The Hot Sauce Wasn't Anything Special, But The Story Is Priceless!

by Jane
(U.S.)

We can laugh about this now, but at the time it was anything but funny with my boyfriend running around screaming his eyes were burning.

He loves his New Mexico red and green chiles and is always making enchilada sauces and then one day he gets the idea to make a concentrate and use it as a hot sauce.

He stores his new hot sauce in one of those old fashioned beer bottles with a cork and metal clasp to hold it down, but did not do the sterilization bath on the bottle, as you suggested. Thinking the capsicum from the chiles will kill any germs, off it goes into the fridge.

A couple weeks goes by and he's loving his hot sauce, even putting it on chips one drop at a time, until this one night. He's at the dinner table and the second he goes to pop the cork it explodes like it was champagne, blasting him right in the eyes.

Needless to say, myself and the kids are so scared and don't know what to do to help him, other than get a bucket of water to put his head into.

He's lucky he can still see and no damage was done, except to surrounding walls, ceiling, chandelier, and furniture that I'm still finding dried sauce on.

Moral of the story: Don't skip the sterilization and just like champagne, open corks away from your face :)

Jane from home-remodeling-decorating.com