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tutorial Fermenting Peppers 101

Thank you very much. Your explanation was very clear and has been very helpful. You think that will be more suitable for an environment with heat? something like 95 º f. 
In cupboard to store having no more than 70/80 ° f
 
RocketMan said:
There's going to be some. It may not be at a very high level or may have just enough to force some of the air out but there will be some. I think what's happened here is, he used some of the whole sourdough starter not the hooch and it's created a delayed action on the part of the lacto bacteria. When you have a separated out sourdough starter you have the flour part on the bottom where the yeast are going to be and the watery part on top where the lactobacillus are going to be concentrated. Even in brewing the first thing the yeast do is to reproduce enough yeast cells to handle the amount of sugars in the wort or in wine making the must. This is whats going on now in his mash but, he also has some yeast in there and they're fighting for control. What I think the outcome will be is his mash will complete fermentation as the lacto increase and the yeast go dormant. This will happen because there are enough sugars for the lacto to go for but not the yeast and there is a lack or O2 in there for the yeast to reproduce. There might even develop a yeast on the surface like a Kahm yeast but it wont be much.
 
JMHO though :)
 
 
RM
 
Very educational. Thanks
 
cypresshill1973 said:
 
Thank you very much. Your explanation was very clear and has been very helpful. You think that will be more suitable for an environment with heat? something like 95 º f. 
In cupboard to store having no more than 70/80 ° f
 
 
Lacto like it a bit warmer than yeast do. Ideal is about 85 to 95 degrees F (29 to 35 degrees C) and yes the dark of the cupboard will be good.
 
RocketMan said:
I've had so many requests for this I thought it would be easier to make a thread of it. Chili Monsta and I put it together and tried to cover as much as we could think of to cover. If you have questions feel free to ask.

Fermenting Peppers 101
By RocketMan and Chili Monsta

Starters

In fermenting peppers we use microaerophilic bacteria called Lactobacillus. The Lactobacillus eats the sugars in the mash then poops Lactic Acid and farts CO2. The Lactic Acid which is produced lowers the PH of the mash making it an acidic environment in which other bacteria such as botuline toxin, which would contribute to ruining the mash, cannot exist. As such the use of acids like as vinegar and lime or lemon juice are not needed but may be used in a sauce for the flavor.

There are several different ways to start a pepper mash fermenting and all will result in the same finished product. I will focus on 3 of them here.

A couple of things in common to all methods are that once the lid is on and the fermentation is going gas (CO2) is given off. Some people like to attach an Airlock to the lid so that the gas can escape while others just place the lid on loosely. Either way the idea is to prevent Oxygen from getting in and maintain the CO2. This helps to prevent any bad bacteria from getting in. The fermentation jar cannot be stuffed full of peppers or you will have pepper juice everywhere. The peppers will rise and fall within the liquid they are fermenting in initially so some space, say 1 to 1 ½ inches needs to be left in the top of the fermentation jar to allow for the pepper to rise. Some like to add weights to hold the peppers down. Some of the cheese cloth with glass beads will work very well for this.

1. Wild Fermentation. For a wild fermentation you are going to collect the wild yeast that is in the air and use it to ferment the peppers. To do this you first need to add enough salt to the mash so that the bad bacteria can’t infect your mash before the good bacteria get going. Typically this is somewhere between 6 and 10 percent of weight. Some add a little Ascorbic Acid as well to retard mold. Place your mash into a container and cover the top with several layers of Cheese Cloth to keep out any dirt but to allow the bacteria to get in. Once you see that mash bubbling away you can loosely add a lid and allow the fermentation to continue.


2. Whey Starter. Whey is the liquid that is seen in a tub of yogurt when it is allowed to sit for a while. The whey is collected as shown in the pictures here. Thanks Chili Monsta.
The whey is then added to the pepper mash and helps to kick start the fermentation process. Less salt is needed in these mashes as there is no delay waiting for the Lactobacillus to be collected and a good fermentation can be seen within a couple of hours.

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3. Sourdough Starter. Some like to use the hooch from a sourdough starter. This is the method I use. As with the Whey method the hooch is added to the mash and there is less of a salt requirement. Fermentation can be seen starting within a couple of hours. I like this method best as I don’t have to buy a tub of yogurt each time I want to start some peppers and I get to enjoy some of the best homemade bread around. I have included a very simple recipe for making a sourdough starter that can be used within 2 weeks to start some pepper fermenting or making bread.

