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fermenting Fermented Habanero Sauce idea

portveyn

portveyn

Hi All!
 
I always wanted to make it. The simple habanero sauce made of
fermented pepper and salt mash, vinegar (I like apple vinegar),
and then aged on wood chips (apple wood or fancy french oak,
I don't know yet). 
 
The idea is to make a good quantity of undestructible, shelf stable,
almost never expiring sauce. Like Tabasco makes it.
 
Has anyone done something similar?
 
I have made fermented sauces and even wines & ciders before,
so fermentation is not the question.
 
The question is wood chips aging (what type, when, how much of it, how long?)
and proportion of  vinegar to make the sauce last.
What vinegar do you use yourselves?
 
Please share your exp!
 
Thank you.
Alex.
 
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Hey portveyn, just read through this and a few things come to mind.
 
Aging of a hot sauce on wood is an idea that a bunch of us have toyed with. I only remember one person ever really trying it and he used an old Rum cask to age his sauce in. I don't remember how it came out, you might be able to find the thread on here with a search.
 
Apple wood is a very mild one, I use it a lot to smoke peppers, so getting any of the notes out of the wood will probably take some time if any come through at all over the flavor of the peppers. For more pronounced wood flavor you could look at Oak which would be available through any local home brew shop in a range of toasts.
 
Also given that Apple is a mild flavor you might want to rethink your choice of vinegar. Apple Cider Vinegar, (ACV) is a very strong flavor and will easily overtake other flavors including the flavor of your pepper mash. Using a mild vinegar like Rice or Cane vinegar would do the job of reducing the Ph if it needs to be dropped any more. The fermenting process will bring the pepper mash down to a good level, it would depend on how much other ingredients you add.
 
Looks good so far and I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome.
 
Cheers,
RM
 
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Redeemer said:
I wanted to add that the first fermented sauce I ever made used habanero peppers and I really liked it. I duplicated the recipe and actually bottled it the day before yesterday. Johnsmhname has tried it and can give you his opinion. If you want I can send you a bottle.
Click to expand...
 
What's in the recipe? Was it matured? 
What's the proportion of vinegar/mash?
 
I wanna try it for sure! My sauce should be done soon, lets swap!  :P
 
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portveyn said:
 
What's in the recipe? Was it matured? 
What's the proportion of vinegar/mash?
 
I wanna try it for sure! My sauce should be done soon, lets swap!  :P
Click to expand...
It was orange bell peppers, habanero, mango, and sea salt ground up in a blender and aged for 28 days. Then I cooked, finished with unfiltered apple cider vinegar, a little ascorbic acid, and some xanthan gum.I used 1 cup of ACV roughly, to nearly a gallon of mash.
 
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If you can come up with a decent recipe for a fermented habañero sauce that you like that is pepper coolness.  For the past two years I have done a sauce which I like from habañeros. I really enjoy mine in a small batch 3-5 bottles.
 
Oak cubes or infusion spirals of american or french oak have been used in beer making for ever.  Medium toast is the normal burn.
 
I am glad Alden weighed in as he has been experimenting with oak in the recent past.
 
Fermenting and finishing at 190 -200 degrees, bottle and invert will give you shelf life.  As others have said, vinegar is added at the end of the production, if you want it.
 
Get yourself some glass mason/kerr jars or carboys and airlocks or other method to burp the c02
 
Here is my red habañero sauce up against Marie Sharps.
 
TcCq678l.jpg
 
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RocketMan said:
Aging of a hot sauce on wood is an idea that a bunch of us have toyed with. I only remember one person ever really trying it and he used an old Rum cask to age his sauce in. I don't remember how it came out, you might be able to find the thread on here with a search.
 
Apple wood is a very mild one, I use it a lot to smoke peppers, so getting any of the notes out of the wood will probably take some time if any come through at all over the flavor of the peppers. For more pronounced wood flavor you could look at Oak which would be available through any local home brew shop in a range of toasts.
 
