Pepper Master Ed Currie Tries to Make The World's Hottest Hot Sauce

I'm having a hard time breathing.

Excuse me.

[upbeat music]

I'm smoking Ed Currie.

I'm a professional hot sauce maker and pepper breeder

and today we're gonna make the world's hottest hot sauce.

So the pepper I'm using in this sauce today is pepper X,

and for those of you who don't know,

it's one of the line of peppers I've bred

after we announced the Carolina Reaper.

Pepper X is approximately two times hotter

than the low average on the Carolina Reaper.

It's not for the fainter heart.

Eating straight pepper X will make you vomit.

This is going to be naturally one of the world's

hottest hot sauces.

The pepper in here is approximately

3.5 million Scoville heat units.

The pepper in here, somewhere between 2.5

and 2.8 million Scoville units.

Once we add vinegar,

there's a dilution factor that comes in.

We are gonna use pepper powder and pepper oil

to kick it way back up again.

So the first one we're gonna use is the puree pepper X.

I put this through the puree back in our other kitchen

because I didn't wanna kill everybody here on the set.

This puree is very thick.

This is nothing but pureed peppers.

It is beautiful.

Just that aroma.

That aroma from the peppers is unbelievable.

This is somewhere between 750

and 800 peppers ground down into this.

This one is our mean green mash.

It is 80% pepper X, 20% vinegar.

The floral tones from the pepper X

in the puree are overpowering.

The green has more of a earthy tone to it.

It tastes more like home cooking flavor.

It gives you much more versatility.

The next thing we're gonna do

is add some vinegar for acidity.

We're using 80% pepper and 20% vinegar.

This vinegar will bring the pH of the hot sauce down

and once you get it below 4.2,

it'll inhibit the growth of bacteria,

that mold that could really hurt you

and damage your hot sauce.

I like to use an immersion blender.

[immersion blender blending]

You just give everything a stir.

The two have blended and that deep dark

almost mustard color that comes from the pepper X

and the green from this has given it kind of a lighter tone.

It looks more like a tan mud now.

I'm really scared,

but I gotta give it a taste.

See how it goes.

When you're tasting super hots,

don't put the spoon in like a normal spoon

and pull it outta your mouth.

What that's gonna do

is pull that capsaicin back on your lips.

You don't want those lips going, Oh boof.

So what you do, put the spoon in your mouth,

flip it upside down, then pull it out,

and the tongue in the roof of your mouth

take care of all the rest.

Whew.

That's brutal.

I think for what we're gonna be doing,

we're gonna need to add a little more vinegar to it.

I think we're done with the pepper though.

[Producer] Are you okay?

Yeah, gimme a sec.

[Producer] Okay.

That's [beep] brutal.

Excuse me.

We talked about acidifying the product.

You can also acidify using citrus.

You just have to use a whole lot more of it

than you do vinegar.

But the lime enhances the flavor of the hot sauce

and it plays a little trick on the body

and also accelerates the reaction we perceive as heat.

[Producer] How you doing?

[beep] Burning up, man.

That [beep] was hot.

所以我们增加了柠檬酸。

Before we stir it up,

I'm also gonna talk about salt.

This is kosher salt.

Depending on what I want my flavor to taste like,

I'll either use black salt or some pink Himalaya.

I'm looking for a more earthy tone, more green tone.

I'll use pink Himalayan salt.

If I wanna do something with fruit,

the charcoal helps bring down the sweetness in the fruit

so it's not overbearing.

But for all around and doing stuff at home,

this is the one you wanna work with.

Boom, just a little bit of salt.

Brings out all the flavor

of the pepper and brings up the heat.

The next thing we're gonna do is add some pepper powder.

Don't sniff too close because now my nostrils are on fire.

My wife's right, I am an idiot.

It's gonna give the sauce thickness.

It's also gonna give it a lot more heat.

That's a little bit of reaper,

a little bit of pepper X,

a little bit of pepper wine,

some chocolate boule.

I'll mix the four hottest peppers as we grow.

I like having all those peppers in there

because it gives it well-rounded flavor.

As this reconstitutes, it thickens up really well.

So now we have to test it.

Do we need to add more vinegar?