Hooch

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4. Other Starters. The juice from Sauerkraut and Kim Chi can also be used to start fermentation.

The Mash

A note here on Mashes, Mash as used here is a generic term. While a true mash has been ground into small bits you can also have a successful fermentation just choping the ingredients into small pieces, smaller than 1 inch square (2.58 cm). This is handy for those who dont have Kitchen Food Processors or other means of easily reducing the ingredients to small bits. If you are using chopped ingredients it would be good to plan on a longer fermentation time to allow the bacteria to work on the bigger pieces say, extending it another 2 weeks.

Peppers are naturally low in sugars and as fermentation works from the sugars can be hard to start. Many like to ferment just the pepper in their mash while others like to add the other ingredients. I typically mash all of the ingredients of a sauce recipe so that there are more sugars for the bacteria to work on. Most all recipes will include Carrots, Onion, and Garlic. With these added there will be ample sugars for a good fermentation.

Setting up the Fermentation jar. Using the above ingredients, shredded the carrots and ran all of the peppers with the seeds and ribs if you want the added heat, onion and garlic, through a Food Processor then put it all into a glass jar big enough to hold it all. Add the Starter and gave it a stir. Dissolve 2 tablespoons salt into 2 cups warm water and poured it over the top till all veggies are under water. A word here about salt. Pickling salt is the salt of choice here as it is just salt. Other salts such as kosher salt include an anti-caking ingredient and may have Iodide. While these will not harm the fermentation or the consumer they may change the look of the final product.

Fermentation time. I would typically not run a fermentation for less than 30 days. Mine usually go for 45 to 90 days. Now, that said there are some that will let them go for years. Tabasco is reputed to ferment their peppers for a 3 year period. The time you decede to go with is totally up to you.

Fermentation is complete.
This is the point where cleanliness becomes your best friend. Everything that touches your sauce now needs to be sanitized. This is easily accomplished using unscented bleach and water. Using the big pot you plan to boil the sauce in fill it with COLD water, hot water should never be used for this, and a couple of tablespoons of bleach. Allow everything that will touch the sauce to soak for 15 minutes then place them into an area you have designated as your clean zone. Next comes your bottles, caps and reducers. These can be run through your dishwasher with the heated dry turned on. When done place them into the clean zone.

It is now time to make some sauce. Pour all of the contents from the fermentation jar into a big pot and bring it to a boil for 30 minutes. Very carefully then run them through a Blender in batches until is smooth then back into the pot. Bring it to a boil again adding some water if it is too thick for another 20 minutes. Then run the entire batch through the blender again. Now you should have a very smooth sauce. Return the sauce to the pot and heat to 195 degrees F for 15 minutes then carefully funnel into the bottles. Add a reducer and a cap and place it upside down for another 15 minutes to allow the caps to sterilize.

Other.

Helpful Links.

Fermenting pickles and peppers
http://www.grist.org...ing-made-simple

Steps to fermenting peppers
http://www.nathaliel...uce-raw-tabasco

Several good recipes and instructions
http://nourishedkitc...i-sauce-recipe/

Get Cultured (Nourished Kitchen free e-book)
http://issuu.com/nou...howFlipBtn=true

Bob Hurt Hab Mash
http://www.scribd.co...h-and-Hot-Sauce

Nice fermentation blog
http://okanagandaily...asco-sauce.html

Q/A about mash process
http://en.allexperts...pper-mash-1.htm

Kitchen Gardens blog/ 5 step HS recipe
http://kitchengarden...r-own-hot-sauce

A very simple to make a starter.

Small russet potato
2 Cups Flour
2 Cups Water
1 packet (3 tsp) Active Dry Yeast

Put the whole potato into a pot with enough water to cook the potato down to mush. Once it is falling apart put it into a blender with 2 cups of the water. It’s ok to add water if there is not enough left and blend until it’s smooth. Let cool till warm and pour into the container you r going to hold it in. Add 2 cups flour and the dry yeast. Mix well but lumps are ok as they will work out. Place this on a pie pan or something that will hold anything that boils over.

