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tutorial Fermenting Peppers 101

Keep it or Pitch It?
 
 
I started this ferment around Jan 25, 2016 with the goal of utilizing some items leftover from the Making Hot Sauce Class-
 
red bell peppers
onion
garlic
fatalii
 
 
typical salt brine and a bottle of kombucha, triple sealed with plastic wrap over glass plate and cup to use as weights.
 
I'm not getting any funky smell, it does still smell good in the kitchen when I go in there, but I haven't opened up the container yet.
 
Yay?  Nay?
 
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Looks like kahm yeast to me SL.  Without presence of obvious bad mold I'd be inclined to roll with it.  I think what you're seeing is usual kombucha type growth.  Your nose will be your guide when you open it up.  
 
OK, SnF, thanks for the input.  It's been in the kitch in a warm place for 6+ weeks, and I've not gotten any funky smells in the kitchen.  I've had a couple others tank in the past, and it was definitely smell-able. 
 
I'm going to bring it to the Making Hot Sauce class this Sunday, and utilize majority opinion when we open it up.  A lot of the people in the class have done fermenting and such, we should be able to make a good judgement call.
 
Thanks RM!
 
After reading over smokenfire's fermented sauce recipe, I decided to make some fermented hot sauce today with a kilo of the yellow 7 pots.  All ingredients were roughly chopped then run through a cheapo blender.  Anyone care to run over the below recipes and let me know if I'm likely to die from not enough salt in the recipe?
 
Yellow 7 pot and carrot sauce:
 
- 500g yellow 7 pots
- approx 1kg carrots
- approx 1kg brown onions
- approx 30g garlic
- 250ml white vinegar
- 500ml water
- 100g iodised salt
 
Yellow 7 pot and red capsicum sauce:
 
- 500g yellow 7 pots
- approx 750g red capsicum
- approx 150g red naga bhut jolokia
- approx 1kg brown onions
- approx 30g garlic
- 250ml white vinegar
- 500ml water
- 100g iodised salt
 
The ingredients are now hopefully fermenting in large 3L glass and small 500ml glass containers:
 
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OK, I've started my first batch of fermented peppers.  I used a variety of peppers but mostly serrano's, which brings me to my first question.  I got the serrano's from my neighbor and he had picked them last weekend and then refrigerated them.  I noticed during my prep work that the seeds of the serrano's were brown.  I didn't think much of it and assumed it might have something to do with the refrigeration.  I'm now second guessing myself and wondering if this will mess up the ferment?  Any ideas?
 
I would attach a photo but I can't figure out how to attach it.
 
hot stuff said:
At worst you might get some mold. You salted your ferment right?
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Yes, I salted the ferment.  I posted a new topic "brown seeds", check it out and you can see some pics from day 1 and day 3.  Your input is appreciated.
 
Ok, one more potential problem.  I didn't realize I was supposed to add water to the airlock until day 4, does that pose a problem?
 
Any thoughts on the brown tint to the brine?
 
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Here's a pic of the brown seeds I was talking about earlier.
 
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Should I keep it or toss it?
 
Well I don't even use air-locks. Not terribly necessary if you did your brine right. If your seeds were brown after having been frozen I don't thinks that's a problem. They get that way when you do that.

With the number of things you're fermenting together the color of your brine is probably not a problem.
 
Hard to tell but once the brine really gets going it does change color as the bacteria starts to break down the peppers, etc. So turning a little bit brown depending on whats in your recipe makes sense if its been fermenting for a bit. Even just after a couple of days the most clearest of brines start to get cloudy. That is from the beneficial bacteria doing its job and a good sign. 
 
I just put up a batch of various chocolate peppers, garlic, Douglah powder, himalayan pink salt and home grown mangos. I put all ingredients into a food processor and liquidized it. I added some really good mangos from a family members tree, and will add more later to give it that fresh taste. This time I'm getting a bit clever. I will ferment, then reserve some of the liquid aside after filtering some of it. Then pour the rest of the sauce into a pot and boil down until smooth, then mix with more mango puree after cooling and add the other reserve liquid back into the mix for its probiotic content. I will add lime juice to balance the garlic and acidity as a final ingredient. Bottle and refrigerate. 
 
I use one of these for ferments. The inner lid keeps everything under the brine. Ejen makes them in many sizes and shapes.
 
Mine is a cheap off brand but still made in Korean. I paid about $14 for it.
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I have some of the Mason jar types with an air lock too. Walmart sells Mason jar drink lids with a hole in it for around $5/4. An air lock fits ok but not great.
 
Ok, I just checked the PH of the brine in my 12 day old ferment and it was at 5.0.  Is this a normal range for the brine?  I assume the peppers that are in the brine are much lower?  There is no mold to be seen, this was the first time I had opened it up.
 
hot stuff said:
That's way too early to be opening stuff up. You need to wait at least a month, preferably 2.
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The very first link in the very first post of this thread says 10 days?  Is that wrong?  This is not a mash, it's chopped peppers.  Does that make a difference?
 
RocketMan said:
Fermentation time. I would typically not run a fermentation for less than 30 days. Mine usually go for 45 to 90 days. Now, that said there are some that will let them go for years. Tabasco is reputed to ferment their peppers for a 3 year period. The time you decede to go with is totally up to you.

 
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I only see this on the first post.
 
CardHog said:
 
 
The very first link in the very first post of this thread says 10 days?  Is that wrong?  This is not a mash, it's chopped peppers.  Does that make a difference?
Click to expand...
 
If you'll go back and look at that link again it was primarily for fermenting pickles and I would suppose that if you want a crunchy pickle you can't go for more than 10 days. 
 
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