Hot Sauce!

Thompson’s essential guide to making your own hot sauces at home, covering 32 sauce recipes and 60 dishes built around them. The book walks you through chile varieties, storage, and technique before diving into recipes ranked by heat level.

Why Start Here

This is the book that earned Thompson her reputation as the authority on homemade hot sauce. It combines everything she has learned about chili peppers and spicy cooking into a single, well-organized volume. The structure is smart: you learn the fundamentals of chile types and heat levels first, then move through sauce recipes organized from mild to blistering. Each recipe is practical and clearly written, designed for home cooks rather than professional kitchens.

What sets this apart from other hot sauce books is the second half. Thompson does not stop at sauce-making. She includes sixty recipes for dishes that use hot sauce as a key ingredient, from barbeque and Buffalo wings to bouillabaisse and black bean soup. This means you finish the book with both a shelf of homemade sauces and a solid repertoire of meals to use them in. That practical completeness is rare in the genre.

What to Expect

A medium-length paperback with a friendly, encouraging tone. The recipes are organized by heat level using a one-to-four chile pepper rating system, making it easy to start mild and work your way up. The difficulty level is accessible throughout, and most sauces require common ingredients and basic kitchen equipment. A strong starting point for anyone who wants to move beyond store-bought hot sauce.