A good working starter after feeding

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For the next 3 days every morning add 2 Tbs Flour and 2 Tbs Water. After the 3rd day just let it work for another 3 days. When it starts to settle clean the container if it boiled over any and place into the fridge for another 6 days. Now you should have a good amount of hooch built up and be ready to ferment some peppers. You’ll only need a couple of tablespoons of hooch for a quart jar of peppers, I typically run a gallon jar at a time and use ¼ cup, the rest I mix back into the starter. After you have the peppers going it’s time to make the bread. This is a simple recipe I use for a San Francisco style Sourdough bread. It’s great toasted for breakfast or sliced in half for a Sub sandwich or a Panini.

And since you now have a good Sourdough starter
Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

• 4 3/4 cups bread flour
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm milk
• 2 tablespoons margarine, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
• 1 extra large egg
• 1 tablespoon water

Directions

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, and dry yeast. Add milk and softened butter or margarine. Stir in starter. Mix in up to 3 3/4 cups flour gradually, you may need more depending on your climate.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turn once to oil surface, and cover. Allow to rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in volume.
Punch down, and let rest 15 minutes. Shape into loaves. Place on a greased baking pan. Allow to rise for 1 hour, or until doubled.
Brush egg wash over tops of loaves.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, or till done as it may take another 10 to 20 minutes if you use stoneware like I do.
 
EDIT: The ideal temperature for fermenting is between 80 and 95 degrees F for Lactobacillus.
Does the Yeast Leave A Bread flavor in the Sauce?
 
Since your just using the Hooch, the clearish portion, of the starter your only adding the LAB from the starter. The yeast are in the other portion and if any do cross over, it's not enough to matter. 
 
I've got a ferment going for about a week now and it has started to develop spots of black/green mold on top. Can I just scrape this off and press on or is this batch trash?
 
AbeFroman said:
I've got a ferment going for about a week now and it has started to develop spots of black/green mold on top. Can I just scrape this off and press on or is this batch trash?
 
In my experience any mold that is NOT white is a bad sign.  White mold on the top is usually Kham yeast and can be scraped off with no problems.  Black or green molds are a different story though.  Either the vessel was not sterile or perhaps not enough salt or starter was used or the seal at the top allowed oxygen into the vessel and toxic molds are starting to form.  Hard to say for sure without a pic Abe, but I'd guess it's start over time.  Don't be discouraged though - I went through about 4 lbs of peppers before I got a ferment that I really liked.  :)
 
http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x356/spiker311/photo1_zps846eecc6.jpg
 
That mold blew up really fast. Yesterday there was only a couple of specs. That pic is from this morning. I just scrapped it to be safe.
 
This was my first attempt but I have three others that are going fine. I'm wondering if allowing too much air space in my jar above the mash was the problem. I only filled up the quart sized mason jar about a third of the way up, leaving about two thirds of the jar as empty air. Otherwise, i checked the seal and it was airtight, I sterilized the jar with stuff from my local homebrew store, there was more than enough salt in the brine solution (10%).
 
AbeFroman said:
I'm wondering if allowing too much air space in my jar above the mash was the problem. I only filled up the quart sized mason jar about a third of the way up, leaving about two thirds of the jar as empty air. Otherwise, i checked the seal and it was airtight, I sterilized the jar with stuff from my local homebrew store, there was more than enough salt in the brine solution (10%).
 
Bingo!  Downsize the jar or upsize the recipe amount.  Make sure that your mash is up to the 'shoulders' of the jar - with about an inch of headspace total - otherwise there's too much air in there and it will give you trouble.  And I'd trash that batch were I you.  
 
SmokenFire said:
 
Bingo!  Downsize the jar or upsize the recipe amount.  Make sure that your mash is up to the 'shoulders' of the jar - with about an inch of headspace total - otherwise there's too much air in there and it will give you trouble.  And I'd trash that batch were I you.  
 
I already poured the moldy one on the curb for my homies. Are you saying to trash the other three I've got going too? None of the other jars have mold but they all have empty space like this one. I'm inclined to just leave them if there is no mold forming.
 
