Hot Honey

Today's post comes from Brian, a long time Smokehaus employee of nearly seven years. Head down to the prep room and you'll find Brian expertly preparing haus-made ingredients for our sandwiches with his eyes practically closed, he knows it so well. An inquisitive character, come at Brian with any number of of topics and leave the prep room with your brain hurting because of the knowledge dropped. Outside of the Smokehaus, you can find Brian dabbling in sound design, reading voraciously, hanging with his kids, and of course, fermenting things.

Here at the Smokehaus, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the techniques and processes to bring the best product to our community and customers around the country. We also like to experiment at home. I love to make homemade hot sauces.

One of the key components of hot sauce is how to extract the heat from the peppers and control how hot a sauce is going to be. I had struggled to have a consistent outcome until my co-worker Brandt (our lead Smoker) suggested I learn the process of making hot honey. Experimenting with hot honey has taught me how much heat to expect at the end of this process as I experiment with different peppers. This will help me create better hot sauces. I now use hot honey instead of brown sugar for my sweetener while cooking. So without further ado, here is a simple breakdown of how to make hot honey:

Step One: Take a large pot and fill it a little over halfway with water. Bring to a rolling boil. 

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Another one of Brian's talents? Illustration!

Step Two: Place a metal bowl containing the desired amount of honey over the boiling water.

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Step Three: Drop in a few sliced peppers of your choosing into the honey. Taste as it releases its capsaicin until you reach your desired heat level. Then pull the pepper out and let the honey cool. Now you have hot honey and can add it to your cooking!

Try it on variety of foods. It’s a great addition to any dish that you want a hit of sweet heat! Here are a few suggestions:

  • Cheese boards

  • Curries

  • BBQ Sauces

  • Chicken wings

  • Homemade vinaigrette dressing

  • Marinades