fermenting Bitter ferment

[Fireeater86]

I attempted an all yellow pepper ferment. I have a 5lbs mix of Datils, bonda me Jacques, and malaysian goronong peppers with 3 tbl spoons of salt. After 6 weeks, I opened my ferment and gave it a taste and found it to be extremely bitter. What gives? Is it fixable? How should I proceed?

 

[Topsmoke]

 in my case, the peppers are not bitter when eaten fresh

weird, ok so lets define bitter.  We mean bitter like eating an asprin not sour like a pickle right?  I often wonder if there is a genetic trait that allows one to "taste" capsaicin, like how some people can taste litmus paper.  I often think a sauce is bitter, (asprin) to have others tell me they dont taste it.

 

[Fireeater86]

[SIZE=medium]Thank again everyone for the input. The bitterness is almost like a Chinese hot mustard sauce bitter. Close to chewing up an aspirin.  I am going to have to just chalk this one up to a learning experience.  As I stated before, after having it bottled for 24 hours I started to worry about the pH like I always do.  My process for bottling was I ground up an entire pineapple with some pineapple juice in a blender then added it to a pot with the mash. I also added a splash of apricot brandy, some citric acid, a splash of white vinegar and a cup of sugar. After boiling for 10 minutes and simmering for 30 I tasted and it was a still bitter.  I blended everything up and put it through a strainer and back into the pot. I boiled again for 10 minutes and added more sugar, let it simmer and it was still bitter. I added more sugar and it was still bitter. I bottled and after 24 hours started panicking about the pH as I have no accurate way of testing it. I opened a bottle and gave it a taste and it was so acidic I think it removed layers of my mouth lol, sweet and still very very bitter. Not only did it not taste very good, but now instead of having a beautiful bright yellow sauce, I had a brownish yellow ( like cinnamon apple sauce color)  syrup. The really disappointing thing is that I wasted 5 pounds of perfectly good home grown peppers. However, I did learn a few things. First thing Is I need to buy a pressure canner so that I don’t freak out every single time I BWB can something. Second, I need to find a good pH meter. Anyone have any recommendations? I have tried three and all were junk.[/SIZE]

 

[SmokenFire]

[SIZE=medium]Second, I need to find a good pH meter. Anyone have any recommendations? I have tried three and all were junk.[/SIZE]

 
Here is a thread started awhile back with some good recommendations.  Don't give up on the sauce either!  Some combination of sweet/sour/salt is going to balance it out and you won't lose those pods.  

 

[oldsalty]

Thank again everyone for the input. The bitterness is almost like a Chinese hot mustard sauce bitter. Close to chewing up an aspirin.  I am going to have to just chalk this one up to a learning experience.  As I stated before, after having it bottled for 24 hours I started to worry about the pH like I always do.  My process for bottling was I ground up an entire pineapple with some pineapple juice in a blender then added it to a pot with the mash. I also added a splash of apricot brandy, some citric acid, a splash of white vinegar and a cup of sugar. After boiling for 10 minutes and simmering for 30 I tasted and it was a still bitter.  I blended everything up and put it through a strainer and back into the pot. I boiled again for 10 minutes and added more sugar, let it simmer and it was still bitter. I added more sugar and it was still bitter. I bottled and after 24 hours started panicking about the pH as I have no accurate way of testing it. I opened a bottle and gave it a taste and it was so acidic I think it removed layers of my mouth lol, sweet and still very very bitter. Not only did it not taste very good, but now instead of having a beautiful bright yellow sauce, I had a brownish yellow ( like cinnamon apple sauce color)  syrup. The really disappointing thing is that I wasted 5 pounds of perfectly good home grown peppers. However, I did learn a few things. First thing Is I need to buy a pressure canner so that I don’t freak out every single time I BWB can something. Second, I need to find a good pH meter. Anyone have any recommendations? I have tried three and all were junk.

Don't know if you read my post but most bitter sauces can be fixed by adding vinegar. You went crazy trying to sweeten the sauce added lots of other ingredients and sugar. Once you have a bitter base the only method that I've found to work is adding vinegar at the amount I recommended earlier. Small amounts of sugar or honey. But the vinegar is the key. It will slowly start to counter that bitter flavor. By adding lots of sugar your just adding sweet sometimes to the point of super sweet!! Blah add an acid to a base to counteract that bitter flavor.

Then allow to rest. The flavor will mellow.

 

[Ozzy2001]

Totally agree with OS here. Just a little vinegar goes a long way. I found it helps with too salty too. At least for me.

But yeah, I had a batch that was supper bitter. I think it was Salty's recommendation on a thread that I saw and added some vinegar to mine. It was like magic. Lol kind of like those old Oxy clean commercials where the water turns from dirty to insta white lol. I couldn't believe it.

 

[RocketMan]

Bitterness in a sauce, not a very fun issue to have. I learned to cook from 2 really great ladies, my Mom and my Grandma and one of the first things I learned was the amazing things that potatoes can do. Most everyone knows about how a potato will soak up the saltiness from something. Just peel a larger whole potato and stick it into the middle of the pot while it simmers. Discard the potato when it's where you want it. Well, a potato will also soak up the bitterness from a sauce. Made a Guinness stew, there were other root veggies but no potatoes in it, once and it came out bitter.  Put a potato inther for about 45 minutes and dang, it was perfect.
 
The Mighty yet amazingly humble Potato!
 
Cheers Brothers,