Last night I taught a super fun class for my favorite local crusaders for fair food, the appropriately named Fair Food Farmstand. We made pickles fit for a bahn mi, and tasty, spicy pepper sauce. The bounty of peppers made available by Fair Food was absolutely incredible! In fact, I know they didn’t put them all out, so if you’re in the neighborhood of Reading Terminal Market, you should stop by and get you some. We’re talking everything from jalapeños and cherry bombs to Trinadad Scorpions and Ghost peppers. No joke!
I may have to sojourn that way again this weekend despite the fact that my garden (and trips to Fair Food) have yielded about about 2 gallons of hot sauce now, this homemade, aged stuff is so good, I basically chug it.
Now, there is some debate in the fermentation community about the best way to make hot sauce. I have tried all the ways I’ve heard of, and then I developed my own process, because I didn’t really love any of them. The most common way I’ve seen is to make a puree of peppers, stir regularly for a week or so, then put into an airlock jar and let it age/continue to ferment. When it’s done, strain it and you’ve got sauce! If you’d like to do it that way (which to me is too labor intensive and, generally a phickle faux pas, requires special (if super cheap) equipment, check out these instructions on making an aged hot sauce. It works well (I skipped the vinegar at the end a couple times and stored in the fridge), but I think my way is easier, and the results are mindblowingly good.
As I’ve mentioned for other foods before (ginger and garlic, for instance), hot peppers are an ingredient that you probably want to buy either organic or from a trusted, local source. I bought some imported peppers, in search of variety, and they didn’t ferment. This happened three times, with three varieties of peppers, until I finally realized it wasn’t user error, and that the peppers, too, could be irradiated. Lesson learned, though, from now on, I’m fully a farmer’s market or garden lady when it comes to peppers!
You can use any kind of hot peppers to make this recipe, but I prefer to either use peppers hotter than I can normally eat, or to mix in a couple super hots to whatever I’m making. I also tend to ferment different peppers separately (I don’t mix my fresnos and my habaneros), because I can always do mixed, test batches later, and if I’m not crazy about the way one tastes when done, or if it’s hotter or not as hot as expected, it won’t blow the whole batch. That’s totally personal preference, though. Feel free to mix away.
FERMENTED, AGED HOT PEPPER SAUCE
Yield will depend on how much brine you include in the final product, but generally, 1 pint-3/4 of a quart
If you are unfamiliar with the basic concepts of fermented pickling, please read my pickles FAQ before getting started.
Equipment
- Quart Jar
- Food processor or high power blender (Vitamix would be ideal, but, sadly, I don’t have one so I use my Cuisinart which does a great job!)
- Vinyl or rubber gloves
Ingredients
- 3.5 packed cups whole hot peppers of your choosing (fresnos, cayenne, habanero and jalapeños work particularly well, but you can use anything), stems and green caps removed
- 5 cloves garlic
- (optional) additional seasonings, cloves, star anise, mustard seeds, brown sugar, etc
- Brine (1 T salt dissolved in 2 cups room temp water)
Process
- If using seasonings, place in bottom of jar.
- Pack peppers and garlic into jar, as tightly as possible.
- Pour brine over and ensure that pepper are submerged under brine, using your preferred method to submerge vegetables and cover the jar. You want to use as little brine as possible here, so be sure that your peppers are well packed in. It’s okay if they crack here and there while you’re packing them in.
- Allow to ferment for at least two weeks and up to 8 (or really, a year if you’d like). If you want to stop there are just eat this hot peppers as pickles, go for it! At 3 months, my serranos where still perfectly crispy.
- Once fermentation is complete, drain and reserve brine and place peppers and garlic in a food processor, removing any whole spices first. Process for 2-3 minutes, or until very liquidy.
- Add brine a tablespoon at a time until it reaches desired consistency. For a liquid, tabasco-style sauce, add it all. I like a sriracha consistency, so I usually add back between a quarter and a half cup of brine.
- Run the puree through a food mill or fine mesh strainer. I work with a pretty awesome OXO fine mesh strainer (you can use metal here) and a spatula, stirring and pressing until my pepper dregs are quite dry.
- This is one ferment that keeps almost indefinitely. I have sauces that are over a year old in my fridge, and they still taste great!
Like spicy things? How about some Hot Pepper Flakes or Kimchi?
Adam D. Zolkover says
This looks delicious! Every summer, I make a large quantity of Túóng Ót Toi style fermented hot sauce, and then lament come December when it runs out.
In fact, I had been in the middle of writing my own blog post about it when I saw this.
Becky says
Last summer, when I was just starting to dip my toes into fermenting, I packed a bunch of chilis a friend grew into a jar with some brine. (I can’t remember if I added garlic or not.) It sat on the counter for a few weeks, then got moved into the fridge. I finally pulled it out and pureed it in July or August. Added some vinegar and it’s like Tabasco. I had no idea it was that easy!
