This is my Scotch Bonnet sauce or also referred to at the "Iowa Hawkeye" tailgates...as the..."Black and Gold".
Its your basic/bare/bonnet sauce consisting of Jamaican Bonnets, cane vinegar, cane sugar, spices...blah, blah, blah...
It has a great taste with no sidetracking ingredients covering up that true Scotch Bonnet taste.
But there's always a way to modify a basic sauce............such as these...
Here are two half gallon Scotch Bonnet ferments, the one on the left is a year old and the one on the right, just a day.
Both ferments consist of vine ripened Yellow Scotch Bonnets which were picked then wiped off with a terry cloth. No washing of the pods.
I didn't use a starter to activate but was hoping to introduce a wild culture to both. Both jars have over four 2 gal bags of peppers which were hand chopped no blender/processor used. My mixer would have easily juiced the liquid from the pods. That's what I was trying to avoid. Even with a 10" chefs knife and a fast hand the mincing still took 2 hrs+
The minced peppers were combined with 2% sea salt and a couple tsp of evaporated cane sugar to form a dry pack. The weight of the year old ferment minus the weight of the jar is 5 lbs. I remember starting last years ferment up and placing it in a grow room which hovers at 86 deg. I had to place the jar on the floor in the closet because it became very active too fast. By the way the grow room is ideal for those who rise their own dough for homemade bread or pizza..........talk about air holes in a high hydrated dough.............WOW!
Anyways, what I'd like to do with the yr old stuff is to combine it with some fresh picked Bonnets and Bahamian Goats and other ingredients
to make a special sauce for the holidays. I can't tell you how the yr old ferment tastes since the lid has never been taken off since day one..
But what I can say is theres no mold and the mash has softened in textiure. I can see the gaps and creveases filled with extracted liquid so I believe all is well. A ph check will be happening within the next month.........and then its time to break out the Champagne.........vinegar!
Greg