I was amazed the last time I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards and found how many slicing, dicing, chopping, mixing and, blending appliances I have. I started to clean out the cupboards to make room for a new blender, but I am not quite sure what I am looking for and it turns out what I have in my collection work just fine for making hot sauce.
I use a variety of small, compact but powerful blenders when I make new hot sauce creations. I have experimented with different ingredients, hot peppers, and the processes of making hot sauces. Most hot sauces have a thin consistency between water and ketchup, but they can vary between types of sauces. This consistency depends on the ingredients, how the sauce is processed but also the wattage and speed of the blender.
Does the power of a blender have anything to do with the consistency of a hot sauce?
A blender with at least 600 watts of power is needed to make a hot sauce with a thin consistency. Duration will make a hot sauce smoother but does not affect how thin or thick a sauce is. A smoother consistency to a hot sauce will take a longer duration with a blender under 600 watts.
Although size makes a difference in producing a large batch of hot sauce, I reviewed the wattage and RPM (Rotations Per Minute) and compared it to the consistency to determine if the blender speed had anything to do with how thick or thin the sauce is. The watts of a blender motor will need to be over 600 if you are making a gallon or more hot sauce at a time.
Each of the blenders used has only one speed so the consistency of the sauce was determined by the power or wattage, even though they can all pulsate. Slow speeds are OK for mixing once the ingredients have been chopped, but do not work very well making a thin sauce.
Difference between chopping, mixing, and blending
A blender will need the most power at the initial start of the process to cut, slice or chop the ingredients into a pulp. Soon thereafter, or once the ingredients are cut up, blender speed doesn’t make much of a difference because they are just mixed to the consistency of a hot sauce. However, the ingredients may need to be blended for a longer duration if you are using equipment with low wattage.
Power and duration make a difference in the consistency of a hot sauce
The power of a blender is defined by wattage
The wattage of a blender has to do with how powerful the motor is. The more wattage it has the more power it has, but how much power is needed to blend a hot sauce? I have made hot sauce in my 200-watt food chopper but it takes longer than a few minutes. I usually blend for just a few seconds at a time until the sauce starts to become thinner. Manufacturers will recommend that most small blenders with a low-watt motor should not be operated for more than 1 minute at a time.
Higher horsepower equals more power
Horsepower is used to describe the motor size of much larger commercial size blenders. The additional power is used to crush ice and nuts. To get an idea of comparison to watts, one horsepower equals 746 watts. Motors of 1 horsepower or more are needed when the blender container size is a gallon or more due to the amount of ingredients they need to blend into a sauce.
RPM or Speed of a blender are important
RPM stands for Rotations Per Minute and is another way of stating how fast a blender is. The faster speeds on a blender are typically used to whip. This will introduce air into the mixture of what is being blended. I have never had a whipped hot sauce but I know there are some recipes out there.
Faster speeds or variable speed blenders are not needed to make hot sauces. Fresh peppers may need more power to mash or blend because they are firmer than a pepper that has been cooked, roasted, or fermented.
Grandma’s Handheld mixer – Last resort
I put this on the list as a homage to my grandmother but I have never used it to make hot sauce. Some of these handheld mixtures can be as much as 400 watts but the “blade” types are just not conducive to mixing hot peppers into a sauce. I could do the trick if the ingredients are cooked to soften them up. They sure don’t make em like they used to.
Mainstays Chopper – Good for the money
This is Walmart’s answer to the inexpensive small and portable food processor and it is fast for its size. It is quite powerful and like most of the blenders I use has a one-button operation. This is not the tool to use for mass-producing a hot sauce, but it is perfect for quick kitchen experiments.
You can get at your local Walmart, Walmart.com or this link to Amazon. This is one of the more affordable blenders on the list.
It is difficult to find the wattage information for Mainstays Food Chopper but I could guess by the speed and the sauce that it produces that it is about 200 watts and the RPM to be about 2,000. The cup size is large enough to make a couple of bottles of hot sauce, but it takes a lot of mixing to get a thin consistency. This is also one of the lowest-priced blending appliances I have ever purchased.
| Mainstays Food Chopper | |
|---|---|
| Watts | 200 |
| Size | 1.5 Cups |
| RPM | 2,000 |
Magic Bullet – Excellent purchase
The Magic Bullet was one of the first blenders I ever used to make hot sauce. These little blenders are great for mixing the intricate details of a specialized gourmet hot sauce. The size is perfect for experimenting with new hot sauce creations, so you don’t waste hundreds of dollars on ingredients for a hot sauce that didn’t work out.
This is a very powerful appliance for its size and can blend hot peppers and other ingredients into a hot sauce in under a minute. I purchased a couple of extra cups because I like to store sauces in the refrigerator before bottling them.
| Magic Bullet | |
|---|---|
| Watts | 250 W |
| Size | 12 oz |
| RPM | 20,000 |
Ninja Express Chop – Good for the money
The Ninja Express Chop is perfect for making 2 to 3 small 5 oz bottles of hot sauce. This operates similarly to my other appliances with a simple one-touch operation switch. I like the motor on top so you cannot operate it unless it is engaged.
Get the Ninja Express Chop here from Amazon!
The Ninja Express Chop is fast for its size but it takes several minutes of blending before my hot sauce becomes a thin and fluid consistency. This will make a mash with just a few pulses like most food processors.
| Ninja Express Chop | |
|---|---|
| Watts | 200 W |
| Size | 16 oz |
| RPM | 4,000 |
Nutribullet – Top Pick!
The Nutribullet is marketed as a smoothie maker but is extremely powerful for its size. It has a much larger capacity than the other appliances that I own but I do not need it when creating new hot sauce recipes, it simply makes a hot sauce faster. If you make a lot of hot sauce you will need the higher wattage that the Nutribullet provides so you don’t burn out the motor.
Get a nutribullet here!
This is a larger version of the Magic Bullet with a lot more power. It is great for making a larger batch of hot sauce if you want several bottles to take to a gathering. I like to make at least a cup of hot sauce or more because I use it pairing it with different foods and eating it at different times of the day.
| Nutribullet | |
|---|---|
| Watts | 600 W |
| Size | 24 oz |
| RPM | 21,500 |
Cuisinart Food Processor – Low RPM
This is a classic and powerful kitchen tool made for big jobs and whole produce…and it’s huge. This is the most powerful appliance that I have in my kitchen at about I horsepower and it is probably about 20 years old. Because of the size of the container, I don’t use the Cuisinart for many hot sauce experiments.
If you try to blend a small amount of sauce the Cuisinart just can’t get it to the consistency of a thin sauce very easily. However, it works great for larger batches of hot sauce using a recipe you are familiar with.
| Cuisinart Food Processor | |
|---|---|
| Watts | 750 W |
| Size | 14 Cup |
| RPM |
Except for my Cuisinart Food Processor each of these blenders can be purchased for under $60.00. If you can make a hot sauce to the desired thin consistency that you want with an inexpensive blender then you can certainly do it with one that costs over $200.00.
More wattage and a larger horsepower just are not necessary if you are making new hot sauce creations. If you create hot sauce on a mass level then make sure you have a blender that can mix your sauce to the consistency that you want it.
I make all my hot sauces with a Blendtec. 1560 watts with Wildside+ container. Works great!