• If you have a question about commercial production or the hot sauce business, please post in The Food Biz.

preservation Minimalist Pepper Preservation

I have some moruga scorpions and some reapers growing and they should be ready to pick in the next few weeks. I wanted to do a very minimal-effort/maximum-heat preservation. I was thinking of blending just peppers, vinegar and salt and then putting that into some sanitized jars in the fridge. I've had trouble finding online anywhere exactly what ratio of vinegar and salt to use with something like this. Any recommendations?

I'm new to the forum and apologize if I missed where this was discussed elsewhere. I saw some great threads with all sorts of good info on making sauces, but I haven't yet managed to find exactly what I'm looking for. I don't have a way to boil anything down outdoors, and the last time I did something like this inside, both my spouse and my cat were pretty furious with me!

I'm also playing around with a vacuum bag fermentation, but I can't stress enough how garbage I am at all things culinary. This video makes it seem doable though.
 
Last edited:
How long are you wanting to preserve it for? How much of the peppers flavors are you wanting to keep? Are you going for shelf stability? Asking because, in my opinion and experience, there is no MINIMAL effort preservation method for keeping stuff for an EXTENDED period of time, other than vac seal and freezing, or a fermentation (and that can be finicky).
 
I would be happy with five or six months of fridge life, I think. It would be great if I didn't lose too much flavor, but I guess there will be unavoidable tradeoffs.

Not putting all my eggs in one basket, I'm hoping I manage to pull off the vac bag fermentation, too, but this is my backup. Depending on what kind of yield I get before our first sadly early freeze up here in the frosty north, I may save some of my peppers in the freezer, too. I'm not wild about the texture of a thawed pepper, but for me it's still ok to cook with.
 
A lot of preservation (if not everything) is about the ph level, whether you refrigerate or not, and the method you use to store it: i.e. , water bath, pressure can, ferment, etc., etc…
 
It will be spicy for the household if cooking indoors. Maybe schedule for a time when your Lady is out and the cat is in the bedroom. Max Ventilation on the hob....
Good luck and have fun!
 
Or run the exhaust vent on HIGH, with all the doors and windows open, with fans blowing out! I have to get creative because my wife and my 2 dogs don’t quite appreciate the heat! 😂
 
This might help.....

 
With my volume, I have a whole shed dedicated to it. Reminds me of home (Southern CA) with 100+ temperature and ~35% humidity.

Before taking on the volume, it was the basement. I could ventilate it outside if desired, and it didn't bother anyone else. Maybe a garage?
 
I think I can find a time when nobody is going to be home for a while. If you don't ferment, is it just basically a requirement that you boil/stew them a while? I've seen YouTube videos where folks just throw fresh peppers in a blender with vinegar and salt, but I'm not sure how trustworthy they are.
 
I think I can find a time when nobody is going to be home for a while. If you don't ferment, is it just basically a requirement that you boil/stew them a while? I've seen YouTube videos where folks just throw fresh peppers in a blender with vinegar and salt, but I'm not sure how trustworthy they are.
As long as you get everything sanitized properly, the ph level safe, and use correct canning methods, it works.
 
Minimalist preservation = freezing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jrm
Fair enough. I got a vacuum sealer in hopes of using it to ferment some peppers. I guess if the fermentation experiments don't pan out, I can always just use that thing to seal them up for long term freezing.
 
Here's a test fermented batch I started 7 days ago using farmer's market ghosts and a new one I just vacuumed and bagged a few minutes ago. I'm worried that the bag from a week ago isn't puffing up very much. I see little bubbles though. I've been keeping them in our basement and I was thinking maybe it's not warm enough down there. It's in the 60s usually. 🤷‍♂️

August.jpg

September first.jpg
 
Just wanted to close the loop with the finished product. Came out delicious! pH was almost 3. Heat ramps up pretty fast but isn't immediate. I like my sauces salty and not as vinegary, and this one really hits the spot with pepper flavor.

sauce.jpg
 
Back
Top