fermenting First Fermented Sauce

stickman · Sep 18, 2012

Hi All
Having put aside all the Gochu powder I need to make kimchi through the winter here, I decided to experiment with making fermented hot sauce with the remaining chiles. I talked with Rocketman about it, and he recommended starting off simply for the first time and gave me this recipe:

1 or 2 pounds of chiles (I used a little over 2 pounds)
4 cloves of garlic
1 large onion (I used a Vidalia onion)
3 good-sized carrots for consistency in the sauce
2 tpsp kosher salt
1/2 cup of starter (in this case, brine from a batch of yeolmu mulkimchi I made this summer)
Maybe add 2 tbsp agave nectar or honey to give a quick kick to the lacto-bacteria (I used honey)

I packed them into a half gallon jar after cutting them up with a kitchen knife, and topped up with tap water, leaving room for expansion.

This is the jumpoff... I'll post pics weekly to follow the progress of the fermentation. Cheers all

salsalady · Sep 30, 2012

Here's a couple pics of the water bag system-

stickman · Sep 30, 2012

Thanks SL! That looks very do-able... muchisimas gracias for the tip!

salsalady · Sep 30, 2012

no prob, stickman.

The bags I have are food service bread bags, hence the knot tied on top, but ziplocs work too. Just need to make sure the bag is strong enough, clean, and won't leak into the ferment. I imagine a person could just fold the ziploc bag down over the outside of the jar if closing the zipper pulls it away from the jar. Just have to keep an eye on the water level and refill as it evaporates.

stickman · Oct 8, 2012

Here we are at week three... I have about an eighth of an inch of Kahm yeast on the top of the ferment, but otherwise it looks OK. What would you suggest I do about it Bill? I'd assume I just let it go for now and skim if off before processing first in the food mill and then the blender. Since the yeast is in there, how long should I let it ferment? Thanks!

romy6 · Oct 8, 2012

Man it is looking good Rick. How do you know when it is done? When the ph is below 4 ?

RocketMan · Oct 8, 2012

Rick, at week 3 your fermentation is pretty much run it's course and now you just allowing the mash to age a bit. The yeast isn't going to mess anything up so you can just let it go. I'd say give it another 3 weeks and then process it. Scrape the yeast off before you dump the rest into the pot. If you want to let it go longer and are concerned about it just put the jar in the fridge.

stickman · Oct 8, 2012

romy6 said:
Man it is looking good Rick. How do you know when it is done? When the ph is below 4 ?

Hi Jamie
It's my first stab at making a fermented sauce, so I refer to the experts, like Rocketman Bill.

RocketMan said:
Rick, at week 3 your fermentation is pretty much run it's course and now you just allowing the mash to age a bit. The yeast isn't going to mess anything up so you can just let it go. I'd say give it another 3 weeks and then process it. Scrape the yeast off before you dump the rest into the pot. If you want to let it go longer and are concerned about it just put the jar in the fridge.

Thanks Bill! I'll take the jar off the kitchen counter and move it down cellar for another 3 weeks and process it then. We just got a Foley food mill, so the plan is to skim off the Kahm yeast, run it through the food mill then the blender. At that point... should I cook the liquid down to concentrate the lactic acid or leave it alone with a living culture?

RocketMan · Oct 8, 2012

Final processing is really up to you. There are alot who think that an uncooked sauce is Salsa and not Sauce and a cooked sauce will keep longer but it's really up to you. Just make sure that you do the final processing correctly to be safe. Take alook at the Hot Sauce 101 for details if you need.

stickman · Oct 15, 2012

romy6 said:
Man it is looking good Rick. How do you know when it is done? When the ph is below 4 ?

Hi Jamie
On Bill's advice, I'm not going to pop the lid to check the pH. I've already got an eigth of an inch of Kahm yeast in there, and I don't want to introduce anything else. At week 3 there were still some residual bubbles, but when I checked the ferment this morning at week 4 there were none.

The contents were all under the surface since the gas bubbles weren't buoying them up any more. I'll let it all sit for another two weeks per Bill's instructions, then I'll process it.

