Hot Sauce

[tony b]

Finally got around to mashing up my peppers from this years crop. Now to let Mother Nature do her thing and ferment them out.

Left to Right: Dragon (Red), Aji (Yellow), and Chocolate Ghost (Brown). 

Once they are done fermenting in 4 - 6 weeks, then you puree and strain the mash and add whatever variety of vinegar you'd like to finish up the sauce. Then into the bottles. 

[MacKenzie]

Looking very pretty.

 

[Syzygies]

I love fermenting hot sauce; I've been doing it for years. I do struggle with the ideal technique. You don't get mold, exposing the jar contents to air filtered through cheesecloth? I've always used some sort of one-way fermentation valve, like making beer.

Now I have an argon tank (for saving part bottles of wine), I'm curious if a layer of argon is as easy/effective as those who use a layer of oil.

[Bruce Pearson]

Tony very interesting can’t wait to see the finished product. 

[tony b]

15 hours ago, Syzygies said:

You don't get mold, exposing the jar contents to air filtered through cheesecloth?

It's one of the things that you monitor for - if you see some starting on the top layer, then just scrap it off and add a bit more salt to the mix. I hopefully won't have an issue, since I went a tad heavy on the salt to start with (I rounded up to the next gram when measuring it out) and tried to make sure that there was a good layer of wine on top of the mash. 

[Syzygies]

Wine? That's interesting. I've used distilled water before.

I've kept some batches and discarded some batches where there's a bit of mold. On one hand I don't believe there's a health risk. I can imagine I can taste the difference, but this could be psychological. What I certainly would bet a massive sum on is this: By the time one sees a bit of visible mold on top, there are mold spores that would show up under a microscope, throughout the mixture.

[tony b]

You need a wine with a lot of residual sugar to help boost the fermentation. These batches were done with a cheap Chenin Blanc. I've used Riesling in the past. I've not used it, but have been told that Pinot Grigio works, too.

It's critical to monitor it so that any mold isn't overly pervasive and influence the flavor. By the end of fermentation and after you add the vinegar, the pH drops to around 3.5, so there's not much that can live in that environment. 

[tony b]

Well today was bottling day. To finish off the discussion above, I did find some mold on the surface of the red pepper batch, but not the others. Just scraped it off before I dumped the mash into the chinois to strain out the fibers and seeds. Next, mixed in rice vinegar with a pinch or two of salt and into the bottles. The aji (yellow) and chocolate ghost (brown) also got a bit of roasted garlic paste to add some flavor to balance out the heat. The red came out much milder than I was expecting, so it only got half as much rice vinegar as the hotter two, to not overly mask the flavor of the peppers. 

[MacKenzie]

Looking very colourful and tasty.

[tony b]

The aji and ghost pepper ones will definitely "get your attention!" 

[MacKenzie]

The aji and ghost pepper ones will definitely "get your attention!" 

I wish I could give a post 2 Likes.

[Bruce Pearson]

Wow they look hot so to speak. I useChulola hot sauce it’s pretty mild. Yours looks tasty.

[tony b]

The red one is not very hot at all - disappointing really. But the other two make up for it in spades!

I also realized later, when they'd been sitting out for a bit, that I'd forgotten to put the xantham gum in it, so it separates out fairly quickly. Just means you need to shake them up well before using. I wasn't about to empty the bottles and refill them just to toss in a bit of emulsifier. 

[Bruce Pearson]

When ever I use hot sauce I always shake it first, don’t know why just a habit I suppose. 

[Tyrus]

Some nice Autumn colors going on. I'll use some pepper sauces in making BBQ sauce and marinades to kick it up a bit, nice to make your own as you do. Should Tobasco be worried?

[tony b]

Hardly! Total of all 3 batches was less than a half-gallon. Tobasco spills that much every second in their facility!

[Bruce Pearson]

Yeah but Tony yours is lovingly hand crafted and probably so much better.

[tony b]

Thanks, Bruce! I do it as a side project every year just for the fun of it. I love hot sauces and have dozens in my pantry and probably have tried hundreds over the years. It's hard to beat some of what's out there and I don't have any thoughts/aspirations of trying my hand at producing one commercially. 

[tony b]

Speaking of Tabasco sauce, I read an article that they were doing a special batch for their 150th anniversary - WOW, 150 years in business!! I had no idea that they'd been around that long? So of course, I had to order some - just because. It's their "Family Reserve" batch, but aged a full 15 years and they used Champagne vinegar! I threw a couple more interesting looking items from their online store into the box for grins. Needed a bottle of "regular" Family Reserve for comparison - it's only aged for 8 years! Box just arrived this evening. Looking forward to trying some of these out, especially the wood chips made from their aging barrels! 

[Pequod]

Hot stuff!