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tutorial Fermenting Peppers 101

Started 592020 another freezer batch,smoked mustard habanero,PR noburn, jalapeno,chili de arbol,few others
b2ae462586194d4a145e8a1db3bffb99.jpg


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Greenguru said:
Started 592020 another freezer batch,smoked mustard habanero,PR noburn, jalapeno,chili de arbol,few others
b2ae462586194d4a145e8a1db3bffb99.jpg


Sent from my NX629J using Tapatalk
Interesting. Are those cabbage leaves to hold everything down?
Sidebar: A friend made some fresh Jalapeno relish and added (among other things) chopped onions and cilantro. It had a very nice taste. I wonder if adding cilantro to the ferment would work or just overpower the taste?
 
KidShelleen said:
I wonder if adding cilantro to the ferment would work or just overpower the taste?
I’ve added cilantro at the beginning of a small batch (1/2 gallon) ferment for a verde sauce, and it definitely doesn’t overpower anything. It probably just depends on how much you add Off the top of my head, I’d say I probably added somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of a cup of chopped cilantro to mine

:cheers:
 
KidShelleen said:
Interesting. Are those cabbage leaves to hold everything down?
Sidebar: A friend made some fresh Jalapeno relish and added (among other things) chopped onions and cilantro. It had a very nice taste. I wonder if adding cilantro to the ferment would work or just overpower the taste?
Made possible by all the great folks on the awesome tip and tricks on the hot pepper

Yes and it seams to work ok so far, the fermentation raise the pulp up and I add the (Farm house Gut shot) , after it settled I started adding distilled water keeping out oxygen. This to make 3 gallons and I had to adjust the lid a little use the plastic wrap in a jar to hold the stuff down and just hoping for another Jared puree sauce from forum's member thanks for all the reading material


PS on last jar I made sometime ago smoked mustard habanero puree I enjoyed making different sauces from basic
1f52420fc5f05b36290840ab11a0dce1.jpg
f88af41781579e75f78510ff1453210c.jpg


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Greenguru said:
Made possible by all the great folks on the awesome tip and tricks on the hot pepper

Yes and it seams to work ok so far, the fermentation raise the pulp up and I add the (Farm house Gut shot) , after it settled I started adding distilled water keeping out oxygen. This to make 3 gallons and I had to adjust the lid a little use the plastic wrap in a jar to hold the stuff down and just hoping for another Jared puree sauce from forum's member thanks for all the reading material


PS on last jar I made sometime ago smoked mustard habanero puree I enjoyed making different sauces from basic
1f52420fc5f05b36290840ab11a0dce1.jpg
f88af41781579e75f78510ff1453210c.jpg


Sent from my NX629J using Tapatalk
UPDATE

Had a issue with the plastic rap and gas popped a hole and before I could get a rubber glove over it I found it the batch had to be trashed [emoji30][emoji30]
 
What is the purpose of boiling and simmering the sauce before bottling? If you skip this step is there concern for exploding jars? I have my assumptions as to why, but I’d rather not assume.
 
Badfish685 said:
What is the purpose of boiling and simmering the sauce before bottling? If you skip this step is there concern for exploding jars? I have my assumptions as to why, but I’d rather not assume.
My understanding is that the sauce would keep fermenting, and yes, a potential mess. Some of my sauces have vinegar added after the fermentation step and the vinegar should stop the fermentation, but I still hot bottle them. I bring the sauce up to 180 F, pour it into Woozy jars, put a cap on and turn them upside down for about 30 minutes. Before I heat the sauce, I do check the PH to make sure it is low enough to be shelf stable. Your mileage may vary.
 
Ive made fermented sauce, added vinegar and it still kept fermenting if not pasteurized. Lacto can remain active below 3.6pH but it will slow down a lot. Around 3pH or slightly less its almost inactive. If kept in the fridge its fine but at room temp it might still produce some CO2.
 
No Brine Ferment
 
So here is a really simple way to ferment your peppers. You dont have to worry about keeping the peppers under brine or using an air lock or anything. Simply chop them up, weigh them, add 3% of that weight in kosher salt, mix in a bowl and vacuum seal. In about 5 days you'll see your vac bag full of CO2 from the off gas. Simply cut the corner of the bag, push the gas out and re-seal (do not vacuum again as there will be juices). You will probably have to do this a few times. The environment is completely sealed so no  bad bugs or oxygen can get in.
 
 
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You can see I've resealed a couple times at this point. This is an easy way to get into fermenting peppers without all the complex factors. The science is identical
 
Progress on my first attempt at fermenting.
 
These are all peppers i grew indoors over quarantine. Yellow Scorpions and a few different varieties of habaneros (chocolate, mini, red). I cut, vacuumed and froze the peppers until i had a decent haul and used vacuum bag fermentation (with some yeast starter I made thanks to this thread). Seems to be progressing well... been going since about christmas.
 

 
ColdSmoke said:
Super cool seeing people use this technique!
 
Yeah, I found out about it a little while ago and it's a great way to ferment: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/73036-vacuum-bag-fermentation/
 
Although to give credit where it's due and for my education, I bought the Noma Guide to Fermentation - I haven't read the book yet but at a quick glance there are many interesting ideas there.
 
Working on my third batch of fermentsorange pulp in one and grapefruit in the other. Im two weeks in and lots of bubbles, but this batch didnt get as cloudy as my previous ones. Used same salt ratios (1.5 tsp/cup of water) and (sterilized) equipment (1L mason jar, easy fermenter lids, ramekin to weigh it all down). Only difference was a) I used some dry peppers, b) I dont think it was as packed down as previous batches.

Is this batch safe? Or does it not always get cloudy? Thanks gang!
 
I have had a batch (one of three jars fermented simultaneously from the same ingredients) go slimey. I was told it was a normal part of fermentation and didn't affect quality, but it was weird so I composted the batch. Any thoughts on this?

It was wild fermentation, btw
 
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I have had a batch (one of three jars fermented simultaneously from the same ingredients) go slimey. I was told it was a normal part of fermentation and didn't affect quality, but it was weird so I composted the batch. Any thoughts on this?

It was wild fermentation, btw
Greetings Katherine, I've found that when using a strict "wild fermentation" , there is often more variables to contend with and consistent outcomes become issue. That's why I personally prefer to use commercial vegetable starters or whey from yogurts. All that being said, if there's no odors or molds involved, what some folks consider "slimey" others would say its perfectly "ripe" for their taste. (I have a Korean friend who's kimchi fall into that latter category) I would always test the pH regardless.
Enjoy...
CM
 
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