fermenting Fermenting peppers – Ratio: Water, Salt, Peppers

[sister verona]

I'm going to ferment peppers for the first time and have looked at different sites. All have different ratios of water, salt, and peppers.
 
1) 1 pound peppers, 5 cups water, 6 teaspoons salt.
2) 1 pound peppers, 4 cups water, 6 teaspoons salt.
3) 1 pound peppers, 2 cups water, 4.5 teaspoons salt.
 
Will all do the same job? is exactitude important?
 
I did read: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/23146-fermenting-peppers-101/
 

 

[peppersproutfarm]

I do mine by weight. In brine I mix water and peppers. Measure volume of water without peppers. Add 4% salt so if there is 400 ml of water I would add 16 grams of salt to make the brine.

 

[Tybo]

There is a lot of different information out there.  Have a look at this site written by a microbiologist.  https://cultured.guru/blog/how-much-salt-should-you-use-to-ferment-vegetables-how-to-ferment-vegetables

 

[peppersproutfarm]

Hmm. Clearly I have been getting lucky with a lower salt ratio. Great info Tybo. Thanks.

 

[Siv]

The primary purpose of salt is to keep some unwanted bacteria from growing before the good bacteria dominate. If I'm doing a vacuum bag ferment where I feel like I have better control, I use 2.5% salt by weight of peppers - no water added. If I'm doing a jar ferment with an airlock, I up to 3% or 3.5% salt by weight of water to make the brine - the resulting mix will be slightly less % as I'm not considering the weight of the peppers. I use 3% for saurkraut by weight of the cabbage (no water added).
 
I think it's better to have a little more salt than not enough. So if I have 500g of stuff, I'll target 3% or 15g of salt but always end up with slightly more salt (e.g. 15.5g or 16g) just to be safe. I think that 4% and up is too much.

 

[HeatMiser]

The primary purpose of salt is to keep some unwanted bacteria from growing before the good bacteria dominate. If I'm doing a vacuum bag ferment where I feel like I have better control, I use 2.5% salt by weight of peppers - no water added. If I'm doing a jar ferment with an airlock, I up to 3% or 3.5% salt by weight of water to make the brine - the resulting mix will be slightly less % as I'm not considering the weight of the peppers. I use 3% for saurkraut by weight of the cabbage (no water added).
 
I think it's better to have a little more salt than not enough. So if I have 500g of stuff, I'll target 3% or 15g of salt but always end up with slightly more salt (e.g. 15.5g or 16g) just to be safe. I think that 4% and up is too much.

 
Interesting -
 
Siv, if you go by weight of water to make the brine at 3% salinity, have you measured everything up (peppers + water) to determine exactly how much salt by total weight you ended up with?
 
I ran into the same issue as described above - recommendations are all over the place. On the low end of the spectrum, Chillichump uses approx 2.4% salt by weight of water alone - the microbiologist in Tybo's link recommends 4% of both water and peppers. 
 
Obviously we want to be safe and we don't want to ruin a batch of tasty sauce. So what I did was to use 4% salt by weight of water alone, so that if I add both the peppers and water, I end up with approximately a 2.4 - 2.5% salinity. This seems to be a happy medium that would be safe regardless of how you measure it.

 

[ShowMeDaSauce]

Some of it depends on the fermenter you are using. If you got the EZ Fermenter lids and pump you can get by with less salt. The pump gets a lot of the air out of the fermenter. Yeast need oxygen and Lacto bacteria does not. I also start with a lower pH water and usually a couple tbs of homemade kraut juice. My ferments start fast and pH drops faster.
 
You can also use a starter like Caldwells to kick start the ferment. The faster your pH drops the sooner bad stuff and kahm yeast cant grow. I used a 5% (i think) on my last one because i could not replace the pods i was using. I wanted to make sure i did not lose it again. I blended it just the other day after fermenting since Sept 15th. I did not use all the brine and added some tap water to the blender. It tastes fine and its pucker sour.

 

[PepperFish]

So I use a 3% BRINE by weight, which means I dissolve 3g of salt per 100g of water. Its super simple and after making the brine I just top off the peppers making sure everything stays submerged under the brine and that the container is properly sealed. Chilies don't leach much water so I don't consider their weight. I've done it this way more times than I care to try to count and have never had to toss a batch. The only problem I run into is yeast, but its harmless and I'm pretty sure upping the salt content wouldn't do much to change that.

 

[Siv]

 
Interesting -
 
Siv, if you go by weight of water to make the brine at 3% salinity, have you measured everything up (peppers + water) to determine exactly how much salt by total weight you ended up with?
 
I ran into the same issue as described above - recommendations are all over the place. On the low end of the spectrum, Chillichump uses approx 2.4% salt by weight of water alone - the microbiologist in Tybo's link recommends 4% of both water and peppers. 
 
Obviously we want to be safe and we don't want to ruin a batch of tasty sauce. So what I did was to use 4% salt by weight of water alone, so that if I add both the peppers and water, I end up with approximately a 2.4 - 2.5% salinity. This seems to be a happy medium that would be safe regardless of how you measure it.

 
HM, I haven't actually measured but with whole peppers, they're not gonna weigh that much compared to the water - especially the thin wall super hots that are the ones I'm mainly fermenting.
 
SMDS makes some very good points - less air means less oxygen for the bad bugs and also adding starter really helps.
 
I have made a point of taking a teaspoon of brine from a completed ferment and adding to any new ferments. I actually keep a mason jar of brine from an old ferment in the fridge just for this purpose. For me, this gets the ferment going quickly and I haven't had a bad batch since I started doing this.