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fermenting Drifty's ferments & sauces

Drifty

Drifty

Each year its time to harvest my crop I tend to try something new with what I have. Most of the time it's all turned into sauces the usual way and whatever is left over goes in the dehydrator for either powders or reconstitution later on.
 
This year it was time to learn how to ferment. My main reason was twofold, it was something different and I like learning new stuff and the other was that Id been keen to make my own sauerkraut and kimchi for a while so why not go all out and do those as well as some chillies.
 
Having read the stickied ferment thread from start to finish and a bunch of posts on everyones efforts I thought it was time to get into it.
 
The day of action was February 1st 2015.
 
For the harvest I was able to get the following
 
150g of Trinidad Moruga Scorpions
150g of Yellow Bhuts
150g of an Unknown Habanero hybrid
300g of Thai Bird's eye
 
This was to be split into 5 jars, 1 of each and 2 of the Thais so everything could be even. Along with that I then gathered all of the other ingredients to use in the mash.
 
I wanted to make everything identical so that each of the other ingredients would go into the jars in the exact same ratio. My thoughts behind this were that when the ferment was finished, I could then blend each mash, have a bit of a taste and do my own mixing of sauces just as they do with whiskey.
 

 
 
What I put in was the following, each blendered individually so I could make sure all the measurements were spot on.
 

 
150g Chilli
60g Onion
50g Carrot
30g Garlic
15g Ginger
15g Galangal
10g Salt
15ml Whey
125ml Water
 

 
In total this added to around 470g of ingredients in each jar, but I found this amount came up too high for my liking so I scooped out around 75g from each jar and put it all into another jar as a random mix. Each jar was topped with an additional bit of 10% brine, given a crazy good shake and left to its own devices.
 

 
The jars I used are pretty cool and I have used them for pickling and various sauces over the years with great results. They hold 500ml and have a plastic lid that is not wadded but has a lip in the lid that allows them to seal airtight time and time again.
 

 
All the jars went into my pantry, in a dark warm corner (adjacent to the fridge) along with all of my other preserving/fermenting efforts.

The day after putting it all together I grabbed the main four out to see what was going on and the bubbling had commenced and was looking fine.
 

 

 

 

 
So there it is, my first attempt at fermenting. It all went to plan which was nice and I've already leant a few things for next time.

Now I just need to try and update this as I progress along
 
Cheers,
Drifty
 
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Ya did yer homework mate.  When you get around to pulling those chances are very good you're going to love what comes out of the jar.  Please be sure to update with photos and taste tests along the way.  Great work Drifty!  :)
 
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Cheers guys, I tend to spend as much time researching things as I do actually doing them so hopefully it will all pay off.
 
It's 4 weeks in and I am letting them go longer as there is still activity. I should have a round two post coming soon enough as I have the bug and don't seem to be able to stop
 
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I did say I would have an update, it's now 4 weeks since I started and all is going well, my sauerkraut and kimchi (which lasted only a week) are awesome and the chilli ferments are still moving along, albeit at a much slower rate.
 
I still find I need to burp the jars every few days and oh my word the smell is stellar.
 
Not sure how much longer I will leave them, but seeing as there is still some action no harm in letting them keep going.  I may have a go at one of the Bird’s eye jars if I can’t restrain myself as I have another I can let go longer.
 
After the first time filling the jars I found it way too messy and annoying, so I bought a jam funnel, so cheap and exactly the right tool.
 

 
It was time to harvest again and in this round there were a few more choices, not all had great yields but I got the following
 
430g Thai Bird’s eye
370g Red Habanero
135g Yellow Bhut
120g Unknown Habanero Hybrid
70g Trinidad Moruga Scorpion
65g Red Scotch Bonnet
60g Orange Habanero
60g Purple Tiger
55g Serrano
30g Red Bhut (supposedly but not)
30g Jays Ghost Scorpion Peach
20g Cayenne
15g Spanish Naga
10g Tabasco
10g Carolina Reaper
10g Infinity
 

 
For a while I had no idea what I would do with the next bunch as I am yet to process the first batch and work out what I did right and what I did wrong.
 
