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recipe Fermentation devastation!! Warning!! Grafic!!

Jbone

Jbone

This was gonna be a face ripper and I had to trash it! The dried New Mexico chiles made it saltier than the dead sea. There was no fixing it. My third batch and my first kill. So FYI, never use dried New Mexico chiles in a ferment!
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Excuse my ignorance but how can a dry chili add salt to a ferment?
 
I'm failing to see the devastation. I would continue to ferment and separate brine after fermentation. Then add back brine to taste when you cook the sauce. Or use a mild vinegar like rice if thinning is required. If you like vinegar notes. This recipe sounds great with a touch of ACV.
 
Maybe the chiles were treated with salt. I dont know, but the taste was like the dead sea. I tried acv, garlic powder, and white wine vinegar. The taste never changed. It was so over powering that I tossed it. I really thought that these dried chiles would add a nice smokey flavor. Not so much. This is the first batch that I lost. Fermenting has a learning curve, especially on flavor. I have another batch thats ready and Im glad I didnt put those damn chiles in it! Any non believers can send me your address and Ill be happy to send you a chile until their gone! Taste at your own risk. Lol Shit, maybe its because they were from Walmart??
 
peppersproutfarm said:
I'm failing to see the devastation. I would continue to ferment and separate brine after fermentation. Then add back brine to taste when you cook the sauce. Or use a mild vinegar like rice if thinning is required. If you like vinegar notes. This recipe sounds great with a touch of ACV.
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You see the dark color of the brine? Those chiles also devastated the flavor of the ferment. I dont think it would change. I tried. I like to add brine, but only after I check PH and taste.
 
FGpepperguy said:
I think it was the 3% salt. 2% is just right
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I have been doing 3% with no issues. I will try a 2%. This batch was intended to be a face melter, but flavor is a must! I was actually surprised that it wasn't as hot as I was anticipating......
 
Bou said:
Excuse my ignorance but how can a dry chili add salt to a ferment?
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Maybe thats how it was cured?? It was a package bought at Walmart that said New Mexico Chiles. After tossing the fermentation I tried the chile more in depth. I really chewed a piece up. I knew then that that flavor ruined my sauce.
 
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Did you rehydrate the Chili's before adding them to the brine? This may have been the issue because if put in dry then they are going to absorb all of that salty brine whereas if you would have rehydrated them first less of the salt would have been absorbed. Are the Chili's salty themselves like if you take a bite out of the dried chili?
 
Jbone said:
I did not rehydrate the chiles. But after tasting them I knew that they were the culprit.
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When you say you tasted them. You mean tasting them out of the ferment? Or you did try them dry right out of the bag? I'm just curious how salinity gets into a dried pepper I don't know that they use salt as a curing agent. Could be wrong.
 
I tasted the dry pepper afterward. It was the taste that killed the ferment. Tasted salty to me. It was definitely that over powering flavor that seemed salty and allowed nothing to change it. This was so disappointing to me. I even had stickers made for the bottles!
 
Jbone said:
I tasted the dry pepper afterward. It was the taste that killed the ferment. Tasted salty to me. It was definitely that over powering flavor that seemed salty and allowed nothing to change it. This was so disappointing to me. I even had stickers made for the bottles!
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I believe the problem was that you did not rehydrate the peppers prior to ferment. The dried peppers took in all of the salty brine leaving you with the pepper that was 3% salt. That's quite salty on an individual basis. In the future if you look to have this flavor try adding it post ferment rehydrate the peppers and add it to the finished sauce. Or just omit it and try to find fresh hatch chili.
 
I think I speak for all sauce makers when I say. We've all had sauces not turn out the way we wanted them to. There's always going to be some sort of learning curve. Sucks that you had to lose out on all those beautiful peppers.
 
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peppersproutfarm said:
I think I speak for all sauce makers when I say. We've all had sauces not turn out the way we wanted them to. There's always going to be some sort of learning curve. Sucks that you had to lose out on all those beautiful peppers.
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That was a bummer for sure. BTW love your glogs. Definitely want to try the fig in the supers!
 
Jbone said:
That was a bummer for sure. BTW love your glogs. Definitely want to try the fig in the supers!
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Fig, scorpion and black pepper. That was a sauce I made last year. It was really good. I have a fig tree on the property so it was only natural that I add some to a sauce at some point. LOL
 
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One bit of advice that may be helpful. If you want face ripping heat. Find a good balance of fermented and fresh peppers. I started doing this with my habanero sauce and got a bump in heat by reserving about a third of the peppers to be added fresh to the cooking part of the sauce making process.
 
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