making hot sauce class

[salsalady]

Hey Guys and Gals-
Here's some pictures of a local class I did last week about making hot sauces.  This past January and February several local people put on some cooking classes at the Grange Hall for things like making cheeses, pie crusts, layered doughs (like fillo), fermented foods (kimchee etc) and I did one on making hot sauces with a focus on using things that people would have in their gardens around here. 
 
edit- There's been tons of information shared here in all the different forums.  An opportunity came up to share what I've shared here in the interwhebz with people in my community.  So that's what I set out to do.  Give them "some" of what's out there.  I'm editting the last post also to include a fatalii see reference from 5 years ago. 
 
When I first set the date for the class, knowing it would be after the fermentation class, I got 2 ferments going right away.  The only red chiles available at this time of year are typical grocery store red Fresno chiles, so that's what I used.
 
HOT- Fresnos, 7 Pots (frozen), onion, garlic, salt brine, starter brine

 
NOT HOT- Fresnos, onion, garlic, apple, red bell peppers, salt brine, starter brine

 
A local saurkraut company out of Olympia WA sells unpasteurized brines from their kraut operations, and there just happened to be garlic brine at the store.  I decided to add this as I wanted to make sure it got started right away.

 

 
The 1/2 gallon jar lid's bubbler hole was a little big, didn't have a tight seal.  So I popped the squeeze top off of a dropper (it had a perfect little ridge that fit right into the hole in the lid), cut the top off the dropper off, stuck in the bubbler...Off We Go!

 
For the larger crock, I covered it with cling wrap, wax paper and the lid.  It makes a tight enough seal, but the gas can still escape.  Put both the jars on a warming tray as the kitchen was a little cool for good fermenting.  And I finally found something useful for those 2' x 3' Scovie Awards banners....wrapping around the ferments to keep them warm! 

 
Can I get a Bump, por favor?  Gracias~

 

[Virgulto_piccante]

Very interesting and useful topic, salsalady. Thank you.

So interesting that I just decided to give a try and started a fermented sauce myself.

I used 110g of onion, two carrots, tomatoes, garlic and 50g of Cayenne peppers. For a total weight of 300g roughly.

This is a picture of the result.

Vegetables are covered by a big cabbage leaf.

Home is quite fresh in these days (16,5 Celsius degrees) so it is not really taking over, nonetheless I saw some small bubbles already.

I am crossing my fingers for this first try.

Could you advise how much vinegard to add when I will decide to stop fermentation?

Thanks.

V_p

 

[salsalady]

to THP Virgulto!
 
Great job jumping right on in!  When the sauce is finished fermenting, it will naturally have a low pH and shouldn't NEED any vinegar for pH reasons.  Many people will add some vinegar for Flavor reasons, but it shouldn't be necessary for pH and food safety reasons.  If you can find a warm spot for it to set, maybe on a hot water tank, or on top of a refrigerator, that will help the fermentation get going. 
 
If you haven't already, check out Fermenting 101 in this section.  Tons of great information.  
Have Fun!
 
 
 
This is a timely post, as there's been discussion on the local bulletin board about doing another set of classes this winter (Jan-Feb).  I've already signed up to do another hot sauce class and am kicking around some ideas of different sauces.  This year, instead of 2-3 hours on Tuesday evening, I'm going for 3-4 hours on Sunday afternoon.  We just didn't have enough time to talk about things ahead of time, why the pH, etc, and it was getting late by the time everything got cleaned up. 

 

[Virgulto_piccante]

Thank you again, salsalady, for your kind advice. I will taste the sauce once ready and decide whether to add some vinegar or not.

I will also have a deep looks through Fermenting 101 thread.

I'll let you know how it proceeds.

Greetings from Italy!

V_p

 

[The_NorthEast_ChileMan]

 

[salsalady]

ba-dump-bump. 
 
No classes this year!  I usually hosted them in Feb/March.  Looks like it might not even happen this winter either... ...
 
Bummer, cuz I have a really good white hot sauce I wanted to make, made with soursop/guabanana (or something like that)

 

[Kramer]

Thank you for creating this post. This is great info for noobies like myself. I'd love to attend one of your workshops someday, maybe if I can line it up with visiting my family out in WA.

 

[salsalady]

There are a couple other threads for hot sauce classes for the next couple years. Ill link them later, they are in this section. The 2016 one is great.