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fermenting MikeUSMC's Ferments (pic heavy)

MikeUSMC

MikeUSMC

What's up, gang! Hope you don't mind, but I was kinda hoping to set up shop here, with the fermenting crew! Just officially joined THP today, but I've been lurking for quite some time, and you guys gave me enough confidence to start making/bottling my own stuff. Huge thanks in advance to all of you guys! You guys rock.

Anyway, here's a few concoctions I've been working on for the last year or so. All hobby stuff; mostly gifts for friends and family. A lot of these have been bottled up and given away already, but I thought I'd share what I've been working on so far. Here goes.....

My signature sauce ("Original Recipe"):
Douglahs, Chocolate Scotch Bonnets, pineapple, raisins, sweet onion, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, agave nectar, molasses, sea salt, Moscato wine (brine), powdered LB packets (starter)


Another few-
Red: Smoked red bells, smoked Red MoAs, smoked 7 Pot Lavas, sweet potato, roasted onion, roasted garlic, honey, sea salt, Moscato brine
Green: Blackened tomatillos, blackened Poblanos, jalapeños, and Scotch Bonnets (all green), sweet onion, roasted garlic, pineapple, cilantro, agave nectar, sea salt



Hobby labels for those ^:






My latest one (just processed about a week ago, not bottled yet):
Scotch Bonnets, golden raisins, baby carrots, red onion, fresh garlic, yellow bell pepper, yellow mustard, ginger, turbinado sugar, sea salt, ground turmeric, Pinot Grigio brine

Looked crazy, hahaha


I've got a few more ideas up my sleeve, and a freezer full of pods from last season! Thanks for looking, everybody!
 
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Cranked out another batch of my Bajan Mustard sauce today :party:

Hotter this time though. Instead of using MoAs, I used 1/2 ScotchBrains and 1/2 MA Daisy Cutters

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See you in 2 months ;)
:flamethrower:
 
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I happened to come across a handful of Iron Mike sauces which means I'll be eating a lot of pizza and Mexican food for the next month or so. Right, that was going to happen anyway.

I went with Toro Verde first, trying to save the "best" for last. These are all going to be frickin fantastic. Man Mike, nice green sauce with a good little kick. This afternoon I only had it on a spoon, about a TBSP worth. I get a touch of pineapple but that gets taken over quickly from the tartness of the tomatillo and lime. Then I get some of that fancy pink salt followed by the burn. Not much but it'll kick the pants off your everyday civilian.

Tried to think of a good meal to sprinkle it on this evening. Luckily the wife asked for chili tonight.... But a turkey chili. Womp womp. All good, I make it just like a beef chili but sub ground turkey and add corn.

Dammmmn, this sauce complements food incredibly well. I'd put it on eggs, burgers and fish any day of the week. Might dip fried chicken in it too.

I can't wait to get into the other ones Mike. Probably going to take my time with this for a few days before trying....the onion sauce? Lol

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Genetikx said:
I went with Toro Verde first, trying to save the "best" for last. These are all going to be frickin fantastic. Man Mike, nice green sauce with a good little kick. This afternoon I only had it on a spoon, about a TBSP worth. I get a touch of pineapple but that gets taken over quickly from the tartness of the tomatillo and lime. Then I get some of that fancy pink salt followed by the burn. Not much but it'll kick the pants off your everyday civilian.

Dammmmn, this sauce complements food incredibly well. I'd put it on eggs, burgers and fish any day of the week. Might dip fried chicken in it too. I can't wait to get into the other ones Mike
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Dude, I can't thank you enough for the honest review. If it needs work, please don't hesitate to tell me. The next batch of the Toro Verde I make will probably have more heat ;) I really hope you enjoy the other sauces too, man. Again, honest feedback is more than welcome. I'm always looking to improve! I'm really looking forward to hearing what you think of the rest of the sauces

Re: "Onion Sauce," lol. Disclaimer: to anyone who's received a box of sauce from me recently; There was an "onion mishap." I'll leave it at that, haha! That Bajan Mustard sauce is NOT usually that 'oniony!' I still hope you can all enjoy it :cheers:

peppamang said:
Mike I'm always impressed with what you're doing man! keep it up brother
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Thanks, man! PM me your address when you get chance. I'm more than happy to spread the heat around! Might be a while, since I just started a few more batches, but I won't forget, man!
 
