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Hot Sauce Rookie and 'start-up' cost

H

Hurley

All right. So I'm thinking of taking the leap and making my own hot sauce for fun. Maybe profit, but I think the latter is WAAAAY out of my reach.

Anyway, I'm also a complete rookie in the kitchen. If it weren't for my wife, if live and die by the microwave.
I'm trying to see how much (monetarilly) and how many things I would need in order to start up making my own hot sauces.

I hope this is an appropriate question. I've been lurking in the forums and it seems like one would need to acquire a not insignificant amount of things to do this.

I know with any hobby you have to pay to play, but I'm a bit lost as to what I would need to start and how much it would probably cost.

Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
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By pink salt you mean Himalayian and not salt peter, right?

Yea that's the stuff
And if its just a hobby for friends and family there is nothing wrong with using Ball 4oz - 8 oz canning jars.

Ball Jars been doing this food storage a long time
 
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The important thing about the salt is that it NOT be idozized, as that can result in nasty discoloration of the finished product. I use Korean sea salt, simply cause I have3 pounds of the stuff on hand from kimchi making. If I didn't have that I'd use the himalayan pink, or any sea salt that had no additives. Not sure if anti caking agents are a problem, but I like the idea of minimizing man made additives.
 
You can definitely acquire the stuff piecemeal. I have / am.
 
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My only comment is---
 
don't put the cart before the horse.  If you want to go into the hot sauce business and be successful, first you need a Kick-Ass hot sauce!  One that everyone is clamoring for at every get together.  One your family members want to get as a Christmas gift.  One your co-workers hope you are their Secret Santa for. 
 
Spend a couple years perfecting the sauce.  By then you'll know what you need for equipment and during that R&D time, you can research local/state health requirements, kitchens available for use, business structure, insurance, marketing, and lastly...name and label design.
 
There are several threads here about starting businesses, read up on as much as you can.  There are a couple businesses who we've pretty much walked the walk with through their posts as they have gotten their businesses up and running. 
 
And the biggest piece of advice I can give....don't believe your friends and family when they say they "love" it.  Maybe they do, but often they just don't want to hurt your feelings and tell you the sauce sucks.  Share it with some of your peers (here and elsewhere) and ask for comments,  put the sauce out (anonymously) at BBQ's and listen to people's comments [that suggestion is from LuckyDogHotSauce  ;)  ].
 
Most of all, if you have a great sauce and love making/selling/have a passion for it....Go For It and HAVE FUN!!!
 
SL
 
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Hurley, I think I am close to where you are in the beginning stages of the hot sauce hobby. I may be a tad ahead of you because I have dove in and done a few test recipes. I think for starters all you need to invest in is the ingredients. Assuming you have some sort of blender because i think any will do. I started using my girlfriends "antique" blender that looked to be from the 70's. It wasn't pretty but it did the job.  I recently invested in a food processor for $50 but I really wanted one of those anyway. I invested in some of the bottles that you typically see hot sauce in on the shelves (12 for like $20 on Amazon). Before that i used a spare olive oil bottle or a mason jar as a container. I also invested in a strainer for like $2 because my sauces were too pulpy for my tastes. 
 
My girlfriend bought me a $2 funnel which Im pretty sure is meant for a car but it makes me laugh using this huge funnel into these tiny bottles. :)
 
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The pink salt is great. Its the only "household" salt I use and I grind it. I also don't conider those minerals to be "additives". I'm just saying it can be pricey, and isn't necessary.

I just share my process I have not a cue on the best method, if you add good stuff into the process,I think it will be in the end product MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
 
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