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fermenting Tried and true fermented sauce recipes request pretty please :)

S

sirhc76

I'm certain I've read just about every post and used just about every combination of search words possible and a few promising recipes are being used.  I know a big part of this for everyone has been trial and error and I appreciate that.  What I'm asking for, really more begging for is a a few red and yellow tried and true recipes.  These dont have to be your secret sauce recipes or those that you sell and you can PM me if you want and they will go no farther than my kitchen.  I picked up some amazing jerk and "table" sauce when in the non tourist spots of Jamaica this year, I think I have those addressed.  Thankfully my good friend is from Jamaica, has plenty of family and connections like our guide Patrice who I'm positive knows everyone in Jamaica. 

Thanks to smileyguy697 I have a LFRB filled with10 SFRB of various nagas, brainstrains, scorpions and other peppers along with another 2lbs that need to be processed tomorrow.  I also have 4 other "basic" ferments working.  I have an amazing hot sauce, or what most call salsa recipe and almost 30 half pint jars of that.  What I'm really looking for is a true fermented sauce to go into woozy bottles.  Being from Texas and growing up in San Antonio I have plenty of old school salsa recipes.

My concern still is how you flavor the end product and how much the produce and spices you add to the ferment come into play with the final product.  Can you successfully add these spices after the ferment is done or is it better to add them before it starts?  I dont want to trash 5lbs of amazing peppers, yes I know others have had to go through that which is why I'm asking up front.  Sadly my first years grow didn't produce much and the wife pointed out my paypal transactions for peppers, canning supplies, pressure cookers, new food processor, dehydrator, fermentation supplies and so on in the last two months and well I has some esplainin to do. 
 
Thanks again everyone, again not looking for something for free.  I dont mind sending whomever contributes recipes a few bottles of sauce or funds to pay for their time.  Hopefully next year Ill have plenty of peppers since a full garden is going in and I wont have cattle on the ranch.  I've got a nice spot picked out that use to be a two acre garden and plenty of animal proof fence to keep the deer out.  I'm not new to cooking, BBQ or salsa making but this fermenting has me racking my brains and second guessing everything.  Day 5 on these.
 
Thanks again
 
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i'm certainly no expert, but here is a sauce I have made a few times and I'm a big fan of the caribbean/tropical yellow-orange sauces, those are the reason I started making hot sauce in the first place. beside the exact recipe, i have used these general ingredient ratios for all of the sauces I've made and they've all turned out really well. if you don't want to use the fruits , i think a simple, easy fermented sauce with peppers, garlic, onion, and carrot (or sweet potato) would make for a fine sauce. not exactly sure what spice additions you're referring to, but i've never added anything besides a salty brine to my ingredients for fermenting and never added other spices as I don't really think they're necessary unless you're going for a style that calls for it. and probably would add in any spices after the ferment while you're processing it.
 
250g mixed habs (homegrown orange and red, white, mustard, and red tabasco) – mostly homegrown orange hab, red hab, and tabasco.
2 mangoes, peeled, juiced (a little overripe this time, tried to squeeze juice out of pitted part)
3 carrots, shredded
2 yellow bell pepper, minced
1 head garlic, smashed
¾ large sweet yellow onion, thinly sliced
2” inch piece ginger, peeled and grated
 
Place into a half gallon jar, poured over brine of 5% (1 L water + 51g salt).
·         Filled to last mark on shoulder of jar w/o weight; opted for CO2 blanket. First time attempting metal lid w/ grommet & airlock.
 
Started ferment on 5/31/14
Ended ferment on 6/28/14 – pH was 3.42
 
Boiled, covered, for 25 mins, pureed, boiled, covered for 15 mins, pureed, boiled/simmered, partially covered for 15 mins, held to 190 for bottling.
 
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Here's a link to the ferment recipe and process I've used for the last couple years.  Easy to make, recipe is easily scalable (initial batch is < 2lbs peppers, have made 10lb batches at a time in the past) and quite tasty (at least I think so!).
 
