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HansMoleman

HansMoleman

Thanks to everyone that contributed to the fermenting 101 thread.  I've made plenty of salsas and some fresh hot sauces, but have only dabbled in fermenting to the extent of leaving kimchi or pickles out for a few days before sticking them in the fridge.  Reading through that thread helped me understand the basics and gain enough confidence to give it a go.
 
Whipped up three mashes and a fresh sauce, mostly from chiles out of my little garden.  The fresh one is a sweet hot sauce from thai chiles, garlic, prunes, ginger, sugar, vinegar and water.  I've got a hab, serrano, garlic, pear mash and a hab, tomato, garlic, carrot mash, both with about 5% salt and differing amounts of whey.  I'm planning on letting those go for quite awhile.  I also made a frenso/thai chili sriracha style mash based on a recipe I saw somewhere that'll be cooked down after about a week...because I am not a patient man and needed a toy.
 
That lack of patience leads me to my question for the experts.  I just couldn't wait for the mailman to bring me airlocks, so I went ahead the old fashioned way.  After a couple days I could see the bubbles and the mash floated to the top, so I think I'm off to a decent start, but now I'm stressing over not using something to weigh it down.  The habanero jars have never been opened.  Would it be smarter at this point to just keep them sealed and hope the C02 does it's job, or crack them and add some glass beads and cheesecloth?  Also, I see some talking about burping and some advising never to open the jars.  Are they gonna blow up on me if I leave them as they are?
 

 
 

 
 
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Greetings, Hans~!
 
:welcome: to THP!
 
Based on what I've read and the pics- there's a good amount of head room in the 3 larger jars and the bubbles look good.  I'd suggest giving them a quick burp, swirl the pulp around and then another quick burp.  Probably should be repeated every couple days until the bubbles stop forming.  As long as the fermentation is doing it's thing making bubbles, the pulp floating up isn't an issue since there isn't oxygen in the jars.  Once it's done making bubbles, then don't open the jars to keep the oxygen-free environment in tact.  The jars can set as long as you want (or can stand to wait... :lol:  ) as long as the lids stay on.
 
Have Fun and keep us posted!  Hopefully one of the Fermented Sauce Guru's will chime in here also.  I'm not that knowledgeable on the fermented sauces. 
 
salsalady
 
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Thanks, I probably will give them a burp, as grandma would kill me if they exploded in her cabinet.  And it's been 7 days so I think I'll blend and cook the quick sriracha tonight.
 
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Haha hansmoleman....hes my favorite character!!!! I believe we may have done the same quick ferment sriracha. The flavor I feel is pretty dang good. Starting another ferment today. I been making sauce for years now but these are my first ferment attempts. Good luck!
 
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Welcome Brother,
   Wow, salsalady's right, that's a lot of head space in your jars. I usually shoot for about an inch to an inch and a half, no more. If you look closely at the mash where it's risen to the top, you'll see all the air bubbles trapped in there. That's why it's floating. Swirling will help to release those bubbles and the mash will settle back down to some degree. With that much head space it's hard to say if you really need a burp. With Mason jar lids, if you have the ring on just enough to hold the lid down but not snug it then the when the co2 gets built up enough it's going to burp itself, this is what I do. If your concerned about the amount of pressure that's in there though then by all means burp it. 
 
I may not need to cover this but just in case, a Burp is not taking off the lid and putting it back on. A burp is releasing the snug on the lid so that you get a Pssssss as the gas releases and then snuging it back up. The best way is to just put the lid on enough to keep sir from getting in but loose enough so that as the gas builds up and presses up on the lid a gap will be opened just enough to allow the excess gas to escape and then the lid settles back down. The use of an actual air lock as is used in brewing is all Cool and the Gang if you want to go to the trouble of getting one and installing it but not totally necessary.
 
Now, those recipes you listed, dude those are going to be Off the Hook, <insert hugh BUT here> your going to be surprised by the outcome though. For now I'll just say that it's not going to be what you expect :) however I think your going to love them. We'll see if I'm right when you finish them up, process them and get that first taste. You said you were going to let them go for a while, I'd give them at least 90 days to ferment. Going beyond that will just be adding to the aging of the sauce which equals the flavors meld together more and some of the sharpness that might be in there to mellow out.
 
I'll be following this :)
 
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Helpful stuff, thanks.  The excessive head space wasn't by design, I just wanted to experiment and didn't have many peppers (or smaller jars).  I wound up burping one jar but not the other.  Haven't noticed anything strange so far after a month.  Fingers crossed.
 
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