First attempt...

[hoibot]

well, actually my second attempt, but first after doing a bit of research.

i put about 14 orange habs, 5 serranos, 2 large anaheim, a head of garlic, two mangoes, one yellow sweet onion all together and pureed them, added ~3% salt by weight to it and tossed it in some jars.

the fermentation appears to be happening, i had a little left over so put it in the smaller jar to see if CO2 is building up under the jar lid, which it is, i've had to off gas it a few times over the week it's been going. not seeing any activity of the airlock in the other jar, but that's happened to me in the past with sauerkraut in those jars, some of the eyelets don't seem to seal enough to have it completely airtight. so, hopefully the blanket of CO2 is keeping oxygen from getting in, no signs of mold or anything on the top yet.

there are plenty of small bubbles visible in the jar, i think the mash might be a little too thick for the bubbles to be showing up in high populations on the top of the mash.

the top layer (few centimeters) of the mash in the larger jar especially is changing color, getting a bit darker, is that normal for the fermented pepper mashes?

thanks for looking, can't wait to try this in another month or so!

 

[hoibot]

i let this mash go for just over a month and finally got around to cooking it and bottling it today. there was never a vigorous ferment with this mash, but it got the pH down to 4.5 over a month's time (i have a very reliable pH meter). i think next time i will chop the ingredients coarsely and let them ferment in a salty solution.

anyway, i cooked it up, added maybe 1/2 cup of vinegar (combination of rice and apple cider vinegars), about 1 tablespoon of yellow mustaerd, and the juice of one lime. pureed it a few times during the cooking process and then put it through the finest plate on my food mill. the texture turned out perfect and it has a very pleasant heat. it hits you up front right after a brief taste of the ingredients and then stays with you for a bit with a nice aftertaste. the bottling process went well and i'm totally hooked! thanks for all the advice i've read on here, you are all an extremely helpful bunch.

the partially full bottle went into the fridge after some taste testing and the small bottle went to a good friend for some evaluation.

here it is cooking while the bottles sanitize:

finished sauce, the color is nice, but a little dark for what i was shooting for. hopefully i can make a sauce with yellow pods sometime to closer approximate the sauce i had in the virgin islands.

very happy with how this turned out. i think next time i will add more mango or some pineapple... thanks for looking!

 

[RocketMan]

Looks good, I just have a couple of questions on the bottles. The bottles look like you boiled them which is good, did you boil the caps also? Did the caps have the white seals in them or did you replace them with new caps?

Reason why I ask is we never reuse the caps that have the white seals in them because you can't properly sanitize/steralize them and it makes for a ticking time bomb as to someone getting really sick or poisoned from a contaminated bottle. Making Hot Sauce is a lot if fun as long as its done safely

 

[hoibot]

Looks good, I just have a couple of questions on the bottles. The bottles look like you boiled them which is good, did you boil the caps also? Did the caps have the white seals in them or did you replace them with new caps?

Reason why I ask is we never reuse the caps that have the white seals in them because you can't properly sanitize/steralize them and it makes for a ticking time bomb as to someone getting really sick or poisoned from a contaminated bottle. Making Hot Sauce is a lot if fun as long as its done safely

the bottles/caps i bought some time ago when I was starting to make bbq sauce and some other concoctions. so this is their first use. the caps actually have a dripper insert in them, so i soaked the caps and dripper inserts in starsan (brewing industry sanitizer) after a thorough washing and placed them on the bottle right after filling and did the inversion for probably 10-15 minutes while they cooled. for my next order of bottles (since i'm out now), i am going to get some of the ones with the liner inside the cap and some more with the dripper insert just so i have the option.

thanks for the feedback and making sure i don't get anybody sick!

taste is even better today... i can't stop eating it!

 

[RocketMan]

I know the feeling Brother, welcome to a new world and to the THP! If you grow your own peppers it's even more addictive when tasting something you grew yourself. If your grow also consider starting a Grow Log they're a lot of fun and you'll get a lot of great feedback from some really knowledgeable people.

 

[hoibot]

will do, thanks for the feedback.