Amanda says
Totally. Hot sauce is one of my all-time favorites. My only quibble is the length of fermentation time (I really do like a 3 month sauce better than a 3 week sauce). I usually do a simultaneous batch of vinegar sauce (can be eaten the next day) and fermented (can be eaten months later) when I first have enough peppers to get started. I used to have a slight preference for the fast sauce, but then I started skipping the “add vinegar” step in the fermentation process, and aging them longer, and the fermented version won my heart! No question!
Rich says
I know this is an old post but I thought I’d offer a tip here. If you use a pro-biotic capsule or two, mixed into the brine in the jar, you get that 3 month flavor in 3 weeks or less. in a warm cupboard it can be done in a week. I just add it when I’m packing in the peppers to kick start everything (kefir or old recent brine from a batch of pickles works great too!)
Rich
Amanda says
Hi Rich – I don’t use starters in my ferments unless absolutely necessary for a few reasons. There is actually research done on fermented vegetables that shows that the end product of vegetable ferments made with starters is of lower quality (taste and texture) than vegetable ferments made with out. I can’t recall the title of the study that I’ve read on this topic, but it was done by the WHO and is cited (amongst other similar studies) in The Art of Fermentation.
I’ve done a lot of experimentation with starters (capsules, whey, brine from finished ferments, Caldwell’s) and my own personal experience bears the WHO study out 100%. Slimier texture and less complex taste are frequent by-products of using a starter for vegetable fermentation.
The other main reason not to use starters is the lack of microbial diversity in which they result. When you add a probiotic tablet, you are only getting the pre-selected strains of bacteria, possibly, in some cases definitely, to the detriment of the natural (much more diverse) strains that would play out their natural cycles during the fermentation process. I personally prefer wild fermentation with the microbes that were evolved to do the work.
Personally, time isn’t my main concern when I’m fermenting (there’s vinegar pickling for that!), but for those who want a quicker fermentation, starters are certainly an option.
I’m so glad you found a way that works for you!
Kev says
I agree in theory but we are making hot sauce. If it doesn’t have all of the probio goodness, that’s ok- we are measuring our consumption in drops. Make sure it’s organic, clean and from the heart. Want to add vinegar- ok- want to make it into salsa- ok. Just do it and enjoy the warming effects of the capsicum..
Cologio says
If I have any leftover from a previous batch I use that to jump-start the fermentation- like you would with kombucha. Even when ferementing my tomato seeds for storage I will throw in the guts of a tomato that has already started the process. That way you are using a starter that is natural- like a sourdough starter.
The trick here is to have leftovers from the previous batch- which isn’t always easy to remember when you are chowing it down.
Hope this helps.
Amanda says
Just FYI, some studies have shown that backslopping veg ferments isn’t best practice and actually produces an inferior result. It definitely limits the microbial diversity!
I know lots of people do that, but it’s worth keeping in mind that it’s not the best for everyone.
matt says
Hi Rich
After i submerge the chillis in brine do i seal the jar with lid and let sit?
matt says
i have a lot of peppers that have dried can i use the same fermenting ptocess with them.
Amanda says
Hi Matt,
That will depend on how they’ve been dried. There may still be dormant populations of lactic acid bacteria on the skins, but if they were heated, or dried very long ago, they may already have died. You can definitely try with a small batch and see how it goes. If you add fresh herbs or other seasonings (whole spices like mustard seed, onions, etc) you’ll be likelier to have a good result!
matt says
can you add cilantro to your fermesssntong?
Amanda says
Hi Matt,
Yes. However I’ve found that soft herbs in general and cilantro in particular don’t have a ton of lasting flavor. I definitely recommend giving it a try, though! Check out this post on using herbs in ferments for a bit of guidance.
Thomas Bowen says
I put basil in mine and can’t wait to see how it comes out
Amanda says
Awesome! I hope you love it!
Geoff says
Try coriender seed, it’s the seed from the cilantro plant. Not exactly the same flavor, but it’s in the family! ;^P
Ku says
Has anyone tried to ferment peppers using a ACV culture? If you, could you please give us some details such as fermentation time, flavourful, down sides to it, etc? Much obliged
Ku says
Hi. Great being here, digging through so much helpful information. Thanks Amanda, thanks everybody!
I have a question of my own too: Has anyone tried to ferment peppers using a ACV culture? If you, could you please give us some details such as fermentation time, flavourful, down sides to it, etc? Much obliged
Amanda says
Hi Ku,
I’m not sure I totally understand what you mean, but I’ll try to answer. If you just put peppers in ACV, you’ll probably really be making vinegar pickled peppers, since the acidity will likely be too high to allow fermentation to kickstart. If you want to do that, I would recommend googling quick-pickling and subbing ACV for the instructions you find.