BUGSnBBQ · Oct 19, 2012

Very interesting stuff, stickman and RocketMan! I'm going outside now to pick the rest of my green Tobasco peppers, as it's starting to get cold at night. Getting excited about making a fermented sauce!

stickman · Oct 21, 2012

BUGSnBBQ said:
Very interesting stuff, stickman and RocketMan! I'm going outside now to pick the rest of my green Tobasco peppers, as it's starting to get cold at night. Getting excited about making a fermented sauce!

Did you say you were going to use green chiles to make your sauce? Good luck with it... I've noticed that when pickling green chiles, I had to add a little sugar to the brine to "iron out the rough spots" since they were slightly bitter and had no sugar to counter the acid from the vinegar. You'll need some sugar in your fermenting mash so the lacto-bacteria have something to feed on. Cheers

jedisushi06 · Oct 21, 2012

how long are you letting this one go?

stickman · Oct 21, 2012

jedisushi06 said:
how long are you letting this one go?

I'll be done with it a week from Tuesday. Here's what it looks like at week 5...

When the aging is done, I'll skim off the Kahm yeast, run it all through a food mill and blender, then cook it down to increase the acid to water ratio. If it tastes like it needs a little sweetening, I'll do that when cooking it down. Cheers

jedisushi06 · Oct 21, 2012

cool can't wait to see the final result. I need to cook mine.

BUGSnBBQ · Oct 21, 2012

stickman said:
Did you say you were going to use green chiles to make your sauce? Good luck with it... I've noticed that when pickling green chiles, I had to add a little sugar to the brine to "iron out the rough spots" since they were slightly bitter and had no sugar to counter the acid from the vinegar. You'll need some sugar in your fermenting mash so the lacto-bacteria have something to feed on. Cheers

Yes I am. I don't really have a choice as I ran out of summertime to ripen them.

Here are a few ripe ones -

The rest of them (green) -

I probably have 3+ pounds of them in the freezer. I just need to get an airlock before I start the process. I'm very anal when it comes to doing something for the first time - I want to do the best job I can!

stickman · Oct 21, 2012

Good luck with the sauce Jeff. I've never made a sauce from mostly green pods, so I think I'd better keep mum on that one... I'd be interested in hearing how it comes out for you though. If it was me, I think I'd make the sauce with the ripe peppers and pickle or make relish from the green ones. Cheers

RocketMan · Oct 21, 2012

Jeff add allnof the ingredients to the mash and you'll have enough sugars to ferment. I usually add onion, garlic and carrots also some tomatoes at times.

BUGSnBBQ · Oct 22, 2012

stickman said:
Good luck with the sauce Jeff. I've never made a sauce from mostly green pods, so I think I'd better keep mum on that one... I'd be interested in hearing how it comes out for you though. If it was me, I think I'd make the sauce with the ripe peppers and pickle or make relish from the green ones. Cheers

I think I'm going to go 50/50 red and green. I usually pickle the green ones in white vinegar and salt, let sit for a couple of years, then use the juice on cooked greens (Collards, Mustard, Turnip, etc).

RocketMan said:
Jeff add allnof the ingredients to the mash and you'll have enough sugars to ferment. I usually add onion, garlic and carrots also some tomatoes at times.

That's my plan. I hope it works out for me. I just went to the brew store and got me a couple of 'Double Bubble' airlocks. I've got some Carrots, Onions, and Garlic here, so tonight's the night! I hope I don't screw this up...

stickman · Oct 30, 2012

It's been six weeks tonight since I started the fermented sauce, and time to process it!

First ran it through the blender to break it up a little, then put it all through the food mill to get out the pepper skins and seeds.

Ran it all through the blender again to make sure it would be smooth.

Brought it to a boil and reduced it by about 40 percent... skimmed the foam as I cooked it.

The finished product. I've never smelled hot sauce like this before. Tastes good to me, and not melt-your-face hot. Next time I think I'll cook it up with scallions, garlic, ginger and soy sauce after fermenting and processing.

RocketMan · Oct 31, 2012

Looking good there Rick, and next time I would suggest putting everything but the soy right into the Fermentation jar with the peppers. It gives all the ingredients more time to get all happy together.

Now that you have it made and a taste of it, put it away for a week or 2 and then taste it. It will have fully developed by then and be even better.