fermenting Fermented Jerk Sauce w/ Smoked Chocolate Habaneros - Suggestions?

[Stemwinder]

I'm getting ready to make a hot sauce so I decided to start a thread.  I'll post my thoughts, ingredients, pictures and a review as I go along.  Feel free to offer advice and feedback.  You've helped me learn so many new things and avoid several disasters in the past. 
I'm going to start by smoking some chocolate habaneros with oak chips. I'll put the smoked peppers in my Pickl-It jar with some sweet potato, ginger, onions, garlic, lime juice and a couple of cinnamon sticks.  Once I add the brine and the whey I'll allow it to ferment for two months.  Then I'll remove the cinnamon sticks, add some Jamaican allspice, dark brown sugar, and a little dark rum before cooking it down, blending it smooth, and bottling it.  I suppose I'll probably need some vinegar, too.  I'm still debating on whether or not to add some pineapple juice.
Thoughts?  Suggestions?  

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I don't see fermenting I see pickling in lime juice. It sounds really funky. Lime with cinnamon? And onions? Sounds like a tart identity crisis.
 
I don't see anything that says jerk here except allspice but that does not make it jerk.
 
If you want jerk sauce I'd start with a good blend of fresh peppers and escallion. You can't go wrong there. Jerk sauce is more like a thick paste. It's how they get the sauce to stick to the meat when grabbing it straight from the marinade. It's the textures and flavors that really make it jerk, and the staple flavors are scotch bonnet (or any pepper you want), escallion (or scallion), thyme, allspice.
 
For real jerk flavor smoke those peppers over pimento, not oak. But also add some fresh peppers. I'd skip the pickling in lime thing.
 
I'll go through your list.
 
Smoked habs - yes, but add add fresh too.
Sweet potato - no
ginger - no
onions - maybe
garlic - no
lime - no
cinnamon - no, allspice already has cinnamon and clove qualities but cinammon itself will throw it off in my opinion.
allspice - yes
brown sugar - yes
rum - sure why not
thyme - add
scallions - add
molasses - add a touch of molasses to balance the sweetness of the smoke but also give it a syrupy, BBQ type consistency. That would be a cool addition. Cut back on the brown sugar and rum if you do this.
palm or cane vinegar - add, here is your acid
salt - add
 
That's my take.

 

[Stemwinder]

Thanks for the advice.  I couldn't find a decent recipe so I was just pulling ingredients out of my ass.  Your suggestions have surely saved me from disaster.  I'll skip the pickling in lime juice... LOL    But I'd still like to ferment it.  

 

[PIC 1]

I don't see fermenting I see pickling in lime juice. It sounds really funky. Lime with cinnamon? And onions? Sounds like a tart identity crisis.
 
I don't see anything that says jerk here except allspice but that does not make it jerk.
 
If you want jerk sauce I'd start with a good blend of fresh peppers and escallion. You can't go wrong there. Jerk sauce is more like a thick paste. It's how they get the sauce to stick to the meat when grabbing it straight from the marinade. It's the textures and flavors that really make it jerk, and the staple flavors are scotch bonnet (or any pepper you want), escallion (or scallion), thyme, allspice.
 
For real jerk flavor smoke those peppers over pimento, not oak. But also add some fresh peppers. I'd skip the pickling in lime thing.
 
I'll go through your list.
 
Smoked habs - yes, but add add fresh too.
Sweet potato - no
ginger - no
onions - maybe
garlic - no
lime - no
cinnamon - no, allspice already has cinnamon and clove qualities but cinammon itself will throw it off in my opinion.
allspice - yes
brown sugar - yes
rum - sure why not
thyme - add
scallions - add
molasses - add a touch of molasses to balance the sweetness of the smoke but also give it a syrupy, BBQ type consistency. That would be a cool addition. Cut back on the brown sugar and rum if you do this.
palm or cane vinegar - add, here is your acid
salt - add
 
That's my take.

No Ginger...........Professor ?

 

[Stemwinder]

I wasn't going to use a ton of sweet potato.  I just thought the sugars therein would help the whey kickstart the fermentation process.  I look forward to hearing what others have to say re: ginger.  I have a tendency to add garlic to everything but I don't mind leaving it out.  
I might have to make two batches....     one a more legit "jerk" sauce... the other a frankenstein sauce.  
I'm afraid this thread is going to crash and burn once I post the pictures of my chocolate habs and you tell me they aren't choc habs.    

 

[The Hot Pepper]

That's the idea man. Dice your ingredients and put them all on a spoon. Eat it, and breathe in through your nose, and chew for awhile and take all the flavors in. See what doesn't belong. Just a quick little test to see if anything stands out as being wrong. When you cook it they will meld, but before you waste any money or cooking time, try that out.

 

[EBHarvey]

ferment the peppers, then add green onions, allspice, molasses, rum, garlic, and thyme before you cook it.  you want those other flavors fresh and bright.

 

[Stemwinder]

So, this might be the final blow to this thread.  Here is a picture of the "chocolate habanero hybrid" peppers (top right) that I harvested from my pepper patch.  I'm starting to have serious doubts that they are, in fact, akin to the choc hab.  These seeds came from Aji Joe a couple of years ago.  Perhaps he will see this thread and shine some light on the subject.  They are smaller than typical habaneros.  They started green and have matured to a dark purple-ish-brown (so purple it's almost black).  They are very hot.  Thoughts?  

 
and on the tree

 
This thread has gone rapidly downhill.  Not really jerk sauce... Not really choc habs(?)  Time to reboot.

 

[Programmer]

I think you have the right idea with fermentation as far as Jerk Marinade goes. Have a friend that makes a truly authentic jerk marinade that he ferments the entire batch in 5 gallon bucket for months. Not sure he throws in his scotch bonnets during that or after but believe it's all in there. He stirs it once a day with a wooden board lol.