The Best Peppers To Infuse For Spicy Vinegars

Easily one of the best ways to add flavor to your food and your pantry is with infused vinegar. Too often, it's infused oils that get all the attention, leaving flavored vinegar in the dark. But this is all about to change because infused vinegar adds a burst of flavor to whatever recipe you use it in. When deciding what to add to your vinegar, the choices can be daunting. A great place to start is with pepper-infused vinegar.

It's no secret that people love hot peppers. Peppers are popular across the globe and make appearances in dishes across every continent. Their popularity makes sense — they're versatile, easy to grow, and add a punch of heat and flavor to food. And while they are good on their own, it's when they're allowed to complement other foods that peppers really shine. That's why they're an obvious choice to add to your vinegar.

With the wide variety of peppers available, it can be daunting to pick one to start your infusing journey. The good news is you can always try more than one, and there are some great contenders!

The piquant combination of hot peppers and vinegar serves as the basis for many traditional hot sauces. It's also the combination that makes up a regional barbecue sauce and drives one side of the fierce Carolina barbecue debate. Don't worry, you don't have to choose sides to enjoy a little pepper sauce at home.

When thinking about which peppers to use in your vinegar, a few probably come immediately to mind — jalapeño, habanero, and maybe even the exciting ghost pepper. The classic Tabasco sauce depends on tabasco peppers to deliver its heat, but you can branch out and try whatever peppers you think you'll like. Starting with an old standby like the jalapeño even has an extra bonus – pickled jalapeño slices for your next taco night!

Interested in something a bit more punchy? Look to the Caribbean hot pepper sauces that rely on the Scotch Bonnet pepper. This cousin of the jalapeño is much spicier, clocking in at 100,000 – 350,000 Scoville units. Chef Adam Schop of Miss Lily's in New York is a fan of Scotch Bonnet infusions, telling Bon Appétit of his favorite, "it has a tropical, fruity flavor that captures the essence of the scotch bonnet in raw form," in part because "it's basically crushed chiles and cane sugar vinegar."

You don't have to be confined to one part of the globe to get your hands on this ingredient. Pepper-infused vinegar is a condiment that is popular across many cultures. It's an easy way for you to explore places far and wide and bring a bit of their flavor to your plate. For instance, Brazil is home to the malagueta pepper, a fiery hot chili that adds flavor to whatever it touches. It's the traditional choice to be stashed in bottles of vinegar until the resulting pepper sauce is ready to bring heat to whatever it touches. If you're looking for some South American spice, this might be the way to go.

Pepper-infused vinegar isn't limited to the western hemisphere, either. Thai chilis come to life when added to vinegar, which brings a new dimension to their heat. Prik nam som is a traditional sauce that relies on Thai chili peppers to deliver the combination of heat and acid that this popular condiment is known for. Don't be afraid to try a bunch of different peppers to find which ones you love most.