Fantastic thread, took a while to read it through but as a newb, I'm in read mode. BUT, I did start two ferments in mason jars, no brine, just mash, salt and sugar, according to a recipe in a book for making Sriracha sauce. I blended up 40 or so ripe jalapeños, 7 or 8 cloves of garlic, a pretty heaped tbsp of himalayan salt, and instead of brown sugar as the recipe calls for, I used steens syrup and added one extra tbsp. Blended, put in mason jar, used the ring to cap it with plastic wrap so gasses escape. It sat for a week before it started brewing. Having read this thread I'm wondering if I should keep going the way the recipe says, which is to gently shake the contents each day.
 
The smell is fantastic, so I did another. Since I had a few pounds of cheery peppers, I thought I'd make a mild version too. Ground them up in the food processor with a couple of orange habaneros and did the same recipe. They started bubbling in 3 days.
 
No brine, obviously not totally anearobic, and I am finally getting some layering and lots of bubbles.
I appreciate that SmokenFire just said "No mold = let it ride imo!" and I plan to do that.
 
Any other suggestions for this nearly open, wild ferment? I think I might ought to stop the gently shaking part?
 
Thanks for helping a newb, looking real forward to when my tabasco peppers come in and I can apply the wisdom of this thread to a more proper ferment.
 
Welcome to THP Scott!
 
The shaking is probably just to get the bubbles out. If you want to do something swirl it to help release them otherwise let it ride :)
 
RocketMan, just want to say awesome post, great information and thank you for posting it!
also i have not read through all 22 pages yet, but i was hoping you could answer one question i had about the "wild  fermenting"   
after i chop/grind up all my fresh peppers, and add 6 to 12% of salt, do i need to add water to this or will the juice's from the peppers be enough? 
 
magicpepper.....Not trying to interfere with your question to Rocket man.... and I'm confident he would agree with the following response..... you should make sure that there is enough liquid(be it juice from the ingredients and/or additional water) to cover the mash which should be kept submerged beneath the surface.....lactic acid fermentation is an "anaerobic" process (absence of oxygen). Therefore anything above the surface of the brine solution has the potential for exposure to oxygen and the formation of mold.
CM
 
Chili Monsta said:
magicpepper.....Not trying to interfere with your question to Rocket man.... and I'm confident he would agree with the following response..... you should make sure that there is enough liquid(be it juice from the ingredients and/or additional water) to cover the mash which should be kept submerged beneath the surface.....lactic acid fermentation is an "anaerobic" process (absence of oxygen). Therefore anything above the surface of the brine solution has the potential for exposure to oxygen and the formation of mold.
CM
thats all i needed to know, and thank you chilli monsta for the reply, i addressed the question to rocketman because he was the one who put up the post, but it really was up for anyone to answer.  i wasnt sure if it was like fermenting cabbage or not, because cabbage you slice and put a bit in, then salt, then add some more then salt and so forth until it is all in, then you weigh it down and let the salt take out the juices and let it ferment, i was not sure if peppers could be done the same way or not. but now i do know and i thank you very much
 
You're welcome....sounds like you've fermented cabbage before...if so, I think you will see that peppers don't give up anywhere near the amount of juice as does cabbage. also, be aware that chlorinated water (since the purpose chlorine is to kill bacteria) can interfere with the development of the lactic acid necessary for a successful ferment.
Here's a link to another thread that both myself and Rocket Man have posted some info and pictures you might find useful.
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/47444-why-your-ferment-grew-mold-what-to-doand-how-to-prevent-it/#entry1003009
 
Good luck....enjoy.
CM
 
Chili Monsta said:
You're welcome....sounds like you've fermented cabbage before...if so, I think you will see that peppers don't give up anywhere near the amount of juice as does cabbage. also, be aware that chlorinated water (since the purpose chlorine is to kill bacteria) can interfere with the development of the lactic acid necessary for a successful ferment.
Here's a link to another thread that both myself and Rocket Man have posted some info and pictures you might find useful.
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/47444-why-your-ferment-grew-mold-what-to-doand-how-to-prevent-it/#entry1003009
 
Good luck....enjoy.
CM
i have tried my hand at making sauerkraut and it turned out ok lol
i dont use chlorinated water for anything lol i have well water and use filtered well water for just about everything. gotta love the britta tap thingy lol
 
and thank you for the link i will definitely check it out. you have been very helpful and i appreciate it!
 
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