How to: Fermented Hot Sauce

Yes, yet another kitchen post, but fear not my friends, crafty subjects will be back very soon. In the meantime, let me share with you this yummy experiment of mine.

Three weeks ago, I told you I was overwhelmed with the productivity of my spicy pepper plants. I made a drying string with a bunch of them but I had still many more to use. Sooooo, today, I'm going to share with you my technique to make Fermented Hot Sauce. What I like with this recipe (It's actually more of a technique then a recipe) is that it can really be customized to suit your tastes. Depending on the peppers you use it can range from a little spicy to blown-out-of-your-mind-spicy! You can also play with the texture, starting from the chunky kind to a smooth sauce of even a runnier product similar to tabasco. 

Why fermented you may ask. Well fermented foods are more nutritious than cooked ones, keep for far longer, have health benefits and taste delicious. (I plan on eventually, dedicating a post on all the benefits of fermented foods, and talk more about why I love them.)

Without further ado, here is what you need to make fermented hot sauce:

 

The sauce is basically composed of peppers and a bit of garlic (which is optional) that are let to ferment in brine. For my sauce, I use the cheyenne peppers growing on my balcony and some mild peppers I bought at the farmer's market.

 I have two advice about the kind of peppers to choose. 

First, go for local and organic as much as possible. I have read that imported and/or treated peppers would not ferment as well (or even ferment at all) because they may lack the bacterias responsible for lacto fermentation.

 Secondly, if you mix different colors you may end up with an odd looking sauce, which is perfectly fine if you don't mind (think poblanos and cherry bomb...brownish sauce!).

Now, how to prepare for the fermentation. The first thing you want to do, is to prepare you brine. One tablespoon of salt for two cups of water is a good ratio.

 Bring some water to a boil and pour over your sea salt. Stir to dissolve completely.

 Depending on the volume of peppers you have, you will need more or less brine. Two cups was just enough for my amount of pepper. Set the brine aside to cool.

While your brine is cooling down (never pour hot brine over your fruits or vegetables as it may kill the good bacterias), prepare your peppers. 

Slice the peppers. You can keeping the seeds and membranes, your choice.

And then, chop them roughly. They don't need to be minced, as they will be pureed once fermented. Look at these crunchy peppers!

Fermentation is best done in glass or ceramic containers as they are non-porous materials. Mason jars are perfect for the job. I filled one jar with the mild peppers, hoping that if the cheyenne were too pungent for my taste, I could mix them later to dilute the spiciness. More on this later.

Same preparation step with the cheyenne peppers. 

The garlic cloves only need to be peeled.

Again, keep the seeds or not depending on the spiciness and texture you like.

Fill the jars, adding a garlic clove in each, if you choose to use some.

They're not that visible, but on top of the peppers, I added glass weights. These weights are food safe and are made to keep the vegetables submerge in brine at all time. Floating vegetables can cause spoilage as they are exposed to air bacterias and not protected by the salty brine. I've seen people use other types of weight (ziploc bag filled with more brine, cabbage leaves, ceramic weights or even small plates in the case of bigger jars) just make sure they are food safe and clean.

Press the vegetables, crushing them as much as possible. You want a bit of headspace as the fermenting process will make things bubbling and expending a bit.

Pour the cooled brine on top of that and ensure there is enough to cover everything entirely.

Then, you need to cover the jar so nothing gets in them. Some people use pieces of fabric and rubber bands or an airlock device made to fit on mason jar covers. I use Pickle Pipes from Mason Tops and I like how simple and easy they are to use. They keep things out of the jar and still let gas/pressure escape so I don't have to remember to open the jar occasionally.    

Place the jars in a dark spot and forget about them for a while. It could range from a week to a month depending on the climate you live in. Colder temperatures make for a slower progress in fermentation. Taste the peppers after a week and see if you want to wait longer. The more you let them ferment, the more tangy they get.

This is what they looked like after a week and a half. Sadly the one on the right had molds on the inside top of the jar. Some seeds weren't submerged! I had to throw it out, not wanting to take any risks.

See all the bubbles and the sediments at the bottom? These are all good signs of a thriving ferment. 

I let the remaining jar ferment for another week or so. I removed the glass weight and gave it a stir before taking this picture to show you the peppers.

Poured out of the jar. Once fermented to your liking, you could just pop the jar in the fridge and eat the peppers, just like pickles. This could totally be your final result. 

If you want to make it into a sauce, carry on reading.

Drain the peppers, keeping the brine aside.

Puree in a blender or a food processor, adding brine a little at a time. Stop adding brine when you like the consistency.

This is a close up to show the texture I got. I added maybe 25% of the brine in my puree. For more liquid product, you could add all the brine and even strain the sauce in a fine sieve. You would end up with a texture closer to tabasco sauce. This sauce will keep for months if not years in the fridge. The fermentation process having acidified the peppers.

That's it for my hot sauce technique! What fermented food do you like? Do you make it yourself? I would like to hear from you!