Fermented hot sauce

[geigercntr]

Saved the leftover brine in an empty jar also, cause it was tasting so good ... any ideas what (if anything) that can be used for? It feels like it may make a good (salt &) vinegar alternative

Cheers, PhilB

Looks good!

I tend to use most/all of the brine in the sauce itself, so no actual experience. I've read that some people use the brine as a marinade. Others dry it out to make seasoned salt flakes (I'd definitely like to try this)

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi geigercntr

Thanks for the response ... drying it out sounds "interesting", in that I think I might like to have some of the salt flakes ... but at the moment I can't imagine how (and if I do imagine it feels like it would be a lot of faff) I would go about making this incredibly wet stuff, dry ... I guess that's another Google ... but then I may just use it as a marinade

Thanks once again for a brilliant and inspirational thread
Cheers, PhilB

 

[geigercntr]

Hi geigercntr

Thanks for the response ... drying it out sounds "interesting", in that I think I might like to have some of the salt flakes ... but at the moment I can't imagine how (and if I do imagine it feels like it would be a lot of faff) I would go about making this incredibly wet stuff, dry ... I guess that's another Google ... but then I may just use it as a marinade

Thanks once again for a brilliant and inspirational thread
Cheers, PhilB

Yeah, not sure how you'd do it to be honest. Need a dehydration station, or pour it over greaseproof baking paper in a deep oven tray and cook it dry in the oven? Don't have the patience for that sort of thing! :)

 

[Ben034]

With the brine soultion, is it 2% of water added, or of the total ingredient weight? I'm making a hot sauce with an overripe mango which was very juicy so only had to add about 50ml of water to a small jar. The salt content must be more than 2% of 50ml right? 2% of the total ingredients in the jar?

 

[geigercntr]

With the brine soultion, is it 2% of water added, or of the total ingredient weight? I'm making a hot sauce with an overripe mango which was very juicy so only had to add about 50ml of water to a small jar. The salt content must be more than 2% of 50ml right? 2% of the total ingredients in the jar?

From what I've read (and with MANY exceptions), people tend to use a 5% brine when going down the brine route, or use 2% of the ingredient weight when just using the fruits/veg, i.e. mix salt and fruit/veg together and pack into a jar. Osmosis will extract the water and create a very strong brine.

I think with ripe juicy mango, the salt by weight of ingredients seems the best way to me. According to the Sandor Katz book, lots of salt minimises alcohol production by yeast and maximises lactic acid production by bacteria, which is what you're typically after with this stuff.

Just my 2 pence. You'll find loads of contradictory opinions too :)

 

[Ben034]

From what I've read (and with MANY exceptions), people tend to use a 5% brine when going down the brine route, or use 2% of the ingredient weight when just using the fruits/veg, i.e. mix salt and fruit/veg together and pack into a jar. Osmosis will extract the water and create a very strong brine.

I think with ripe juicy mango, the salt by weight of ingredients seems the best way to me. According to the Sandor Katz book, lots of salt minimises alcohol production by yeast and maximises lactic acid production by bacteria, which is what you're typically after with this stuff.

Just my 2 pence. You'll find loads of contradictory opinions too :)

That's great, thanks! As you said I went with the weight of total ingredients and 2% salt. Good to know both methods depending on the ingredients used. Cheers

 

[YeastFace]

Have made a few ferments over the past couple of months. Kimchi, Baby Courgettes, Peppers, and most recently some slices gherkins.

All have been well-received by the family who weren't quite sure at first

 

[geigercntr]

Loads of scotch bonnet blended with salt and spices. A slosh of lacto from some sauerkraut. All blended together. I've chucked in some grilled BBQ wood chips too. Smells like it'd strip paint at the mo, but should mellow out once it starts fermenting

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi @geigercntr

BBQ wood chips sounds intriguing, are you aiming for a smokey impression? I split my last batch of hot chilli sauce, half was blended as-was, half got a few tsp of dried chipotle chilli powder added before blending. The half with the smoked chilli addition has turned out really nice

Cheers, PhilB

 

[geigercntr]

Hi @geigercntr

BBQ wood chips sounds intriguing, are you aiming for a smokey impression? I split my last batch of hot chilli sauce, half was blended as-was, half got a few tsp of dried chipotle chilli powder added before blending. The half with the smoked chilli addition has turned out really nice

Cheers, PhilB

Yeah, that's the plan. Hopefully will get some smokey/charred notes running through it.
I like the sound of the chipotle addition!

 

[Ajhutch]

Is there an advantage to blending before fermenting?