RE: Spices - I find that I get best results when everything goes in and ferments together.   Usually I do not add anything after processing, but its something you've got to play around with.  You might like less (or more) garlic and/or more carrot and/or etc etc.  The entire process - from gorging on seed info and planning during the winter, to starting the seedlings and growing them, to waiting for everything to ripen, to making mash and processing the sauce - every step gets me.  A two acre patch is plenty enough to keep you (and friends) in enough sauce and peppers year round.  If you have any other questions ask around or pm me.  Best of luck!
 
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Real simple recipe.
take you favorite chilies and blend them down almost to a quart of mash. Take a cup of water and add salt to it till it its saturated. Pour some of the water into the mash until the mash is a little liquidy (certainly not the whole cup).  Place in qt. mason jar and put lid on lightly tightened. How tight? Tight enough so when you shake it nothing spill out. Make sure to leave 1/2" from the top. For the first week shake every day. Next two weeks every other day. When it no longer is separating to where there is water on the bottom but rather water on the top, it's probably ready but get a ph meter and make sure it's 4 or below. Now put through blender or processor again. If you left the seeds in pass it through a fine sieve. Otherwise you can bottle it in sterilized bottles (1 tbl. bleach/gallon of water soak for an hour). If you want you can heat the sauce first.
 
Other option, for a quick sauce 3/4 pound of chilies, at least a 1/4 cup of distilled white wine vinegar and put through a processor. If not thin enough add more vinegar or if you like some lemon or lime juice. Add 1 tbl. of salt or more. check with ph meter just to be sure.
 
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Thanks everyone to be clear I already have a few basic ferments going and understand the basics of fermenting and canning.  What I dont want is to put 1lb of peppers, onions, carrots and various fruits into a jar for 6 weeks and have it come out as bland in your face, just got sprayed with pepper spray.  I dont mind hot, actually prefer hot but id like some sort of flavor profile to go with it.  I have already mixed up small batches to taste although I dont know, other than reading a few hundred posts, what the fermentation process will do to taste.  Remember when you put that first batch of sea monkeys in the water and patiently waited for a few weeks and nothing happened, trying to avoid that :)
 
SmokenFire, your recipe is one that I have going right now along with a few that include strawberries and a yellow with mango and carrots.  Each batch used Mortons canning salt measured and mixed to volume of mash along with a LBC starter.  Do you add any additional spices after the ferment is done or is it even needed?  Current two that are in 1.6q jars and I have 3 others in quart jars that I didn't feel like getting the step stool to remove from the top shelf of the pantry.

I have NO intentions of ever selling my sauces it will be for my own use or gifts to family and friends so I'm not trying to milk trade secret recipes from anyone and I dont want those if you aren't comfortable giving them.  I just find myself doing more reading and second guessing than actually fermenting at this point.  I prefer to have my friends tell me stories like the one of my peach hab jam that went to a party this past weekend.  One of my friends mothers kept telling everyone it was gone because she planned to take the remainder of the jar home for herself. 

20140919_222013_zpsvmytfvnd.jpg
 
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SirHC 
 
Both those ferments look mighty tasty!  Once they're done you'll find that fermentation has added a sour-ish, almost vinegar-y type tang - immediately recognizable from other hot sauces you've had (Cholula, Tabasco, etc).  My standard recipe produces a thicker sauce similar to Sriacha.  
 
Regarding the addition of herbs or spices AFTER fermenting; I don't do it.  I'll pull and store and/or process the batch and if anything I *might* add some additional salt (rarely necessary) or sweetener (honey mostly, sometimes agave nectar) to balance the flavor profile.   Once you bust into any/all of the current ferments you'll have a much better idea of what you like and/or are looking for and from there its much easier to experiment with future batches.
 
And if you've got any extra peach/hab jam left over I'd gladly sample yer wares!  PM me and I'll paypal you shipping.  ;)
 
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i promise you fermenting peppers, garlic, onion, carrot and optional fruit/other veggies will not turn out bland. fermentation adds a nice flavor dimension that is hard to describe, and I don't really find it all that 'sour' tasting. i don't use lacto starters at all as there's normally plenty of bacteria on the veggies & fruit to take care of it, so i'm unsure if that changes the flavor profile at all, but doubt it turns out much different.
 
