Syzygies Posted November 2, 2022 Report Share Posted November 2, 2022 Glad to see all this hot sauce fermenting! To be clear, I never claimed that Kahm yeast is dangerous. No one should be afraid of Kahm yeast, nor should they discard a batch where it appears. I claimed that I can taste the difference, and I prefer ferments where there is no visible Kahm yeast. This could be a coincidence: No Kahm yeast could be a side effect of the technique that lead to my best ferments, not a determining cause. Still, I've tossed too many ferments of cabbage and such, recognizing I can do better buying at the farmers market, to shake this association. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekobo Posted November 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2022 So...here is the result of my latest chilli experiment. We visited my cousin in NYC earlier in the year. He introduced me to a beautiful chilli oil called Akabanga from Rwanda. I fell in love instantly. It comes in a 20ml bottle with a dropper and you apply 4-5 drops to your food. No more. It's hot but not too hot. Delicious. Given I was growing a lot of chillis myself I figured I really ought to figure out how to make it. The only clue that I could find to how it was made was on this website: https://www.afrolink.co.uk/product-page/akabanga-chilli-oil-product-of-rwanda. It says The recipe consists of 80 percent yellow chilli pepper (scotch bonnet) extract and 20 percent olive oil. Hmm, how do you get an extract of chilli peppers? I found this site that explained how to extract pure capsaicin from chillis: https://italianchilli.com/en/content/22-how-to-extract-pure-capsaicin-from-chillies Yes, I know that capsaicin is murderously potent and has to be treated with respect but I could not resist the challenge. Started with some 95 proof alcohol that we bought in Italy in order to make limoncello. (Drop all your preconceptions, home made limoncello using Amalfi lemons is a revelation.) Per the recipe, I whizzed a load of chillies, mixed them in with the alcohol and let stand for three days. I then strained through a 250 micron and then 50 micron bag. They said to wait for the alcohol to evaporate. I soon realised that was going to take too long. I consulted some websites and found one that explained how to evaporate alcohol from tinctures of cannabis. Simple solution. I put the bowl in my water bath and heated the water up to 81C, just above the boiling temperature for alcohol. Here it is, starting to coagulate as the temperature rose. I now have this sticky residue. It is hard to believe that this is the fearsome capsaicin. It smells lovely and sweet, not hot at all. That said, I stuck a toothpick in and tasted the liquid off the end of the toothpick. It was very hot. Not to be messed with. I am planning to dissolve this extract in oil (1:15 is the only measure I have been able to find online so far) and then dispense it from little 15 ml bottles with a pipette. To build the flavour profile I'll use extra virgin olive oil flavoured by slow cooking onions, garlic and peppers in it this morning. All of that said, there is no way that a factory in a village in Rwanda went to these lengths to make chilli oil! This lady from Cameroon has a much more down to earth method which I will try with my next harvest of chillis. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted November 2, 2022 Report Share Posted November 2, 2022 My first thought watching this video was why in the heck is she taking all that time to poke holes in the peppers, just cut them in half and expose more surface area? It gets strained out at the end anyway, so any loose seeds will be captured, and you'll get more extraction. @tekobo I'd stick with your alcohol extraction method. If you have the sous vide machine, it's not that much actual work, just a bit more time consuming. I'm guessing that you're getting a much stronger oil than the lady in the video. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekobo Posted November 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2022 23 hours ago, tony b said: I'm guessing that you're getting a much stronger oil than the lady in the video. I suspect capsaicin is way hotter than anything that I need in my life under normal circs. It was fun to try this but I found it difficult to mix with the oil - had to reheat in the water bath and found that it fell out of suspension afterwards. The oil I put in has a nice gentle heat, with the goo of the majority of the capsaicin sitting at the bottom of the bottle. Will keep playing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted November 3, 2022 Report Share Posted November 3, 2022 I use Xanthan gum in my hot sauces to prevent separation. You could try that with your extract version. I don't know if it will have the same effect in an oil-based sauce? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted November 20, 2022 Report Share Posted November 20, 2022 Finally bottled this year's batch of aji yellow hot sauce. The color is natural. Just the homegrown peppers, some garlic, a dash of seasoning salt and Xanthan gum. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacKenzie Posted November 20, 2022 Report Share Posted November 20, 2022 Looks awesome, Tony. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekobo Posted November 22, 2022 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2022 Looking good @tony b. I have many more chillis to harvest from the polytunnel. A nice bottled sauce like yours would fit the bill nicely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
