Strawberry Hot Sauce (2024)

Today we’re preparing a decadent strawberry hot sauce. Sweet, spicy, and pleasantly thick, this sauce is great on beef or pork, or even as a rub for poultry or ribs.

As a nice bonus, it’s super easy to make, so without further introduction, let’s dive right in.

1) So simple. This recipe really boils down to simmering some ingredients in a pan, and then letting it cool before processing it in the blender. It really is just that simple.

2) It keeps. Today’s sauce keeps in the fridge for several weeks, meaning you can make this ahead of time, and use it at your leisure.

3) It’s delicious. Sweet, spicy, and decadently thick, today’s hot sauce combines all the beloved flavors of a traditional hot sauce, with all of the richness and complexity of your favorite BBQ sauces.

1) Preserves, Jam, or Jelly? For this recipe, preserves are a must. The reason comes down to how these three different items are made. Jelly is made from (thoroughly) strained fruit juice, which is then combined with copious amounts of sugar, and usually some kind of thickener, such as pectin. When heated, this combination of ingredients returns to its naturally liquid form. Not fun. Jam is thicker than jelly, being made from fruit juice, either chopped fruit or fruit puree, along with lots of sugar. Thickeners are also ‘usually’ present, although most commercially produced jams are intended to be looser than jelly. Preserves, by contrast, are made with large chunks of fruit, or whole fruit in the case of berry preserves, which are then cooked in sugar before being bottled. Naturally, the preserves will cook down to a reduction, whereas jelly will liquify, and jam will ‘mostly’ liquify.

2) The Onion. We’re using red onion purely because I didn’t want to alter the color of the sauce. Also, I think red onions strike a nice balance between the oniony astringency of, say, white onions, and the fruit-like sweetness of sweet onions.

3) The Habanero. This is where the spice in today’s hot sauce is coming from. Habaneros are considered quite hot, scoring between 100,000-350,000 units on the Scoville heat scale. For reference, cayenne pepper is considered to be moderately hot, earning a mere 25,000-50,000 units, while jalapenos max out at around 10,000 units. As such, if you swap out today’s one habanero for one jalapeno, this sauce will go from pleasantly spicy to ‘very’ sweet – but this is purely preference.

Substitutes: Naturally, heat preferences vary, so you can of course consider either halving the habanero, or swapping it out for a less fiery pepper. This all down to preference.

4) The Vinegar – Why it’s all the same unless it’s Balsamic. There are a lot of different types of vinegar out there. There’s rice vinegar, malt vinegar, distilled white vinegar, white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, champagne vinegar (yes, that’s a thing), truffle vinegar (also a thing), plum vinegar (no, I’m not making that up), and the list goes on almost indefinitely. Indeed, there are literal textbooks devoted to outlining the shockingly nuanced differences between vinegars. That said, you might be surprised to learn that all vinegar is essentially just fermented ethanol (except for Balsamic), and that vinegar in general is used almost solely to add acidity to a recipe (except for Balsamic, which has myriad uses, and isn’t all that acidic anyway), or as a preservative and/or base for pickling (except for Balsamic, which has no such preservative properties). Shockingly – or not – the amount of variance between vinegars in terms of taste and texture is astoundingly negligible (except for Balsamic). In terms of texture, it’s worth noting that the consistency of almost all vinegars is roughly that of water (except for Balsamic, which ranges from only slightly viscous to syrupy). However, there have to be ‘some’ differences, right? Yes, but those differences are ‘very’ nuanced, and usually come down to the flavor of the base item from which the vinegar was produced. For example, plum vinegar will (shockingly) have a slight hint of plum in the background, and may contain plum pulp depending on whether or not the vinegar was strained. However, these flavors are often overpowered by the sheer acidity of the vinegar itself, and rarely if ever come through all that powerfully in the recipe into which these vinegars are being added. Naturally, these subtle differences ‘can’ shine through in raw recipes, or where there aren’t many other competing flavors – such as salad dressings, spreads, or dips.

Why we’re using Balsamic Vinegar: Because quality balsamic vinegar boasts a variety of rich flavors ranging from notes of chocolate and molasses, to things like cherry, fig, and prune. Higher quality balsamic vinegars will also have wood notes from the barrels it was aged in. Also, balsamic vinegar is ‘not’ acidic, but rather has a subtle tartness. These are all intensely desirable qualities in today’s sauce. As such, a few tablespoons of decent balsamic will add a nice hint of complexity to today’s sauce.

1) Ribs. Today’s sauce works excellent as a rub for ribs, or as a dipping sauce. I would use it in the same way I would a regular wet rub. Simply rub the ribs down, and then either roast them in the oven or grill them on the barbecue. For an example of a similarly sweet wet rub, see my Blueberry Spar Ribs.

2) Fried Chicken. As we’re doing today, the sauce is ideally paired with fried foods. Think onion rings, fried chicken, or even fried pork chops. If you want to pair today’s hot sauce with similarly hot fried chicken, see my recipe for Cajun Fried Chicken. Furthermore, it's a delicious on next-day sandwiches 😉

3) Beef. Whether you pan searing a steak in butter and rosemary, or grilling it on the barbecue, today’s sauce would pair deliciously.

4) Pork. Grilled pork chops, or roasted pork tenderloin, paired with this hot sauce, is a match made in heaven.

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