If you put a whole bunch of peppers in ACV, you could also end up with a delightful infused vinegar!
Rod says
Do you open the capsule? Or do you just throw it in?
Amanda says
Generally people who choose to use a starter would just add the powder. Starters aren’t necessary, and there is some evidence that they provide inferior ferments (more prone to surface yeasts, less good texture).
Darris says
I started a pepper sause four days ago when will it start working off
ricky says
hi there I was just wondering if the vinegar kills off the lacto bacillus qualities of the sauce if you add vinegar ?
Amanda says
Hi Ricky,
The answer is probably not, but maybe. Keeping in mind that I’m not a microbiologist, I vaguely remember hearing from Fred Breidt, (USDA microbiologist who studies fermentation) when I interviewed him for my book that vinegar isn’t as good at killing things as we tend to think it is, and it’s definitely not as good as lactic acid (don’t quote him (or me) on that: it was 4 years ago and I might be remembering that wrong).
Where you definitely DON’T want to use vinegar is at the start of a ferment. Lowering the pH before fermentation begins will alter the fermentation cycle and possible create conditions too acidic for the lactic acid bacteria you need to do the fermenting for you. They are not acid tolerant. End stage LAB are more acid tolerant, which is why I think you’ll still have some hanging around if you add some vinegar at the end.
Mary poer says
Sounds great
Amanda says
Thank you kindly, Mary. Definitely one of my favorite ferments once I found my favorite way to make it!
Lori Greenberg says
I’m doing a red and a green version. My red one, jalapeños and bell peppers, has a film of something white collecting on the top of the water. Weirdest looking stuff…doesn’t look slimy or moldy.
What is it? Is everything still ok? It’s been a week today.
Amanda says
Hi Lori,
Without seeing it, I can’t really tell you what it is, but my best guess would be that it’s kahm, a harmless yeast that can sometimes build up during fermentation. Although it’s harmless from a health perspective, it can impart a flavor that some people find off-putting so you may want to skim as much off as you can when you have the chance.
I hope that helps!
Amanda
Aaron says
It is called a pellicle. It is a perfectly safe biofilm produced by yeast and/or bacterium. http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Pellicle
Amanda says
Hi Aaron,
I wouldn’t think so! Pellicles are not common in vegetable ferments (or desirable) and most people would describe those as slimy, which Lori specifically says it’s not.
JAMES VAILLANCOURT says
I have read that white is OK , but green mold is not!!
Lori Greenberg says
Thanks Amanda.
Would it be safe to open it, skim it and then put the airlock back on for the rest of the ferment?
It is the weirdest looking stuff. I’ll take a picture and blog it tomorrow and you can see.
Thanks!
Amanda says
Hi Lori,
I don’t work with airlocks a whole lot, but what I’ve read is that you generally don’t want to remove one during fermentation. I think you’ll probably be fine to leave the excess yeast in there (if that’s what it is) unless you’re planning on fermenting for months and months. Removing the yeast has a downside, but so does not removing it, so I would go with your gut and keep an eye on it.
Let me know what you decide and how it turns out, if you have the chance.
aldodio says
yes carefully skim it i have gotten it for years in my pickled tomatoes that i make in a crock. you can use a plate to skim it in a crock or bucket.
Brian says
Hi… In my first attempt at hot sauce, I’ve got some white stuff going on at the bottom of the jar. I’m guessing it’s yeast? Is that a normal thing? Should I try not to include it in the final product?
Amanda says
Hi Brian,
Yes, it’s probably yeast and bacteria (although I can’t be sure without seeing it, I get the same stuff in my sauce). For the stuff that settles to the bottom, I don’t worry about it a whole lot. If it’s on the surface, it could be kahm which can definitely impart an off flavor, so I do try to skim that. I hope that helps!
Amanda
Waqas says
Some silly questions but when you pack the chillies in (or purée them), do you seal the can or use a breathable cloth until fermentation is complete.
Also say you use a chilli base that’s has been blended with herbs and spice in a vitamix and then ferment the mixture. You don’t need to then strain again do you, you can use as is?
Amanda says
Hi Waqas,
Not silly at all. This is anaerobic fermentation. You don’t want air getting in there because it will give you surface mold. Submerging via the ghetto jar method (linked in the post) or some other way that you normally use is the best method here. You can also use an airlock to achieve the same effect. I am not a fan of doing it pureed from the start because it takes much more attention (stirring to avoid surface mold). You don’t need to strain it if you do it that way, but you will probably still want to run it through a food mill or fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds and pulp. That’s up to you, though!
Mike S. says
Hi, I do not strain mine, I do the initial ferment with whole peppers or sliced if using larger peppers, then, after a month or so, I will run the mash though a blender to chop it into a puree with the seeds mostly intact and let it age some more. When it is finally done to my satisfaction, I run it through the blender one more time to chop the seeds so I get the full flavor and the added heat from the seeds. Then I pack it into old hot sauce bottles using a turkey baster and store it in the fridge. I keep some in the lunch room at work and leave that at room temp, it keeps well until it is used up.
