• If you have a question about commercial production or the hot sauce business, please post in Startup Help.

Second attempt at awesome hot sauce

Heya!

This is my third attempt at a fermented hot sauce. The first two were really great and I've learned a lot from making them!

I made a thread about my first one but I didn't think of taking any photos of the finished product, but it was amazing. For my second ferment, i used quite a bit of pineapple in the mix which made the ferment start really quickly because of all the sugar.

I got a book on the subject of fermenting vegetables from my girlfriend and since then I've done a few batches of sauerkraut and fermented carrots and tomatoes, which all turned out amazing. Since doing hot sauce is pretty much the same thing (fermenting vegetables), I've decided to not use any starter at all in this one. 2% salt in the 2kg mix should give the lacto bacteria some nice ground to start on. I used a 2l (about 4 quarts) jug with 40g of salt (diluted in water and mixed in at the end), 300g of habanero, 500g of red chiles, 3 heads of garlic (huge), 2 onions and a bunch of carrots to fill everything up. The taste is incredibly good, so now I'm just waiting for things to start.

img4290q.jpg


You can imagine the jug oriented the correct way ;P After 2 days the pressure has started to build up. I "burp" the jug now and then to get the excess pressure out. There is a gap of about 2 inches of air in the jug to give me some space for expansion, which I am expecting in a few days. I don't open it completely, just enough to release pressure.

I am very aware of the common use of a starter, but since fermenting lots of other veggies at the same salt halt, I decided to go wild here and hope for the best! Wish me luck :)

I will keep taking pics of the progress.

Have fun!

/Philip
 
Phillip, natural is always the best way to go. I usually use a starter but only because having high blood pressure I need to keep salt as low as I can. Looking good, can't wait to see more pics and try for some close ups Bro :)
 
There we go! I went very close to get some of the bubbles on camera too.

img4296qt.jpg


The last time I made a sauce I chopped up all the chiles and other ingredients, and then filled the jar with water and enough salt to land at 2%. That time I had some pineapple in the mix, so the lacto had lots of sugar to party on. The ferment started like crazy and I had to burp it a few times per day. No starter, so I have faith in this method ;P The sauce was really good, but it was hard to find foods that fit the taste. Pizza and pork was amazing. Lots of other stuff, not so much. I know that this one will work with anything :)

/Philip
 
IT HAS BEGUN!

I was a bit worried there at first, but now it's bubbling away happily :) The mash has risen about 2-3cm (an inch) and i start seeing a lot more bubbles.

img4300jt.jpg


Oh, how I love this part!

The the mash sinks back down when i wiggle it around to release the bubbles. It smells delicious when i burp it!

This will be good.
 
Everything looks amazing as usual. No yeast or mold on top.
img4322zi.jpg


And it has separated in the bottom. I'm expecting the mash to sink back pretty soon, otherwise I'll just wiggle it back.
img4324c.jpg


I just want to open it and dig in!

Phillip, natural is always the best way to go. I usually use a starter but only because having high blood pressure I need to keep salt as low as I can. Looking good, can't wait to see more pics and try for some close ups Bro :)

BTW, how much salt do you use in your mashes?

Also, I'm changing imagehost so everything will look better :P
 
Really? With 4 tablespoons you should be able to go wild without any problems. If you're down to 2 tablespoons, you might want to use a starter. I'm using 2% in my ferments and you should be at around 1.5-1.6% with 4 tablespoons to a gallon.
 
Aaaaaand it's done!

Let's get right to the juicy stuff.

img4338q.jpg

The beauty!

img4342p.jpg

Opening (you should smell this stuff right here!)

img4344po.jpg

After pureeing it in the blender, it's time for the first simmering to soften it up a bit more.

img4346hi.jpg

Straining the sauce, getting rid of them there seeds!

img4347yc.jpg

Super smooth sauce! Now, getting rid of bacteria like a Pasteur! (This was done with the lid on since the consistency was spot on right off the bat)

img4348m.jpg

Finished and bottled! This photo was taken after the bottlecaps had been sterilized by flipping after filling them up side down when hot and then cooling them off in a cold water bath.


I let this one run for 22 days before bottling. Here comes a great wall of text to explain why! ;)
The first phase of fermenting started after about a day. Since i went wild it's the L. mesenteroides that starts everything off. That little bacteria is very active up to day five of the ferment, where it produces the most acid. By then, most other bacteria will have died off (E. coli etc. etc.) and at around day 7 it's too sour even for L. mesenteroides. After that, L. plantarum (one of the more common starter bacterias, if i recall correctly) takes up the fight and goes strong until around day 20. At that point, the pH-level should be well under 4, which (at least for sauerkraut) means it's well past shelf-stable levels. Acid levels should be somewhere around 1.7% (0.75% lactic acid means a pH-value of 4.1, but it's not a linear scale, so i can't really translate it to pH. I should really get a working pH-meter ;P )
Letting it go for longer makes the taste calm down and settle a bit more, but the acidity won't change very much.

This sauce is very popular among friends and family! It's melting the faces off my colleagues during every lunch break at work. The next step for me will most likely be to scale up the production, get a better bottle supplier and get it tested at a lab and approved for selling. Oh, and i need a name for it. :P

I'd love to answer any questions and to receive suggestions and feedback!
I hope you enjoyed this little thread.

/Philip
 
Thanks all!

The heat level is moderate, since i used a bit less habs than i meant to. Most people still think it's crazy hot tho! I like this heat level so i might go down a bit on red chiles and up the habs a wee bit, to get more space for carrots at the same heat :) I might even try to add some celery if i'm feeling brave!

As for the current recipe (sort of):
500g red chiles (unknown variety, pretty hot by themselves)
300g habanero
200g-ish garlic
500g onions
500g carrots
40g salt

Mix everything into a mash with very little water added (just to dissolve the salt). Then put it in a 2l (about half a gallon) jar with an airtight lid. You can use any type of container that is airtight as long as it is possible to burp it or use an airlock to release pressure.
 
I found red jalapenos at Caputo's today, so I'm going to add them to some habs I have in the freezer along with a couple carrots/vidalia onions I have in the pantry! We'll see how this batch turns out. Thanks to Phil for the inspiration and the recipe. :)
 
Back
Top