Also given that Apple is a mild flavor you might want to rethink your choice of vinegar. Apple Cider Vinegar, (ACV) is a very strong flavor and will easily overtake other flavors including the flavor of your pepper mash. Using a mild vinegar like Rice or Cane vinegar would do the job of reducing the Ph if it needs to be dropped any more. The fermenting process will bring the pepper mash down to a good level, it would depend on how much other ingredients you add.
 
Looks good so far and I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome.
 
Cheers,
RM
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for a good, solid reply.
I used apple wood just because I had it  available ;]
 
For vinegar I might go with wine vinegar as it seems milder.
 
The only real reason I'm planning to add vinegar, is to make the
sauce stable enough so it doesn't have to be refrigerated even
after opening.
 
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The sauce is still fermenting, so I decided to grab some habaneros from local supermarket and make a quick cooked sauce.
To enjoy while ageing the main project. Here what I got:
 
WP_20160207_003.jpg

 
WP_20160207_005.jpg

 
Made of rice & apple vinegar, peppers, fresh mango, half of banana, tomato paste (1 tsp), garlic, dried onion,
paprika (not smoked), white pepper, sugar, salt.
Now it's cooling down on the balcony. And smells delicious.
 
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JohnsMyName said:
Looks HOT!  :fireball:
 
That paste will thicken it up for sure, the fruit too once it's cooked.
Click to expand...
 
I had to add more vinegar to water it down.
Tastes hot.
SavinaRed said:
Why not try and find an old oak or whiskey barrel ? Or even a smaller new one and ferment in one of them ?
Click to expand...
 
Amazon offers some 1 to 2L new American oak barrels. Around $35 with free shipping.
Looks affordable and cute. And romantic: fill it up with some good mash and let it sit
there. And taste from time to time.
 
But I'am not sure I wanna do it yet. Let me see what comes out of my current project.
What will I do with that much sauce too?!  :scared:
BurninBob said:
Looks awesome, did you run it through a blender after cooking?
Click to expand...
 
I used one like that:
31MDJZQP5XL._SY355_.jpg
 
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RocketMan said:
Hey portveyn, just read through this and a few things come to mind.
 
Aging of a hot sauce on wood is an idea that a bunch of us have toyed with. I only remember one person ever really trying it and he used an old Rum cask to age his sauce in. I don't remember how it came out, you might be able to find the thread on here with a search.
 
Apple wood is a very mild one, I use it a lot to smoke peppers, so getting any of the notes out of the wood will probably take some time if any come through at all over the flavor of the peppers. For more pronounced wood flavor you could look at Oak which would be available through any local home brew shop in a range of toasts.
 
Also given that Apple is a mild flavor you might want to rethink your choice of vinegar. Apple Cider Vinegar, (ACV) is a very strong flavor and will easily overtake other flavors including the flavor of your pepper mash. Using a mild vinegar like Rice or Cane vinegar would do the job of reducing the Ph if it needs to be dropped any more. The fermenting process will bring the pepper mash down to a good level, it would depend on how much other ingredients you add.
 
Looks good so far and I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome.
 
Cheers,
RM
Click to expand...
 
Theirs a big difference in taste from the Oraganic ACV and the regular Rot Gut stuff (Heinz etc), the Organic stuff is soft, I use Omega/Braggs.
 
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When the LAB have been allowed to fully do their thing, not cut short with only a 2 or 3 day run then there really is no need to add vinegar as the final Ph is going to be well within the limits of shelf stable. So the only reason to add it is to add the the taste profile.

I've used Braggs also and yes, while softer than the cheap stuff it is still a dominant flavor that can crush some of the softer notes in a sauce. That's why I suggest care in using it, add just a little bit at a time till you get what your looking for or using a milder vinegar.

Great thing about sauce making though is the only wrong answer is not making it. We all have different likes and some people like the ACV tang in their sauces and there's nothing wrong with that
 
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