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first time hot sauce making

sveedy

sveedy

Hi folks

i'm trying to make my first fermented hot sauce, used the method described in rocketman's sticky post (thanks for th excellentpost rocketman!!)

used-

scotch bonnet chillis
carrot
onion
garlic
starter culture from natural yoghurt
brine


the mix started bubbling nicely but now (three weeks in) there seems to be no more bubbling - does this mean fermentation has stopped? do i need to get i going again? it still smells good and no sign of mould anywhere.

once i am happy with the mix i will heat it up,mix in some other flavours (pineapple or mango) and adjust the ph, blend it up and bottle it.

am i going along the right path?
 
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Welcome to the fourms Sveedy,
Everything sounds like it's proceeding as it should. The active fermentation where you see alot of activity can vary depending on how mush sugar there is in your mix for the bacteria to consume. 3 weeks is about how long most of mine take. After that you won't see much activity but the mix is aging and you can let that go on as long as you want to. I usually let mine go from 45 to 90 days and then process into sauce. Sounds like your doing it right.

Cheers,
RM
 
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thanks RM. I'll need to get a thermometer and some unscented bleach too. I may as well kit myself up properly as this sauce i am making will be the first of many!! at the end of this summer I should have a heap of home grown chillis to make sauce from.
 
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i've done a ph test (using litmus paper, not a meter) on the briny liquid...it showed as being closer to ph3 than ph4. that is ok isn't it? I presume when i blend the sauce the ph level may rise a bit due to the lower ph values of the shredded carrots etc.
 
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Hi folks

quick question - i have lost patience and want to make the sauce up tonight...it has only been fermenting for about 6 or 7 weeks. i want to put in some fresh thyme to the mix...is this a no-no from a food safety point of view? it will be put in before i blend it and heat to 195 farenheit.
 
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all done! no thyme used this time.

bottling was a steep learning curve....scalded myself with boiling water, funnel i bought was useless and clogged up so had to improvise one from tin foil, kitchen is covered in viciously hot sauce spills, the wife's favourite dish towel is now stained red. still, the sauce tastes amazing and after repeatedly tasting it during heating it up my tolerance of hot chilis has gone up :)

i'll buy another batch of chillis from tesco tomorrow night and get the next batch fermenting!

thanks again for the guidance...i will be back with more questions for my second batch!
 
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