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Tabascos are ripening and new flowers appearing

T

TnTom

I've had a great time watching my Tabasco peppers thru the summer. They've been may favorite. I like hot but these are at a level I haven't tasted before.
I have a couple of questions. I have 2 plants and both are full maybe a couple hundred peppers. There are those still yellow or green, those that are turning and getting red and those that are dark red about 75% or dark red and some are loosing their color and beginning to brown. When I touch them or tug on them some release, some don't without a little more coaking.

What are my options: dry and grind into powder? Make a sauce?

I have a hand full of freshly picked about a hand full 30- 40 peppers. I mashed them into a pulp and added about 6 ounces of water after dissolving a table spoon of sugar in it and a teaspoon of bread making yeast in a pint jar and in a day or so it began to ferment. That was a week ago and it smells like wine and I still see some bubbling but it seems to be about finished? Question what did I make and what the heck do I do with it??? I also included 6 cherry tomatoes to the mix when I started it.

I've been stirring it daily and when I take the lid off it "Poofs" and smells good. I'm thinking of putting the mixture in my blender and reducing it to its lowest denominator.

I wish I had a plan for the rest of them. I'd also like to grow maybe a dozen plants next season. What would you do with them?? :hotsauce: One more thing. I haven't watered them for about a week now and they have new flowers and buds again. Should I turn the water back on or let mother nature take its course???
 
If I had that many, I'd likely freeze some and make some into powder. You've got enough to do more than that, but I haven't gotten into canning and such. Frozen: used when the chile body is wanted in cooking. Powdered: used in any cooking where heat and flavor is desired. I'm growing LTR Cayennes, which are a heck of a lot hotter than what I find powdered in the stores, so I'm hoping to make some good powder when this next batch ripens. Others will have other input, I'm sure.

Curious - why did you add yeast to your mix? Where did that idea come from?
 
I absolutely LOVE my Tabasco Powder. With that said, I have yet to use them in canning, although I think they would be cool canned with some other peppers in a mix. They also would go good in a sauce. I am also planning on freezing some to use in cooking later. Enjoy, they are a real versatile pepper.
 
TnTom said:
One more thing. I haven't watered them for about a week now and they have new flowers and buds again. Should I turn the water back on or let mother nature take its course???
Click to expand...

One more thought: I'm in the Cleveland, OH area, and I see you're in TN. We're supposed to start dipping below 50F at nights here, starting tomorrow night. My plants started going nuts with blooms a few weeks back, and I have a new good crop of pods coming in now. I'm still watering every 1-2 days (mine are in ceramic pots.) My plan is to continue to keep them outside and watering while the pods continue to ripen, and either move into the garage or the house on too-cool nights to make sure frost doesn't get to them.

My two cents is that with your being that much further south (your temps are typically in the 10-20F range higher than here in the coldest part of winter), start watering again, and give those pods a chance. It's too early for your plants to go into dormancy. I'd also recommend reading the article on overwintering on thechileman.org, as well as the posts on the same topic here.
 
Agreed with Geeme, don't give up on the watering yet. Keep watering when they dry like usual. Your peppers will grow and ripen just fine.
 
I figured a boy from Tennessee wouldn't have to ask the question of what to do with Tabascos...heck man..make pepper sauce to put on your greens.... ;)
 
geeme said:
If I had that many, I'd likely freeze some and make some into powder. You've got enough to do more than that, but I haven't gotten into canning and such. Frozen: used when the chile body is wanted in cooking. Powdered: used in any cooking where heat and flavor is desired. I'm growing LTR Cayennes, which are a heck of a lot hotter than what I find powdered in the stores, so I'm hoping to make some good powder when this next batch ripens. Others will have other input, I'm sure.

Curious - why did you add yeast to your mix? Where did that idea come from?
Click to expand...
I'll get the water going again, when I noticed the flowers and pods again I thought WHAT??? It will be a month or so before we freeze and I can keep my turnip greens going. The idea of the yeast came from making grape wine. grapes mashed, sugar, water yeast, makes good wine but I had read that Tabasco sauce is fermented Tabasco peppers and they age it for a year or more so I thought I'd try something like that. I wish I hadn't added any tomatoes though. I think the yeast is what kick starts the fermentation, I know it makes the corn mash start.

Iv'e got a nice batch of turnip greens growin right next to the peppers and they will for sure get sauced up. I didn't plant any collards this summer but turnip greens with some hog jowl and some sauce....look out. Ive never grown tabasco before and have never made a sauce but will look for some recipes on the site.

I'll check into the overwintering too. If anyone would like some of the dried peppers I'd love to trade some for something you've grown. I'm thinking the seed should be good for next summer?
 
wish I had some greens growing....

pepper sauce is very very simple...

wash and pack peppers into jar...

add boiling vinegar...

I also put a pretty good sized clove of garlic whole on the top of the pods...

the pods will eventually soak up all the vinegar and you will have to add more...you can eliminate this addition by piercing the pods with a fork to let the vinegar inside...
 
I have a ton of tobasco peppers on my plant. All are still green but had to sample one today. It had a very nice bite. I plan on making powder w/the peppers. may make pepper vinegar to use in gumbo's for the winter.
 
I'll never freeze tabasco peppers again... I did last year, my first year growing them, and was horribly disappointed every time I chopped them up to put in food. They just didn't blend in right, some parts were hot and overpowering taste-wise, other parts were weak in both flavor and heat. They're just not good fresh or frozen, in my opinion. I also noticed that my tabascos take forever to ripen, and the more ripe they are the less I like them, so I pick 'em all green--helps increase the production of peppers too, since the plant will produce more thinking there has been a failure of setting seed. I would definitely recommend making tabasco power. Now THAT is awesome. The best use I have found for tabasco peppers, and something I'll be making more of soon... just dried some more peppers...

No comment on making sauce. I guess it could work out if you do it right, especially if you don't just make tabasco-flavored vinegar, but after having the popular "hot sauce," if you can call it that, saying the words "tabasco" and "hot sauce" in the same sentence makes me sick. Now, excuse me while I go puke.
 
a little opinionated are we UZ?.... :rofl:

I use the tabascos at two different stages...when they are yellow, I make pepper sauce...when they turn red, I make a puree out of them...IMO the puree is better for cooking...
 
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