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fermenting Ferment continues to just not taste like anything

I just finished a three-week ferment, after my last three-week ferment, and both batches literally have no flavor. I can sort of taste something, but there's practically no flavor. It's a very spicy and tasteless paste that I end up with, and I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.
 
I ferment for about three weeks, like I said, after the carbonation has stopped, and I use 3-4 garlic cloves, quarter to half an onion, and 3-4 slices of lemon, along with the peppers. And after the ferment, it just barely tastes like anything. I'm trying to get a tasty hot sauce, and I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. Even if I puree just the ingredients and leave out all of the brine, it just has no flavor.
 
What are some tips and tricks to bring out the flavor? It was recommended to cook the product on a stove and add salt and other ingredients to enhance the flavor, but is that standard practice? Should I need to be doing that in order to get a tasty final product?
 
Again, just looking for some tips I might be overlooking to try and produce something that tastes good.
 
Thanks.
 
I'd be a bit nervous about the lemon potentially throwing it off, and you didn't mention how much salt and water you added or what kind of/how much (if any) starter you used. And while a lack of measurements isn't necessarily a red flag by itself, if you actually winged it like this on your first try, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a problem with proportions.
 
I'd say for your next batch you should find a simple, specific recipe to follow -- there should be plenty of examples floating around, either here or in the hot sauce/fermentation subs on Reddit -- so you can have a baseline to work from.
 
internationalfish said:
I'd be a bit nervous about the lemon potentially throwing it off, and you didn't mention how much salt and water you added or what kind of/how much (if any) starter you used. And while a lack of measurements isn't necessarily a red flag by itself, if you actually winged it like this on your first try, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a problem with proportions.
 
I'd say for your next batch you should find a simple, specific recipe to follow -- there should be plenty of examples floating around, either here or in the hot sauce/fermentation subs on Reddit -- so you can have a baseline to work from.
 
I used 28 grams of salt for 2 cups of water, which should be about 5% brine. I read as low as 2% and as high as 8%, so 5% seemed good. A few lemon slices were because of my own idea to add some unique lemony flavor, but could the acid from the lemons really neutralize the flavor completely in some weird way? The ferment was very active for about 2 weeks, and I let it sit for another week even after the carbonation had subsided.
 
drimnarr said:
A few lemon slices were because of my own idea to add some unique lemony flavor, but could the acid from the lemons really neutralize the flavor completely in some weird way?
 
Not the flavor, no, I'm just not sure whether it'd cause pH issues and screw up the beginning of the ferment. It sounds like that wasn't the case, though, so I don't really know; hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in with ideas.
 
It's pretty obnoxious how much conflicting information there is out there regarding how much salt to use; the fact that everyone seems to be using completely different amounts and arriving at their numbers in different ways seems to suggest it just doesn't freaking matter that much.
 
At 3 weeks you might be tasting the initial effects of the breakdown so pith, and skins, and stuff like that. You have to have patience.
 
3 weeks is a short time but still viable depending on what you're going for.  After 3 weeks you can certainly get a hoy fung type sriracha sauce, so I'm wondering what exactly is going into your ferment to start.  You should also consider what type of flavor or direction you're wanting the sauce to take as you jar these up.  Without a full list of ingredients it's hard to provide feedback.  Let me know what's in the batches and ratios as close as you can describe and I'll put the thought sauce projection machine into motion.  
 
;)
 
SmokenFire said:
3 weeks is a short time but still viable depending on what you're going for.  After 3 weeks you can certainly get a hoy fung type sriracha sauce, so I'm wondering what exactly is going into your ferment to start.  You should also consider what type of flavor or direction you're wanting the sauce to take as you jar these up.  Without a full list of ingredients it's hard to provide feedback.  Let me know what's in the batches and ratios as close as you can describe and I'll put the thought sauce projection machine into motion.  
 
;)
 
Awesome, okay, so the ingredients are:
 
- Roughly half a pound of Brazilian Starfish
- 4-6 habenero peppers
- 3-4 slices of lemon
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
- about half a yellow onion
- 5% brine
 
It bubbles ferociously pretty quick, so I know the ferment is kicking off great. I'm trying to take this in a "lemon garlic" direction, since I love the taste of both of those things. I'll sometimes get a hankering to just munch on lemons every once in a while, as strange as it sounds.
 
All the feedback is greatly appreciated!
 
Okay!  Here's what I'm thinking - 
 
Don't know total amount of brine ratio to ingredients, which is important but also less important than your statement of blending without the brine.  That brine is full of flavor and should be kept in every batch you do - that's the reason you fermented it.  ;)  That aside, it doesn't appear there is really enough citric acid to inhibit the ferment if the brine/ingredients are bubbling early on.  Seems likely a seasoning or 'balance' issue with final taste.  Consider your finished ferment as a "base sauce".  It might taste great right out of the jar, or far more often it might need some adjustments to get the sauce right.  Play around adding a touch more of salt or a bit of sweet or sour, etc to bring out the flavors of your base ferment ingredients. 
 
It's awesome that you're fermenting!  You will get the hang of it in time.  
 
 
   
 
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