 

[geigercntr]

Is there an advantage to blending before fermenting?

Nothing major as far as I know.

For me the main benefit of brining (chucking peppers in a ~5% brine) is that it's easier to prevent mold as most stuff is below the brine
For blended sauces you get more control over the consistency of the sauce, but it's difficult to keep stuff out of air contact. Means you need to keep stirring it a couple of times a day.

This is my first blended one, my previous have been brined

 

[Dutto]

I had a rush of blood to my brain on February 12th of this year (see Post #127) and started off a Korean Kimchi, a planter full of chilli peppers and a Hot Sauce.

I ate the kimchi after it fermented (delicious), nurtured the bucket of chilli peppers (they failed to grow because SWMBO put them outside way too early and failed to water them), blended the Hot Sauce and stuck it in the fridge.

The following month I had a total hip replacement, recovered after six weeks then tripped up and fractured the same thigh!

May, June, July and part of August was therefore spent in a chair under strict instructions not to "weight bear" on the repaired fracture; and the fermented hot sauce stayed in the fridge forgotten by SWMBO until yesterday!

I had put the sauce in an old Tomato Ketchup bottle and yesterday it appeared at the side of a Cornish Pasty as SWMBO decided that it was a bottle of Tomato Ketchup.

It is beautifully hot, tastes superb and (after 36 hours) it hasn't had any adverse effects on my stomach!

Brilliant!

 

[geigercntr]

I had a rush of blood to my brain on February 12th of this year (see Post #127) and started off a Korean Kimchi, a planter full of chilli peppers and a Hot Sauce.

I ate the kimchi after it fermented (delicious), nurtured the bucket of chilli peppers (they failed to grow because SWMBO put them outside way too early and failed to water them), blended the Hot Sauce and stuck it in the fridge.

The following month I had a total hip replacement, recovered after six weeks then tripped up and fractured the same thigh!

May, June, July and part of August was therefore spent in a chair under strict instructions not to "weight bear" on the repaired fracture; and the fermented hot sauce stayed in the fridge forgotten by SWMBO until yesterday!

I had put the sauce in an old Tomato Ketchup bottle and yesterday it appeared at the side of a Cornish Pasty as SWMBO decided that it was a bottle of Tomato Ketchup.

It is beautifully hot, tastes superb and (after 36 hours) it hasn't had any adverse effects on my stomach!

Brilliant!

Excellent! Hope you're on the mend @Dutto !

 

[Dutto]

Excellent! Hope you're on the mend @Dutto !

Many thanks.

Starting to walk with a zimmer frame and driving (automatic car) to France this next Sunday to fetch our caravan back!

It's not an ideal time to go over to France, so the whole trip will be based on "Inshallah"; especially as we intend to do the whole trip (Sleaford > St Nazaire > Sleaford) in six days!

Like my brewing, there'll be a lot of "Here's hoping!"

Again, many thanks!

 

[Ajhutch]

Made a small batch of fermented sauce with about 15 homegrown apaches and a mango. It’s seriously hot, probably could’ve got away with about 8 chillies!

 

[geigercntr]

New sauce: Mango, garlic, red onion, salt, apple cider vinegar.

Blended, then left for 4 weeks in a counter top jar. Passed through a fine mesh sieve and heated to knock out yeasts and bacti (mango is sweet). The stuff that went through the sieve was bottled as a sauce. The stuff that stayed on the sieve was dried on baking paper in a coolish oven, ground and now lives in an old salt shaker.

 

[Ajhutch]

Nice idea, no waste!

 

[MattHudds]

Just boiled and blitzed my two week fermented chillies (5% brine). Made about 400ml. At first taste of the brine (pre blitz) it didn't seem too sour, so I just added 5ml of my lactic acid for brewing.

Final product tastes super acidic now though! Bit worried now. Using cheap pH strips it's maybe between 2 and 3, but kind of inaccurate and hard to tell.

Will this harm me?! Or can I just eat and go easy on it?!

 

[geigercntr]

Just boiled and blitzed my two week fermented chillies (5% brine). Made about 400ml. At first taste of the brine (pre blitz) it didn't seem too sour, so I just added 5ml of my lactic acid for brewing.

Final product tastes super acidic now though! Bit worried now. Using cheap pH strips it's maybe between 2 and 3, but kind of inaccurate and hard to tell.

Will this harm me?! Or can I just eat and go easy on it?!

[Caveat: my medical knowledge is at best rudimentary]
I imagine you'll be fine. I googled and apparently the pH of stomach acid is 1.5-3, so your hot sauce should feel at home :)