Not sure what you mean by pepper "sauce" as I don't know of a pepper sauce recipe per se. Or "ugly" green as what I normally see with pickled peppers is the same color change to what I'd describe as a washed out green that one sees with any cooked peppers. The exposure to the boiling hot liquid and then the processing is going to cause the color of them to change. So what you are seeing may be normal.

Or perhaps it was more than that, something in your recipe that could cause a very different change? So what pepper sauce recipe are we talking about? Ingredients?

Dave

Pepper sauce is just putting vinegar on peppers and then using the liquid to pour on beans, greens, etc.

hot vinegar mixture

So it is a flavored vinegar. Is it made with plain vinegar? If so you are over-heating the vinegar. Or are there other ingredients? Specifically water or turmeric? Both can cause a color change. Do you use white or cider vinegar? Cider causes color changes. Salt? Using iodized salt causes color changes. etc.

You really need to provide more information.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Making flavored vinegars

Most pepper jelly recipes will call for a couple drops of food coloring, perhaps in acknowledgement of this happening.

The change of color is unavoidable. That's what happens when peppers hit boiling water. The exception would be sweet or hot red peppers. They retain the color well. A mixture of red and green can be very attractive. The red kind of distracts from the olive drab.

I suppose blanched peppers (like green beans) might retain their bright color, but of course they're then shocked in cold water and that makes them unsuitable for pickles.

Carol

If I don't like the color of something pickled or in vinegar, I add pinches of turmeric which bumps up yellow tones, usually for the better.

All I used was white vinegar and cayenne peppers. I did bring my vinegar to a boil before pouring it over the peppers. I expected some color change but not as much as I got. The red peppers are fine, it was just the green. I'll try it without bringing to a complete boil. Thanks everyone for your answers.

my post from a '08 thread... he called it pepper sauce and yes, it did fade a bit...

My Dad used to make this using only the peppers and vinegar. He used long slender green (and an occasional red) cayenne peppers which he grew. He packed the peppers in bottles with a small neck (such as Worcestershire or Tabasco) and heated the vinegar before pouring it over the peppers. He called it Hot Sauce and sprinkled it over turnip greens, black eyed peas and almost anything else which needed a kick. He kept it sitting on the table and topped if off with more vinegar when it ran low until there was no heat left. If I were making it today I'd put it in the fridge when it cools.

you might try Linda Zs recipe which doesn't call for heating the vinegar, leaving out the garlic and pepper corns. She too calls for refrigeration.

Pepper Pique
Source: Ziedrich The Joy of Pickling

12 medium long or conical chili peppers such as cayenne, de arbol or jalapeno
4 cloves garlic
12 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp pickling salt
1 cup cider vinegar

Put the peppers, garlic cloves, peppercorns and salt into a bottle with a capacity of about 12 ounces. (A rum bottle is most authentic, but a small wine vinegar bottle will do, particularly if you've kept the plastic inner and outer caps.) Using a funnel, pour enough vinegar into the bottle to cover well. Put the caps on and shake to dissolve the salt.
Let the bottle sit 2 to 3 days undisturbed so the vinegar can absorb the other flavors. The longer it sits the hotter it gets. Store the bottle in the refrigerator or in a cool place. Until the pepper flavor gets weak, you can top off the bottle with fresh vinegar as needed.

The term "pepper sauce" carries a specific meaning in the South. It refers to hot peppers in vinegar. Most commercial varieties use green tabasco peppers, but I make mine with Scotch Bonnets and cayennes for extra heat. The vinegar is commonly poured over green vegetables like collards, turnips, and string beans after serving (not while cooking).

To a non-southerner, "pepper sauce" usually evokes the image of what we call "hot sauce", in which the peppers are macerated/pureed. In a nutshell, pepper sauce is basically pepper-infused vinegar, whereas hot sauce is liquefied peppers. At a soul-food joint in Brooklyn, I asked for pepper sauce for my collards and I got handed a bottle of Tabasco. I had to clarify that I wanted peppers in vinegar, which they didn't have. This would never occur in the South.

On a related note, if you ask for "picante" sauce in a Spanish-speaking country, you are likely to get a bottle of hot sauce, not a bowl of "salsa" (pico de gallo).

I make pepper vinegar just like my mom and grandad did for their whole lives. I believe this is what you are calling pepper sauce, which we use to splash onto greens and more, for a little pepper vinegar kick. I usually only grow the tobascos for it about every three years, since by that time even though the pepper vinegar tastes fantastic, it just doesn't look as good any more. The color of the peppers fades, etc. For this, I do not heat the vinegar. I fill my shaker bottle(usually an old soy sauce bottle or something) with the cleaned and capped peppers, in a range of colors - reds, oranges, yellows, greens - and then fill with vinegar. I use a good quality cider vinegar. I do not heat it - I'm usually keeping it in the fridge anyway after leaving it out for a week or so. It's straight vinegar. When the level gets down a bit, I just refill it. It stays available in my refrigerator.

Now if you want to pickle peppers in a way that maintains color and crispness, try fermentation. I did this for the first time this year, and it has turned out the best pickled peppers I've ever had. Again, no heat, I washed and pierced the peppers and put them into the jars with garlic and dill heads, some with onions, some with other herbs, then filled to cover with a 2T salt to quart of water solution(also unheated), used a small jelly jar to keep things submerged, snapped a nitrile glove over the top of the 2 qt jars, and let them ferment for 6 to 8 weeks. I just checked them about once a week to remove the small about of white mold (I'm told safe, normal, and not a sign of spoilage) and make sure the level of the salt water solution is enough to keep them submerged. Unbelievably good.

I also made a couple of batches of a fermented hot pepper sauce much like Texas Pete or others, but made with my fully ripe jalapenos and other hot peppers. Knowing how to do this now, how easy it is, as well as knowing how great the stuff tastes, I am certain I will no longer ever buy a store bought hot pepper sauce. Wow - great stuff. My second batch was made with peppers I blackened under the broiler before fermenting, to give them an amazing flavor. Although no vinegar was used to ferment and make the sauce, I added a bit when putting it in the shaker bottles to give it a better consistency for splashing on my barbeque and other foods.