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fermenting What Are the Benefits of Using a Mash?

M

misterbittman

We are in the development phase of a habanero mango based hot sauce, and we have created a recipe without using a mash that is pretty tasty. However, we're wondering if creating a mash as a base flavor will help to increase the complexity of taste. In other words, we're thinking of using a mash as a base for the hot sauce(and wondering the percentage of mash needed for the base), and then adding fresh ingredients on top of the mash to create the sauce.

We're also wondering if a mash will help with the stability of the product. As a side note, we have not tested our current recipe for pH, but the bottles are still edible after seven months unopened in the cabinet.

What do you think?
 
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the major advantage of using a mash IMO is the shelf life...mash will last a long time even unrefrigerated...
 
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mashes usually have different flavor profiles than sauces made with chiles, onion, fruit, etc. There are some places online where you can order small quantities of different chile mashes. I'd suggest gettign a couple different ones, maybe a habanero one since that's what you're using for your sauce. and taste test the mash and some fresh ground chiles.


The flavors are totally different, but that doesnt mean mashes are bad, it just means they are different.

jmho, if you try to substitiute a mash for a fresh habanero, the flavor of your sauce will be totally different.


And please don't assume that just because it's been in the bottle for 7 months and no one has gotten sick from eating it yet that it's safe. It probably is, but please be sure. And get it tested, etc. Lots of posts about pH levels, testing, etc. Good reading material for winter evenings~


Have fun~
SL
 
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+1 to SL on the safety with your sauce.

You can get a good Ph meter on ebay for under $20.00 so even if your purchasing a new one each year it's a worthwhile investment.

If you have read through the Fermenting 101 post it explains in a lot more detail but running all of your ingredients through the fermentation process will increase the complexity of your flavor profile in a couple of ways. First, the process takes the sugars in your ingredients and converts then into Lactic Acid. So your sauce will not be as sweet as it was. In fact it can take a sweet sauce and make it into a savory one while leaving the flavors of the ingredients intact. Second, if you’re using any vinegar in your sauce you may not need it any longer as the lactic acid will replace it. My mash’s after a 45 day fermentation usually come out around Ph 3.6 so I don’t have to add any additional acid to lower the Ph. If I do it’s to add to the flavor profile I’m after. Third, the fermentation process, to me at least, kind of mellows the flavors allowing them to really come together and get happy. Now that said, I have never noticed any loss of flavor or heat due to the process.

IMHO, I would make 2 small batches to run through a 30 to 45 day fermentation process. In the first add all of the ingredients to the mash and in the second one leave out the sweet ingredients like the Mango and add them in when you finalize the sauce. Also leave out any acid you would normally add to the recipe till after blending and you can taste / Ph test the sauce. You can then adjust based on Ph and your desired flavor profile. I think you’ll find that you have two different flavor profiles from the same ingredients and might even then have a second sauce to offer. If you decide to do this please feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Hope this has been helpful.


Note: If you do decide to mash don’t add any vinegar till after you have tasted the sauce made from the mash. You may not even need it.

Cheers,
RM
 
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misterbittman said:
Thank You everybody for your answers! We'll let you know how the first few batches come out!
Has anyone ever made a mash from dried/rehydrated peppers before?
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I haven't nor have I heard anyone else trying it. You might contact Chili Monsta and see if he's tried it but he's the only one that I can think of who may have.

It would be interesting to see if it works. I would think that the best method would be to break the dried peppers into pieces and rehydrate them with some warm water not cooking them though. Then after they have soaked up some add everything else for a normal fermentation and let it go and see what happens. I would also think that it would be a fermentation that you would want to add some additional ingredients to to so adequate sugars were available to the lactobacillus.
 
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RocketMan said:
+1 to SL on the safety with your sauce.

You can get a good Ph meter on ebay for under $20.00 so even if your purchasing a new one each year it's a worthwhile investment.
Click to expand...

I read through the whole fermentation thread, and I have a couple of fermentation projects going right now, a Mango, yellow 7 pot sauce, some pickled jalapenos and a bunch of pickled pepperoncini. I am a little afraid to try them, and don't have a PH tester yet, is there a particular brand/type you recommend? I see the ones for soil, aquariums etc., but not any specificly for food PH. I know that some of the aquarium type probably don't have the necessary range, but I am really in the dark about what to look for. I have read a lot of reviews on Amazon and am a little leery of some that the results seem to get skewed ( not holding calibration), sou would love some suggestions.

Cindi


Please excuse my shortsightedness, I see a full thread below addresses this
 
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Cindy;
Any PH tester including litmus paper will work. :)
Here is a Ebay cheap probe tester that I would try and I think Walmart stocks these as well---5 bucks---Ebay #Item number: 190350373874 Item location: Athens, GA,

The only thing you have to watch is that whatever you use is sterile so it can not introduce any foreign bacterial agent to the product you are testing. :eek:

Boiling the testing container or the probe before using it is the best process; but as some here suggest washing the sample tester with bleach will also kill the bacteria :cool: but make sure you rinse it off under running water to rinse off the bleach before you put it in your pepper mash. Otherwise you will be getting chlorine in your sauce. :(

Chlorine that is the active ingredient in bleach and chlorine is very reactive and will interact with the sauce and maybe introduce off flavors to the sauce. That is why I recommend rinsing off the bleach after applying it to the probe. :beer:

Balac
 
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Fermented mash will have a fantastic pungent, acidic flavor that you can't get by simply adding acetic acid (vinegar). Lactic acid fermentation imparts a flavor that you'll notice is especially strong in Tabasco. The first time you smell a fermented mash you think "Oh, Tabasco! It's not acetic acid I was tasting that whole time, but lactic acid".

Fresh pepper sauces have their place, but the difference to me is like cold-cut ham vs. aged prosciutto.
 
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Pablo, that's a good analogy of the difference in the aged mash process -vs- a fresh process.

I wasn't going to comment, but since the thread is active again, I'd just like to comment against boiling a pH meter's probe to sterilize unless you KNOW FOR CERTAIN that the probe is rated for that high of temperature. Many pH meters, especially lower priced units, can't handle boiling temps.


When washing the pH meter probe, I put a couple drops of detergent on the probe, rub it from the outside to make sure the detergent got around the probe. Then I swish it in a small cup of water and rinse-rinse-rinse-rinse-rinse under running water.

When taking pH samples, remove a small bit (like a teaspoon) from the full batch and test the sauce in the spoon (after it has cooled a little if it's a cooked sauce). Don't stick the probe into the full batch. Too much risk of contamination even if you're sure the probe is clean. Why risk a little bit of something nasty getting into the sauce when you can test it separate from the big pot.

I may be doing the cleaning wrong, but I don't use any brushes or abrasives on the pH probe when cleaning. I feel like there is a risk of something getting stuck around the probe due to the contruction design of the plastic tube around the glass probe of the meter, which is why I test separate from the master batch.

I'm open to suggestions if someone has or knows of a better way to clean a pH meter without damaging the glass probe.
SL
 
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