My First Sauce

Houston, we have liftoff!

Welcome to the madness!

Yyyeeeeeehhhhhhaaaaaaaa! Haven some fun now.

did you put the mango in?

Hello Everyone, I wanted to update you on the results from my first ferment. I didn't get enough from the Butch-T mash to boil, so I am using it like a chili paste which is still good.  The Habanero sauce is updated below.
 
Just beginning to ferment:
 

 
Here is the ferment at 90+ Days
 

 
 
Boiling the mash:
 
 

 
 
Blending:
 

 
More Boiling:
 

 
Run it thru the Food Mill:
 

 
 
More simmering of the sauce, bringing it off at 195 deg.
 

 
Check the pH levels, all good:
 

 
Bottle the Hot Sauce!
 

 
 
Here is my burnt orange colored sauce next to the Arbol/Piquin colored Cholula:
 

 
Clean-up!!
 
 
 
 
The sauce tastes okay to me. I like it! A bit on the hot side but good flavor, not sweet.  Maybe could have used a little sweatener like a cane sugar, but then Cholula doesnt have any :-)  Thanks for watching!!

Really nice color!  Great pics of the process too PR!  

Looking good!
 
Can you put a larger screen on that mill? You're losing pepper flesh. The "pepper" is flavor, and the base of the sauce.
 
Personally, I don't food mill. I cook it down and keep it all!!!!!
 
But the mill shouldn't be removing pulp, pulp = pepper. What are your intentions with the mill? A thin sauce?

If your intention is seed (and hard bits) removal, either remove seeds before cooking, or cook that pulp down more so it doesn't get lost in the mill.
 
Just my 2c. Everyone does it different. 

THP,
 
I was following Ferment 101 instructions for my first time.  I guess my goal was to end up with something resembling store bought, like a tobasco or Cholula or Franks, etc.   The Ferment 101 said run it thru a food mill at one point.  You are right, though, that mill I used is a super fine Matfer which is over kill.  I have something less intense that I can use.  More of a potato ricer with larger pass-thru that will hold the seeds but let me have more "pepper goodness" or pulp - pepper, as you say.  Thanks for weighing in and giving your 2c.  Thanks also to Ralphster.
 
I was able to go from a seedling to harvest to sauce.  Pretty long and involved process with 90 day ferment, and all.  Good experience.  Learned a ton and came up with my own hobby sauce, if only 3 1/2 bottles
 
Jim

Cool man!
 
Results look good no matter. 

I noticed if I really let the peppers sit for a few minutes in the food processor and become really finely processed, ferment and put back into food processor again, I don't have to do any additional work after that. No boiling the sauce for periods of time, no milling, nothing, as it comes out smooth. I agree with THP to a point about removing too much pepper. I for the most part do it both ways. On the really hot sauce, I leave as is per my instructions above. On some of the others I do the same as above, but then press the mixture through a large stainless steel screen, which allows pretty much everything to pass through except the hardest and thickest fibrous material. There is a major plus as to why I choose to do my sauces this way as well. Because my sauce is almost basically liquid when its finished, most of the actual pepper essence is extracted, and the sauce is very flavorful. What is left over is a delicious treat. I take the pressed mash, and treat it like pepper paste, which is what it essentially becomes. This paste is simply amazing! I gave away just one 2 oz container(i did not have much) to a friend, and he thought it was one of the best condiments he had ever had. I have to admit, I might like this paste even better than the sauce! So you do have this extra delicious component to consider if you filter it right. I will definitely say that the screen or filter cannot be too fine though, or you will waste good pepper, and the sauce will not have arrived at its full potential.

If you're loosing too much pulp then as THP says look for a larger screen. You could also use a fine screen wire mesh strainer and push it through with a silicon spatula.