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MikeUSMC said:
Re: "Onion Sauce," lol. Disclaimer: to anyone who's received a box of sauce from me recently; There was an "onion mishap." I'll leave it at that, haha! That Bajan Mustard sauce is NOT usually that 'oniony!' I still hope you can all enjoy it :cheers:
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When cutting onions, you cried so much, you couldn't see how many you put in the pot? :rofl:
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
When cutting onions, you cried so much, you couldn't see how many you put in the pot? :rofl:
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Something like that..... 3 recipes going at the same time. One got waaaaaaaaay too much :rofl:

MikeUSMC said:
I'm still waiting for "somebody" (AHEM, cough... Boss.....cough) to let me know what they think of it (Original Recipe) too. Word on the street is that he's got a super duper fine tuned palate..... :seeya:
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Does the quoted post have a date stamp? :seeya:
 
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MikeUSMC said:
Dude, I can't thank you enough for the honest review. If it needs work, please don't hesitate to tell me. The next batch of the Toro Verde I make will probably have more heat ;) I really hope you enjoy the other sauces too, man. Again, honest feedback is more than welcome. I'm always looking to improve! I'm really looking forward to hearing what you think of the rest of the sauces

Re: "Onion Sauce," lol. Disclaimer: to anyone who's received a box of sauce from me recently; There was an "onion mishap." I'll leave it at that, haha! That Bajan Mustard sauce is NOT usually that 'oniony!' I still hope you can all enjoy it :cheers:

Thanks, man! PM me your address when you get chance. I'm more than happy to spread the heat around! Might be a while, since I just started a few more batches, but I won't forget, man!
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Nothing wrong with lots of onion in a cooked hot sauce, I'd be curious to see how it would come out in a ferment without their usual sweetness.

My impression of the Toro Verde is that it was pretty tart. The ferment ate up the sugars in the mash and accentuated the tartness of the tomatillos. You're right about the heat level being a bit tame for pepperheads. It's probably OK for most folks though. Do you cook your sauce after fermentation is done to your liking? That would stabilize it for storage since fermentation would continue in the bottle otherwise. Cheers!

Sent from my LGL44VL using Tapatalk
 
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stickman said:
Do you cook your sauce after fermentation is done to your liking? That would stabilize it for storage since fermentation would continue in the bottle otherwise
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Sure do, Rick. I bring all of my sauces to a boil, then use the "hot fill hold" method, and invert the bottles immediately after they're capped. That way, the get a proper seal, and I don't have 'bottle bombs' going off later :rofl:
 
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The bottle I opened had some intense vacuum action from the HFH. Never had a bottle of sauce pop like that when opening. I bottle at about 200 degrees myself and only get a little hiss. Never had a pop like that from commercial sauces either.
 
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Alright Mike, I popped the top on the Original Recipe tonight. First thing I did was inhale that wonderful aroma. All I know is I had a huge grin on my face after smelling the stuff. Knew I was going to love this one.

Took a good spoonful of it straight....oops. This one is pretty hot, had to grab a few tortilla chips, which never really helps but didn't want to fill up on bread. Caught about 4 hiccups and then I'll admit to you, as long as you don't tell anybody, I took a little bit of milk. The real burn went away at that point but it still lingered. Yea, I like this sauce and it's my favorite so far.

I recall looking at the ingredients and thinking good pepper combo but the pineapple, dates, brown sugar, agave, and molasses were certain to mask the heat. Nope! Member dem hiccups. Threw the sauce all over tonight's thin crust pizza. Went together with pepperoni and red sauce nicely. I really, really like this sauce.

If I were to even try to make it better, I'd skip the smoke flavoring and instead, smoke some of the ingredients. Not the peppers, but I'd throw the pineapple, dates, onion, garlic and ginger on that fancy smoker you built for a good hour or two. No matter the method though, you're right, smoke works awesome with this one.

Love what you do, Mike. Awesome work friend!
 
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Genetikx said:
If I were to even try to make it better, I'd skip the smoke flavoring and instead, smoke some of the ingredients. Not the peppers, but I'd throw the pineapple, dates, onion, garlic and ginger on that fancy smoker you built for a good hour or two.

Love what you do, Mike. Awesome work friend!
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Thanks, dude! I'm glad you enjoyed it. The first time I made that sauce was before I had a smoker, so I was adding 1/2 teaspoon of Liquid Smoke (I know, I know...) to each batch. Since I built my smoker, all the pods have been smoked (including the bottle you got), and the Liquid Smoke has been omitted. I must've forgotten to update the labels. I've also thought about grilling the pineapple first too.

Taking another look at the label for that one, I'm just realizing that I forgot to add Moscato wine (brine) to the ingredients list. Whoops! Guess I've got a little updating to do, lol. Thanks for bringing that to my attention! :)
 
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