If you're bottling hot sauce that you're making

or even putting it in a jar, once it sets up,

you don't want it to be so thick

that it's not gonna come out.

This is gonna need a little more vinegar.

So now that we've added just four ounces of vinegar

the consistency is more of a sauce now.

Our final pepper ingredient

that we're putting into this is a secret ingredient

from PuckerButt pepper Company.

和this is a pepper oil.

What that pepper oil is,

is a concentration of peppers.

We've measured different ones,

anywhere between 1.6 million

all the way up to 5.2 million Scoville heat units,

depending on the concentration of pepper

and how many times we boil it down.

The one that we're using right here is in the high threes.

It's probably 3.8, 3.9.

[immersion blender blending]

Holy smokes.

Again, I'm now looking forward to this.

[Ed exhales]

The oil gives it a smokiness.

It gives it a really good flavor.

It gets into your bloodstream so fast

that you just get an endorphin rush immediately.

But I'm not satisfied

that this is gonna be the hottest sauce in the world,

I'm just not even though I'm having a hard time breathing.

Oops.

Do I want more of an earthy tone?

[immersion blender blending]

What is coming off this pot

is essentially pepper spray, okay.

My eyes are water and my nose is running.

My skin is burning.

I'm having a hard time breathing.

This is a really good hot sauce.

It by far makes the grade,

but I'm gonna kick it up a little bit

by adding a few aromatics.

Fresh ginger is amazing.

Ginger enhances the heat of the pepper.

All you gotta do is take the skin off,

give it a few chunks.

Same thing with turmeric.

Just take the skin off and put a few chunks in there.

There's nothing like a few fresh herbs to go

into your hot sauce.

Just cut off a few chunks.

A little bit of basil always gives

an earthy tone some brightness.

We gotta get it up to a minimum of 185 degrees.

What that does is kills the molds

that can still grow at room temperature and by pHing it,

you're making sure it stays that way.

My skin is on fire.

I can still see there are tears in my eyes,

but that's just from the aroma.

Once this really starts boiling,

that's gonna get everywhere in the room.

I don't have a mask on,

but you should have a mask on.

I just happen to like the breathing

that goes along with this.

So if you don't wanna use a pH meter,

you can always use a pH test strip,

which you can find online.

和then we see what color it turns

and we match it to the back of the meter.

和it looks like the pH is gonna be somewhere

between 3.5 and 4.0.

Perfect.

When you're bottling hot sauce

you can buy what's called a five ounce woozy and a funnel.

You can bottle your own hot sauce.

When you get the bottle,

you gotta put the cap on

and then you need to turn it over.

Depending on the pH of the sauce,

we'll give you the time it needs to be turned over.

But in general, you can say for about six seconds.

What that does is kill anything

that might've been on the lid.

和it also super heats the air

that's still left inside that bottle.

We highly recommend that you follow

the food safety guidelines of your state and the FDA.

The instructions are online,

they're for your safety and if you follow them,

you're not gonna injure yourself

or others making homemade hot sauce.

So now that we've completed the hot sauce

and it's cooled down a little to let those flavors melt,

the real way to try it to see

if you're really gonna like it

is to try it on food.

所以我要试试这个π的辣椒酱zza.

Remember, I am a professional.

Don't do this at home.

When I put it on food,

that initial blast of heat that I got

when I put it on a spoon wasn't there.

I got to taste the tomato sauce

that was on

the pizza.

Now that I've swallowed,

there's a whole new dance going on in my mouth.

I am on fire and my lips hurt,

the side of my mouth.

The saliva glands on this side of my mouth

are just pumping out saliva

and my whole body is telling me

that was just a big mistake,

though it tasted really good.

You had more of the ginger tone came out.

Now that it's cooled down a little

and you can finally taste the turmeric,

we went straight for the bullseye.

和this is by far

one of the hottest sauces I've ever made in my life.

So there it is.

We've made the world's hottest hot sauce.

This is a brutally hot hot sauce.

The burn when you take a full spoonful,

for me is lasting over 10 minutes.

Please remember, if you're gonna do this at home

start with something mild like a jalapeno.

You always need to go mild before you go wild.

This is for professionals only.