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Thanks again everyone,
 
I have one jar of the peach hab jam left but I have the stuff to make another batch so you are in luck, shoot me your info.  I guess I have plenty of peppers to play with so I should be able to get something to work and at least be ready for next year.  I probably overdid the peppers on both batches in the 1.6q jars, 1lb of nagas in the red and 1lb of MOAs/daisy cutters in the yellow.  I picked up an additional 10 airlocks today and let the guy at the home brew shop talk me into starting homemade sake. 
 
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sirhc76 said:
I picked up an additional 10 airlocks today and let the guy at the home brew shop talk me into starting homemade sake. 
Click to expand...
Interested in hearing more a out making sake. Dad and I used to make wine and veer years back so I have all the tools available.
 
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[SIZE=10.5pt]I have a question, I hope it's not considered a highjack of the OP. I don't see anything weighing down the mash keeping the mash submerged, is it not needed since an airlock is being used? When should weights be used?[/SIZE]
 
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Thanks Rocketman, I use agave in my purees as well so that helps.  I guess like any other recipe Ill need to build it then refine it, the waiting part is difficult :)

Neoguy, some do some dont, my understanding is depending on the liquid added to the ferment keeping the fruit/veggies submerged will help prevent Kahm yeast.  Searching Kahm in the fermenting thread will offer up several POVs.  Cabbage leaves to glass weights like these can be used depending on your containers. http://home.beeline-online.net/revrick/jarweights.htm

Still digging into this sake thing.  Brew guy, who also ferments veggies, mentioned sake my first time in the store and then again this last visit so I dug in a little.  It appears that its very much like fermenting wine and as he pointed out there is rice wine and there is sake.  I looked into it because I dont drink beer and my drink of choice requires local vodka which comes in handles that require you to drink until empty.  Since the boss has outlawed vodka, my story of sake is wine made the wife say, ok as long as its wine and not vodka :) 

I found a really good thread about the process of both rice wine and sake on a homebrew site.  Don't want to drop other forum links but searching this will get it for you. Making Traditional Sake! The difference between it and Rice wine.
 
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3 more in the pantry that I didn't get out.  Ran out of time and couldn't process the rest of my peppers last night, silly half gallon jars, wont do that again without the correct funnel.  What is normally used to get mash into narrow neck containters?  I used Bisc Pears and ginger along with the normal players on one these, still not sure how that is going to work out.

20140922_235651_zpsth8mgyfa.jpg
 
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SmokenFire said:
Here's a link to the ferment recipe and process I've used for the last couple years.  Easy to make, recipe is easily scalable (initial batch is < 2lbs peppers, have made 10lb batches at a time in the past) and quite tasty (at least I think so!).
 
RE: Spices - I find that I get best results when everything goes in and ferments together.   Usually I do not add anything after processing, but its something you've got to play around with.  You might like less (or more) garlic and/or more carrot and/or etc etc.  The entire process - from gorging on seed info and planning during the winter, to starting the seedlings and growing them, to waiting for everything to ripen, to making mash and processing the sauce - every step gets me.  A two acre patch is plenty enough to keep you (and friends) in enough sauce and peppers year round.  If you have any other questions ask around or pm me.  Best of luck!
Click to expand...
 
Ok WOW what a difference a few months and 15 different ferments can teach you.  That being said, the yellow ferment in the first post was processed and is amazing sadly I dont have the exact recipe down to the gram.  I just milled down the red one pictured in the first post after a 90 day ferment and its liquid fire.  I'm certain it has a good flavor to it but even after adding 1.5c apple juice its liquid HEAT. This is the one drop on your tongue causes hiccups and makes your gums hurt type of heat.

I used 1lb of nagas in your recipe, before I knew any better, so you can imagine the heat level on this one.  I dont think I can add more liquid to it since its already thin so Ill bottle this one up and call it mild sauce :)  I have a guy in the office who is Asian and loves spicy food.  Our initial pepper conversation was started over how people in the area dont understand spicy foods/sauce.  Today I brought tacos and some of my salsa, recipe used about 20 jays ghost and reapers.  He has a cold and congestion so he asked me for some salsa.  It was funny when he got up and left the meeting I was running then came back in to drink the milk we brought in with coffee :)
 
 
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