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Fresh vs Dry pods -- a Sauce experiment

Judy and I are teaming up to experiment with Fresh and Dried peppers. I decided to take the route of fermentation as it gives the dry peppers time to rehydrate, I am aiming for similar/exact same tasting, consistency, and heat. Here is the fresh side.
 
Roughly 1/2 lb Primo 7 pots
 
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chops down to ~3 cups
 
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added 6 pineapple rings with some pineapple juice:
 
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Purees even further down to ~2.5 cups after you get all the Air out
 
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6% of weight of salt is roughly 1.5 TBsp
 
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airlocked and some water added ready to go into my "incubation chamber" @ 84 degrees F
 
 
 
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As promised, my Unofficial Review.  First of all, thank you to PepperLover and PexPeppers for including me in this experiment.  I am happy to provide my thoughts.  For the purposes of this review batch #1 is the dry and batch #2 fresh
 
Ingredients:   7-pot Primo Peppers, Pineapple, Salt (I am sure some vinegar or citrus juice for ph, but I don't know for sure)
 
In following this thread, I have seen that Pex made batch #1 with two cups of dried and ground peppers.  Batch #2 was three cups of fresh peppers.  Both batches are fermented with pineapple.
 
 
Batch #1 - Dry
 
The appearance is a deep reddish orange.  The consistency is a nice medium, pourable sauce.  I see lots of flesh sticking to the sides of the bottle.  From the aroma I can tell that this sauce was fermented.  It has a hint of tobacco smell to it.  This I expect from dried peppers. It is kind of Earthy.  I do not smell the pineapple.  In tasting the sauce it has a slight bitterness to it.  It is definitely Earthy and complex.    I do not taste the pineapple at all.The Primos dominate the overall flavor, but not immediately.  This sauce could benefit from something sweet to balance it out.  The heat is very pronouced, but slowly building.  It hits hard in the throat and keeps hitting.  
 
Batch #2 - Fresh
 
The appearance is a bright vibrant orange.  The consistency appears to be a little on the thin side, but not as thin as a Tabasco type sauce. The aroma is that of bright fresh peppers.  Smells like it was just picked.  I can get a pretty good whiff of the pineapple as well.  In tasting the fresh, I am immediately hit with salt much more salt than the Dry.    It has a bright pungent fruity fresh pepper taste, but I do taste the pineapple.  The Primo is a very strong fruity tasting pepper.  I do not taste vinegar.  The heat is pretty stong, and building.  It is not immediate at all.  The heat on the fresh is not quite as intense, but it does still pack a punch.
 
In summary, I amazed at how different these sauces are given that they are made with the same components.  A few differences that stand out:  The color right off the bat, the fresh is a much brighter color.   I can taste the fermentation more in the dried.  The heat is a little slower to hit, but it is much longer lasting.  I am guessing because 2 cups of dried is more capsaicin than 3 cups of fresh.  The flavor of the dried is much more complex as is the aroma.  The dried is more earthy while the fresh is more, well.. fresh.  The one thing that has me puzzled is the upfront bitter taste in the dried one.  I am also interested in the role the pineapple played.  I can taste and smell it much more in the fresh.  Overall, they are very different.  Both could be made into very good sauces with a little tweaking.  Like I said, I would add something sweet to the dried one to counteract the bitterness, and way less salt in the fresh one.  Cool experiment and thanks for letting me be a part of it.
 
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So, now you are convinced dry pods don't make for a gritty sauce, right? Powders can yes, but dried pods or large pieces of pods rehydrate just fine, taking on the properties of the drying process, so complexity is added. Both have their benefits and uses. Good job.
 
 Really Nice review Jay 
i really appreciate your feedback.
next time maybe Pex can adjust the ingredients by focusing on adding more fruits and sweetness to overcome the earthy and bitter texture.
 
it is fun to experiment and share results  
 
yes Dan, the dry pods can be used for hot sauce all what is missing is the water, add that along with the right fruits, and you should have good sauce.
 
Yup I agree but Jay was a doubter. I always think in terms of chipotle sauce. They can be super smooth, and of course, are always from dried pods (or pods that were once dried).
 
And a lot of Mexican sauces, including moles.
 
As far as the color difference, I am guessing that Pepperlover used a method involving heat to dry them right?  I have seen where air dried (which I know is difficult if not impossible with Primos) let's them maintain their brighter color.  I think heat darkens them a little, at least it has for me.
 
JayT said:
As far as the color difference, I am guessing that Pepperlover used a method involving heat to dry them right?  I have seen where air dried (which I know is difficult if not impossible with Primos) let's them maintain their brighter color.  I think heat darkens them a little, at least it has for me.
 
true Jay 
the temps and the used method also affect the taste, sun dried will diffidently have different taste.
i hope to see more of such experiments 
 
emanphoto said:
Doing some research here and bummed a lot of photos are gone. :(

Probably PhotoBbucket locked.
 
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