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tutorial Fermenting Peppers 101

Bumper said:
Anyone done a cayenne pepper ferment? I have a load of pods starting to ripen, but it seems the general go is dry and powder them.  Any thoughts gratefully appreciated.  
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Bumper, I agree with Hot Stuff.  Cayennes ferment quite well imo and make for a tasty hot sauce.  
 
SmokenFire said:
Bumper, I agree with Hot Stuff.  Cayennes ferment quite well imo and make for a tasty hot sauce.
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Awesome. My first couple of red bhut are turning as well so that should lift the heat in the batch. Picked up some more mason jars for drilling yesterday and will plunder air locks from my brewing gear and I am good to go.
 
I picked up a new fermentation vessel last week.  Its got a pretty neat design.  It has a spring loaded metal disk that holds all the veggie material below the water level.  It works really well.  I wanted to make some kimchi first (below), and tomorrow I'm going to start an rocoto, jalapeno, apple, raisin hot sauce ferment.
 
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Underneath this cap is a hole where gas can escape.  The cap sits loosely inside the reservoir filled with water
 
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So another noob fermenting question, is it possible to rehydrate dried pods and then ferment them, either on their own or with fresh chilies?  
 
Bumper said:
So another noob fermenting question, is it possible to rehydrate dried pods and then ferment them, either on their own or with fresh chilies?  
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Yes, though the dried pods don't have to be rehydrated and can be added straight to the ferment.  Here is a thread where Pex experimented doing just that.
 
Bumper said:
So another noob fermenting question, is it possible to rehydrate dried pods and then ferment them, either on their own or with fresh chilies?  
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I do it all the time. Particularly with my wifes favorite hot sauce I make her. I use a lot of frozen thai peppers and then I mix that with a lot of powders I use from ground pulp left over when I make my other sauces. I've done it with dried chile japones from the mexican store also.
 
The trick to rehydrating for this purpose is to use warm water. Don't boil them.
 
Bumper said:
Anyone done a cayenne pepper ferment? I have a load of pods starting to ripen, but it seems the general go is dry and powder them.  Any thoughts gratefully appreciated.  
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Well, being that you could go to Walmart and buy Cayenne powder I'd be more inclined to ferment them. Not that you couldn't buy a cayenne fermented got sauce either.
I'd say go with your gut. I'm sure with them being fresh the powder you would process would be better than what you buy at the store. Just the same though, home made hot sauce is pretty tasty and rewarding.

Edit: lol didn't see there were already a bunch of replies. Post pics when you do your ferment.
turbo said:
I picked up a new fermentation vessel last week.  Its got a pretty neat design.  It has a spring loaded metal disk that holds all the veggie material below the water level.  It works really well.  I wanted to make some kimchi first (below), and tomorrow I'm going to start an rocoto, jalapeno, apple, raisin hot sauce ferment.
 
thumb_IMG_1574_1024.jpg

 
Underneath this cap is a hole where gas can escape.  The cap sits loosely inside the reservoir filled with water
 
thumb_IMG_1575_1024.jpg
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That's pretty cool. Where did you score that?
 
And it's done.  First ferment prep went well, thanks to all for the advice.  
 
1litre jar
400g chillies, including 2 red bhuts straight off the plant, 4 red habaneros again picked and pickled, about a dozen cayennes, and 10 birdseye of various sizes. 
1/2 onion
4 cloves garlic
2 medium sized carrots
500ml brine at 3.6% with himlayan rock salt.  
3 capsules of lactobacillus. 
 
The smell was and still is just incredible.  The bhuts and habs had the best aromas.  
 
Airlock shows we have a good seal, so now we wait.  
 
 
one extra carrot went in and a couple of extra birdseye beyond what's pictured here 
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grantmichaels said:
cool, cool ... i forgot about doing this, and i had some cukes in my fridge ...
 
oops, beer mania ...
 
i have the fermenting jars too, i just haven't processed anything into them yet ...
 
thanks for the reminder, that's going to be HOT (bhuts) ...
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Never did pepper ferments?
 
cypresshill1973 said:
The next week I will cook some ferments that I started 2 months ago.
Would you like I send gift to you one bottle of sauce to try?
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Of course I'd be happy to receive a gift from you, but I hope that it can be done at a reasonable cost (to you) to ship here, from there ...
 
Will be fun to return the favor in some months, though =) ...
 
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