Fermenting Peppers for Hot Sauce

[Alex_c]

Since someone in the gardening hacks post asked me to post my process for fermenting peppers, I figured I’d create a new post explaining it.

This is my third year of making hot sauce, so I’m by no means an expert. I do have some experience home brewing, and there are some techniques that carry over. The hot sauce I have made has been excellent, so I must be doing something right!

First, start off with some peppers. Bonus points if you grow your own. I’m using Aji Rico, Red Habanero, Ghost, and Super Chili peppers. This should be a pretty hot batch, just how I like it!



Next wash them well with cold water


You can add other fruits and veg to your fermentation. I’ve got a bunch of extra tomatillos, so I’ll be adding those, along with a few yellow onions


Next, sanitize your fermentation equipment. You can use any jar or food safe container. You don’t need to use an airlock, you just have to ensure the peppers stay below the brine level. More on that later. The pie plate will be used to weigh down the peppers to keep them submerged.


I use Star-San, and spray everything down. Star-San is a food-safe, no-rinse sanitizer, that can actually get into your fermentation without any worries. The saying in the home brewing world is “don’t fear the foam!”, meaning, don’t worry if you get some sanitizer in your brew.



Next, if you’re dealing with hot peppers, especially super hots like Ghosts, wear some thick nitrile gloves. Your hands will thank you. Even with 8 mil gloves, mine are still tingling after collecting a few seeds and cutting up a pound of them. Super hot pepper residue in the eyes or on the wedding tackle will seriously ruin your day. I think their cursed appearance and smell should be enough warning for most folks with some common sense to proceed with caution. Don’t be like me, and bareback (with my hands, you pervert!) a litre of Carolina Reapers during your inaugural sauce making venture.

Now is also a good time to save some seeds, as pepper seeds are pretty expensive. To be honest, if you were to make a business of growing peppers, there’s probably more money in seeds than fruit.






Chop your peppers up and fill your fermenter. Add your other fruit and veg.



Next, add cold tap water. You need to accurately measure how much water you add, as the volume of water will determine how much salt you will add to the brine. For a big fermentation like this, I added 10 litres of water, and then dissolved my salt in the last litre for a total of 11. You want enough water to fully cover the peppers. You will be aiming for a 3% salt brine by weight: 30 grams salt per litre of water. In my case, 11 litres of water calls for 330 grams of salt.

 

[Alex_c]

I dissolved the salt (non iodized) in the final litre of water over high heat, and then added it to the bucket after it had cooled a bit. You don’t need to use coarse salt. You’re probably better off with fine, as it will take less time to dissolve.




Now, if you’re making a smaller batch, a good strategy is to add enough water to cover your peppers, and fill the container. You can then drain that water out, measure it, and add the right amount of salt. Again, a 3% brine is 30 grams of salt per litre of water.

Once the brine is in, weigh down the peppers with a heavy container. You can use a ziplock bag full of brine, a jar full of brine, whatever gets the job done. The goal is to keep all the fruit below the water line, as lactobacillus fermentation is anaerobic, and any fruit exposed to air will get mouldy. Fear not if this happens! You can always scrape any suspect looking fermented fruit off the top once the fermentation is done. In my case, I’m using an airlock, and have sanitized the crap out of everything, so I’m not worried if a few peppers aren’t submerged.







Here’s a photo of last year’s DIY fermenter to give you an idea of what you can do at a smaller scale.




For fermentation length, it’s really up to you. You can do a couple weeks, or a couple months. The longer you go, the more developed and deep the flavour, and the less hot the final product will be.


Once this batch is ready, I’ll post some pics of the sauce making process.

 

[getbent]

That’s wicked. Very cool

 

[Alex_c]

Ok, so the sauce is bottled. Got it done after work on Friday, it was a bit of a process.

Initially, when I put the lid on the fermenting bucket, it broke, so I had to use the lid from my other bucket, as I didn’t want to transfer the brined peppers. The other lid didn’t fit as well, and I was rightfully worried that it may not keep the oxygen out. When I checked on it, I noticed some kahm yeast growth on the top. This doesn’t ruin the sauce, but you want to avoid it, as it indicates oxygen getting into the fermenter, which could result in mold and other show stoppers if left too long. So instead of fermenting for 3 months, It’s been 3 weeks. Not the end of the world. Of course, when I was going through my brewing supplies on bottling day, I found the o-ring gasket for the bucket lid. It’s been about 6 years since I’ve brewed anything so I’m not gonna dwell on forgetting it existed.



You just have to scoop it off and use less of the brine in your final sauce, as too much can affect the flavour. Luckily, it’s not that much considering the volume of the ferment. It could also be lactobacillus, which is what we want, but again, better to err on the side of caution and not ruin the whole batch.

The next step is to blend up the peppers with a bit of the reserved brine:


Some people will heat it up and bottle it at this point, but I want to add some more flavour to compliment the peppers. Added about 6 cups of apple cider vinegar, dried habaneros, mexican oregano, lemongrass, garlic powder, brown sugar, and some fresh habanero/ghost peppers for more heat.






When you’re canning at home it’s a good idea to double check the pH. Anything under 3.4 is acidic enough to prevent botulism. The sauce came out to ~2.8, which is well below that.



Once the sauce has simmered for a while and the flavour is where you want it, it’s time to strain. I tested through a metal colander, and cheese cloth. I preferred the slightly thicker texture from the colander.
The clear sauce from the cheese cloth looked cool, but wasn’t what I wanted.



to be continued…

 

[Alex_c]

Here’s the sauce going through the strainer.


Don’t throw out the pulp! It’s orange gold!


Squeeze it out through some cheese cloth - it will have a bunch of liquid. In my case, probably a bottle or two’s worth.


Put it in the dehydrator overnight


And then go back to bottling.

I bought new bottles, so they were rinsed and then sanitized in the oven at 250° for 30-40 minutes. The boiling sauce (at least over 180°F) goes into the hot bottles with a funnel, rims wiped, capped with a cap that was soaked in Star-San, and then flipped upside down so the hot sauce can sanitize the lid.

I got 35.5 10 oz bottles of sauce from this ferment. I’ll be giving a lot away lol.





The next day, the dried pepper pulp can be blitzed to make an absolute killer pepper flake seasoning, and the best chili oil you’ve ever tasted.




The chili flake is salty, hot, a touch sweet and contains all the seasonings from the sauce.

 

[Klob]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I just made a batch using Carolina Reapers. Very heartwarming sauce.

 

[Alex_c]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I just made a batch using Carolina Reapers. Very heartwarming sauce.

I made a reaper sauce 2 years ago. It was one drop potency. This one is a bit more approachable. I wanted to dump the rest of my ghosts and habaneros in there but my better half rightfully suggested I make it a little less hot, since I’ll be giving it away as gifts.