats, stews, etc.

Before we get to the recipe, I should mention that this Trini pepper sauce has a lot of heat. This recipe calls for 15 scotch bonnet peppers (you can substitute with habanero peppers), which is considered one of the hottest peppers in the world. Scotch bonnet peppers typically range from 100,000 – 350,000 SHUs (Scoville heat units). So, be advised that this sauce is very spicy. I only use small amounts of it at a time.

General Tips for Making Trini Pepper Sauce

It’s a good idea to wear food safe nitrile gloves to handle the scotch bonnet peppers. Do not touch your eyes or nose while handling the peppers. Make sure that you wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after you remove the gloves.

This recipe calls for culantro (typically called chadon beni, pronounced shadow benny, in Trinidad), which is not to be mistaken with cilantro. Culantro/chadon beni has serrated leaves that are long and broad, while cilantro has smaller leaves and looks similar to parsley. Both chadon beni and cilantro are part of the apiaceae family which include parsley and celery. Chadon beni is similar to cilantro in terms of its flavour and aroma. However, chadon beni has a stronger smell and more robust flavour. You can typically find chadon beni/culantro in Caribbean and South American grocery stores. If you can’t find it anywhere, you can substitute it with cilantro.

You can treat this recipe as a base recipe for Trini pepper sauce and customize it to your liking. If you want a milder pepper sauce, you can use less pepper and/or add carrots to make the sauce sweeter/milder. You can also modify the recipe by adding pimento peppers, onions, more lime juice, etc.

Jars/Containers for the Pepper Sauce

The best containers for pepper sauce are glass jars. This is because glass doesn’t react with its contents. So, the vinegar won’t react with a glass container and cause an unpleasant change to the pepper sauce. Make sure that the jar and lid are clean before you use them for the pepper sauce. To clean the jar and lid, wash them in hot, soapy water and rinse thoroughly.

You can also take the extra step to sterilize the jar to prevent food contamination. To do this, fill the jar with hot water and place it in a canner/pot. Place the jar on a rack inside the canner/pot to prevent the jar from cracking when the water boils. A rack with handles (see picture below) will also make it easier to remove the jar from the canner/pot after it has been sterilized.

Fill the canner/pot with hot water until it covers the top of the jar; the water should be about 1 inch above the top of the jar. Place the canner/pot on the stove. Cover the canner/pot with a lid and bring the water to a boil. Once the water starts boiling, set a timer to 10 minutes and let the water boil for 10 minutes.

Use a jar lifter or kitchen tong to remove the sterilized jar from the canner/pot. Drain the water from the jar and it’s ready to be filled with the pepper sauce; use oven safe mittens or a jar lifter when handling the jar.

Note: This recipe only makes enough pepper sauce to fill a 1 pint canning jar. I have 3 jars in the picture above because I sterilized additional jars for other sauces that I was making.

How to Store the Pepper Sauce

Since the pepper sauce has a lot of vinegar, it can be stored outside of the fridge. You can store it in a cupboard or on the counter, just make sure that it’s in a cool, dry place. Also, make sure to not put utensils that haven’t been sterilized into the pepper sauce. If you do, the sauce will likely go bad and you might get sick if you eat it. This is more likely to happen if the pepper sauce is stored outside of the fridge. So, if you’re concerned about food contamination, store the pepper sauce in the fridge. You can also put the pepper sauce in a narrow mouthed jar, so you can just pour it and not have to use utensils.

Alright, let’s get to making the pepper sauce. The recipe is on the printable recipe card below. Enjoy!

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