I decided to have a go at making some crazy sriracha variants, one batch using the bird’s eyes and the other with the red habs. I thought I could supplement each batch with a mix of leftovers from the harvest, ones with lower heat but favourable flavour profiles. Then for the super hots I would maybe do the same, a sriracha for the insane.
 
I tossed up which recipe to use so I started off with the one in The Sriracha Cookbook by Randy Clemens and then took a bit of time researching before working out a variation of my own.
 
After all the looking around there were a few things I thought to change for based on my experience. I decided on palm sugar as it is smoother and little less sweet than other sugars and I don’t want to make an exact replica of sriracha just one of similar style. The same goes for the apple cider vinegar instead of a white vinegar. I used to make my sauces with white vinegar but as soon as I swapped to apple cider vinegar I was hooked as it just felt more rounded and suited the heat of chillies better.
 

 
Also I bought some airlocks to save time burping the jars and will use them this time around to see if it is really required. If there is as much activity with these as there was with the previous it will come in handy.
 

 
I also decided thrown some whey in there to really get these guys cranking along quickly. Most people say a week is enough for this style of sauce but I am going to let it run as long as there is activity and hope I can tone down the use of vinegar for processing.
 

 
Here is what I decided on
 
Bird’s eye Sriracha
 
410g Thai Bird’s eye
60g Purple Tiger                                                                                                                                  
55g Serrano
20g Cayenne
10g Tabasco
40g Palm sugar
25g Garlic
15g Pink Murray River Salt
60ml Water
25ml Whey
 

 
Habanero Sriracha
 
370g Red Habanero
120g Unknown Habanero Hybrid
65g Red Scotch Bonnet
40g Palm sugar
25g Garlic
15g Pink Murray River Salt
60ml Water
25ml Whey
 

 
Yellow Sriracha
 
135g Yellow Bhut
60g Orange Habanero
30g Jays Ghost Scorpion Peach
30g Red Bhut (supposedly but not)
15g Garlic
7g Pink Murray River Salt
10ml Whey
40ml Water
 

 
As per the norm I will process these after the ferment with vinegar according to taste, but my ratios have it at around 90ml for the Bird’s Eye and Habanero batches and 45ml for the Yellow batch. 
 
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RocketMan said:
Really nice ferments going Drifty, curious though, whats the difference between Ginger and Galangal? I thought they were pretty much the same and interchangeable. 
Click to expand...
 
They are definitely similar, both rhizomes but it's hard to explain exactly. I find galangal has a more peppery edge to it, a bit more mellow overall and it is a lot more fibrous than ginger. Ginger has more of a zing to it, pungent and very full on.
 
I do a LOT of Thai cooking and all the curry pastes I make use galangal and not ginger, but when I first started and could not find galangal I used ginger. When I finally could source galangal and made curry pastes with it the difference was phenomenal Since then I only use each for their distinct differences and never interchange them.
 
Will any of this make a difference in a chilli ferment, who knows but I grow galangal so I tend to use it in more things than most people generally would anyways.
 
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Thanks, It is definitely addictive, I just want to make more and more.
 
I came home on Tuesday with still a small amount of superhots left, so I decided to just throw something together and see.
 
70g of Trinidad Moruga Scorpions
30g of Mix of Reaper, Infinity & Spanish Naga
15g Garlic
100g Spanish Onion
100g Blueberries
8ml Whey
50ml Water
10g Salt
 
Made a real cool deep purple colour, and it was quite the spicy little number as I licked the spoon for some reason. All in to the airlock jar to work its magic. It may be a fail or extraordinary, but that’s the fun.
 
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Drifty said:
Thanks, It is definitely addictive, I just want to make more and more.
 
I came home on Tuesday with still a small amount of superhots left, so I decided to just throw something together and see.
 
