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fermenting Making some thangs, Puree, hot sauce, ferment.

I  got  a  few  peppers to  process and was  thinking about trying my hand at either fermenting, AJs Puree  or a mash... not that I really know the differences between mash and ferment. 
 
What I do have on hand are large ball jars, regular jars, kosher salt, pickling salt,  two flip top lids with  airlocks that fit  them, ph probe and a handful of peppers. 
 
El scorponero (Carbonero x butch T yellow)
 
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481 grams
 
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and some the Devils prick (paper lantern x butch T yellow) 455g
 
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Both of these  taste good enough I think they would make really nice hot sauces in the future. 
 
I don't have any starter so I suppose i'd have  to go for Wild Fermentation.
 
I'll give  AJ's  Puree a try as well. Maybe smoke some over alder. 
 
Pasted here for my reference 
 
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In my opinion. The puree is the easiest and you are done in a couple of hours. It condenses the peppers and makes them stable for storage.

The fermentation and aging provides a completely different flavor profile, notice I didn't say better, but has risks. I am not saying fermented and aged has a bad or worse flavor, it is subjective to your personal tastes.

Last night I opened a pepper ferment from last year that fermented for 90 days and then aged in a fridge for over 8 months and the smell was incredible. I hope to process it this weekend.

I suggest you try both. Buddy sent me a jar of his pecan smoked moruga puree and it is one of the best and hottest things I have ever had.
 
Love your conversion chart. I'm gonna borrow that for my own use ;)
 
As far as mash vs. ferment, both are good choices. I usually create a mash with various peppers and garlic with a little salt and keep some fresh in the fridge while the rest goes to ferment jars. Best of both worlds :party:
 
AJ's puree is straight up Da Bomb!!
Can't go wrong with it and if you got a crock pot/slow cooker, better yet. It won't burn your puree and you can walk away for longer periods of time.
 
Thanks, I found the chart on AJs thread.

I may also try my hand at some hotsauce today. I got 2 dozen 5oz woozies to play with. Most my recipes last year used citrus for acid. I'm going to try using vinegars. Nothing too savory. More pepper than other ingredients.
 
Pasting some things here for my reference later
 
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 cant 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.
 
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 (I have High Blood Pressure and use a low amount of salt in my diet, for normal fermenters this should be in the 6 to 8 percent by weight range) into 2 cups warm water (I needed to add some water to the ingredients while in the food processor to get them moving so this was all I needed) and poured it over the top till all veggies are under water and to within an Inch of the top. A word here about salt. Pickling salt is the salt of choice here as it is just salt.
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/48709-newest-ferment-easy-and-fun/?hl=%2Bnewest+%2Bferment+%2Beasy+%2Band+%2Bfun
 
I got a handful of woozies, jars and a half gallon jar and fermentor cap in the dishwasher. 
 
2lbs of peppers in the smoker with alder and a cherry chunk. 
 
Prepping some pizza dough for later and then going to start getting my onions, garlic and carrots together.  
 
I still need to find some good sauce recipes. I got a bunch of yellow peppers I was thinking just peppers, apple sauce and vinegar for one sauce and then maybe a more savory red sauce. 

Question, on my air lock, should I use regular water or add some sanitizer to it? I still have a bunch of sanitizer from my failed brew attempt. 
 
Well that  was a big waste of time. I made puree from the devils prick. 450 grams after being smoked ended up just under 200g added enough pods of the el scorponero to equal 200g. Followed the steps for 200g batch.  
 
After food processor I ran through a food mill with the finest hole pattern. Ended up with a really smooth pulp free sauce. 
 
As for the batch of hot sauce, that was a cluster fuck. I'm not trying to do this outdoors any more. I Grilled 4 roma tomatoes, a white onion, garlic, carrots. Tossed them in the food processor with distilled vinegar, 100g el scorponeros, 3 guajillo pods and some salt. Blended and ran through mill with second smallest mesh for a coarser sauce but still able to use a drip emitter. 
 
The burner on my grill, lowest setting is too high, kept scorching my sauce. 
 
Come time to bottle, I got two bottles in and a moth suicide bombed right into my pot of sauce....... well that went down the toilet. lol
 
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My wife has athsma so I was trying to be conciderate because some times the kitchen does get a bit nuclear. ... for now on I just do it when no ones home. Hopefully the puree tastes good. Worried I didn't simmer it long enough because the grill was scorching it. I did give it a nice long water bath though. 
 
Thank you for confirming my decision to continue brewing inside, and sorry for your loss!
tctenten said:
In my opinion. The puree is the easiest and you are done in a couple of hours. It condenses the peppers and makes them stable for storage.

The fermentation and aging provides a completely different flavor profile, notice I didn't say better, but has risks. I am not saying fermented and aged has a bad or worse flavor, it is subjective to your personal tastes.

Last night I opened a pepper ferment from last year that fermented for 90 days and then aged in a fridge for over 8 months and the smell was incredible. I hope to process it this weekend.

I suggest you try both. Buddy sent me a jar of his pecan smoked moruga puree and it is one of the best and hottest things I have ever had.
Sounds a lot like The Bum's Aged/Fermented Butch T ...

So fucking hot, Jesus ...
 
That sucks about the kamikazi moth.  What you got looks good, though....  There some heat dissipating discs for use with gas ranges and such.  I used to use some custom make ones cut out of aluminum plate, and I've seen other ones ....AH!  Just googled it....burner heat diffuser!  Those would help with the burning issues....
 
 
 
 
You know......the FDA does have an allowable PPM of insect pieces in food products............:sick:
 
tried the devils prick smoked puree today. Ish is delicious and some fire. Had it on a portillos maxwell polish and some fried. Really addictive
 
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dipping some Doritos in it for a snack. 
 
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I was thinking about making some pepper vinegar like you see at steak and shake or in the condiment isles. 
 
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What's the best way to do it?
 
I was thinking slice tops off pods, blanch in boiling water and stuff into jars then fill with a hot vinegar/brine solution. 
 
Or should I just boil it all together for a few mins and then sift the peppers out and stuff into bottles?
 
 
I was thinking about making some pepper vinegar like you see at steak and shake or in the condiment isles.
 
I sliced the tops off of the super chiles and the larger peppers i cut just small enough to fit in the bottle. The vinegar was poured in hot after the bottles were filled with peppers.
 
Super Chile, Serrano and green habanero.vinegar. Its delicious on cucumber and onion salad.
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I just made a quick batch of pepper vinegar. I used a nice wine vinegar, splash of mirin for sweetness, some the datu then a bunch of peppers. Mostly goatsweed, some orange wild brazils, cayenne, bums serrano x maui purple cross, charapita and 1.5 cloves garlic per bottle. 
 
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Heated to 175, screwed on caps and inverted, removed cap, installed rip emitter, put cap back on and inverted again. 
 
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