70g of Trinidad Moruga Scorpions
30g of Mix of Reaper, Infinity & Spanish Naga
15g Garlic
100g Spanish Onion
100g Blueberries
8ml Whey
50ml Water
10g Salt
 
Made a real cool deep purple colour, and it was quite the spicy little number as I licked the spoon for some reason. All in to the airlock jar to work its magic. It may be a fail or extraordinary, but that’s the fun.
Click to expand...
I make a blueberry ferment almost identical fantastic on grilled marlin steaks!! :) think you'll be happy!!
I love adjusting heat and flavor profile when fermentation is finished to bring that final product to its perfect balance :) keep posting brother looking good!!!
CHEERS
 
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oldsalty said:
I make a blueberry ferment almost identical fantastic on grilled marlin steaks!! :) think you'll be happy!!
I love adjusting heat and flavor profile when fermentation is finished to bring that final product to its perfect balance :) keep posting brother looking good!!!
CHEERS
Click to expand...
 
That is good to know, just from reading all the posts with strawberry this, mango that I had a look at what was in the fridge, and this is what I threw together!
 
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Had a day off and one of the things planned was to process one of the ferments. From the first round of ferments I had 2 of the Thai Bird's Eye batches so I used one of those. It was 6 weeks old and still had activity going which is pretty cool.
 

 
Not a single trace of any kind of yeast growth or other nasties which was nice to see.
 

 
I went for a fairly simple process as it was my first from a ferment so I just wanted to get a feel for it and adjust along the way until I was happy.
 
It all went into a pot was brought up to a boil and then turned down to simmer for an hour with the lid off to reduce it down ready for a visit with the blender. After it had been on for an hour or so, I turned off the gas, popped the lid on and let it cool.
 

 
When I came back it went into the jug and I blitzed the hell out of it for a while, I was still unsure if the seeds were staying in or not and had the food mill ready to go but after seeing how well it had already gone I decided to leave it all in there.
 

 
Back in the pot it all went, I got it up to temp again and found it way too thick to work with as it would just spit and splutter all over the cook-top, so I added in 250ml of water, got it simmering and did some more taste tests.
 

 
 
Fiery it was, but as I had always suspected the salt was a bit too much for me to be completely happy with, so I peeled a potato, cut it into four and dropped it into the simmering sauce. Again this was left to go for around an hour, this time with the lid on to retain as much of the liquid and let the potato do its magic.
 

 
Gas off again, potatoes out and cooled once more it was given another go in the blender to ensure it was as smooth as it could be. Back into the pot, simmering again but with the lid off to get it to the consistency I wanted.
 
To finish it off and get the PH where it needed to be I added 50ml of Apple Cider Vinegar and then to soften the taste of the salt I added 50g of Palm Sugar.
 
From the 450g of ingredients that was in the jar I was able to get 3x 120ml bottles filled, reused El Yuceteco bottles and fresh lids is all I had so that's what I used.
 
Flavour wise it is a lot different to what I thought it would be, it's quite savoury and as it was cooking it reminded me of an Arrabbiata sauce, real richness like tomato, quite umami in the mouth and it sure does pack some heat. I will let it sit and mature for a while before getting into it as it does need to mellow out a little.
 
 
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Good looking sauce Drifty. Nice color, and the texture looks great.
 
Can you please explain why you added the potatoes and then removed them? 
 
 
SR.
 
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Shorerider said:
Good looking sauce Drifty. Nice color, and the texture looks great.
 
Can you please explain why you added the potatoes and then removed them? 
 
 
SR.
Click to expand...
 
http://www.genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/potatosponge.html
 
 
The potatoes suck up some of the salt when they are cooked in the sauce, can be repeated a number of times as long as you have enough liquid in there.
 
I've used it many times in the past cooking a multitude of things, works quite well, just need to be sure not to let them go too long otherwise they disintegrate and become part of whatever it is you are cooking, and then the salt just ends up back in there.
 
I've seen it mentioned a number of times on the forums too.
 
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Rocketman is a vocal proponent to the potato/salt leach technique - and it does indeed work well.   Key is to cook the tatos till fork tender and remove immediately, not cook until they fall apart into your sauce.  :)
 
Great step by step post on your first ferments and sauce Drifty - nice pics and process.  You did well bud!
 
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Drifty said:
Cheers guys, I tend to spend as much time researching things as I do actually doing them so hopefully it will all pay off.
 
It's 4 weeks in and I am letting them go longer as there is still activity. I should have a round two post coming soon enough as I have the bug and don't seem to be able to stop
Click to expand...
 
Sounds familiar.
 
Cheers!
 
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