My current mix from last fall is mostly tabasco peppers and lemon drop peppers. If I remember correctly, I also mixed in some juice from green olives.
Jamie says
What is that lid called you have on the mason jar with the air lock in it and where did you find it?
Amanda says
It’s called a recap. I get them from Fillmore Container. They have the best price.
Cally says
I have a white, milky substance growing in the brine, but not on the surface. It’s just sort of floating around in there, not settling to the bottom. Could this also be a yeast of some kind?
Amanda says
Hi Cally,
Unfortunately without seeing it, I can’t give you an opinion. You could try googling for images that are similar. Sometimes that’s a good way to diagnose!
Sorry I can’t help!
Amanda
rickdale says
a note about salt: depending on type(kosher, sea, pickling, ect.) a tablespoon of salt can vary in weight a lot. better to weigh the salt. 1.5 oz. of salt per quart of water makes a 4% brine, which is good for most fermented stuff. also, don’t use iodized salt,iodine will stop or hinder the good bacteria from fermenting properly.
Amanda says
Hi Rickdale,
I actually prefer to measure salt. It’s easier, and many years ago, I weighed every salt I could get my hands on. I believe that ended up being about 15 varieties of salt. For the size of batch I do, the difference between a tablespoon of kosher salt, rock salt and fine salt was negligible. The only sizable difference was between flake and fine salt (and I never ferment with flake salt) I always prefer to work without equipment when I can, and I’ve found that I can work without a scale in this case quite well. I hear your point, but it’s really not my style.
Glad you’ve found the way that works best for you, though!
As for iodized salt, that’s just not true. Sea salt also contains iodine in varying degrees. I’ve fermented with every type of salt under the sun (including the cheapest, most iodized) and I’ve never had a failed batch. Thanks for your thoughts!
Ryan says
In step #4, should I put the jar in the fridge or leave it out somewhere while it ferments?
Amanda says
Room temp is always best for fermented pickling! Thanks for reading! Let me know how yours turn out.
Amanda
CannerSC says
Silly question maybe. Can you use whole frozen peppers for this? I have frozen Jalepenos from last season plus some fresh cayenne’s from this season. However, its not enough for a full batch. Could I freeze the cayennes and in a couple weeks when I have another round harvested defrost them all and make a batch? I am not sure if this would impact the fermentation process or not.
Amanda says
Hi! I have a very frustrating answer for you: maybe. If you’re using at least half fresh peppers along with the frozen ones, you should be fine. Some strains of lactic acid bacteria can survive the freezer for up to a month from the literature I’ve read. Others will not survive, so it’s a little bit of a crapshoot. However if you’re using lots of fresh ones in there, they should provide enough oomph to get fermentation going!
ChiliGrower says
I believe theres no lactic bacterias in fresh chilies. They are created during fermentation proces.
Amanda says
Lactic acid bacteria come from the soil and are generally present on stuff that grows in the earth. There is interesting new research on how different microbial species behave over time on peels, skins and rinds, but at present, there’s no evidence I’m aware of to suggest that LAB would be absent from peppers or any other vegetable. How the ferment and behave once they’re in changed conditions can vary by vegetable, as more and more studies are showing.
Having made hot sauce for a million years, I can def tell you that they ferment!
Thomas says
Hi ! Thanks for the great tips.
I did several batches of habanero sauce that ended up to be more or less succesfull. My last was ok using a plastic bad filled with water to push the solids down. I sterilized with the spray i used for homebrewing.
I’m in Norway and it’s impossible to find fermenting jars with weights etc. Same for kosher salt.
My best fermentation happened with Maldon flake salt from England. Wanted to use Guérande salt from France but it’s not cleaned so results might be random
My question would be, when you had vinegar how do you keep the sauce homogeneous? Tabasco stays stable, and they say they don’t use emulgator. My sauce settles and separates very quickly. Not a problem to shake, but just curious. Thanks.
Amanda says
Hi Thomas,
Sounds like you found a great way to make it work! You can really use any kind of salt. I think the extra minerals in good sea salt are good to have, because fermentation actually makes them more available to your body. I’ve used all kinds, from very wet sea salts to iodized table salt and never had a failure yet!
If you’re looking for other ideas for weights (although you seem to have it covered) a rock (boiled first, of course) pie weights or marbles in a linen tea bag or cheesecloth, really anything food safe that will fit in the jar/container will do the trick.
As for your last question, I’m not sure I totally understand, but I’ll give it a go! Feel free to clarify if I got you wrong! I have to be honest, I rarely add vinegar to keep it shelf stable, I’ve done that with maybe a few batches because I prefer the probiotics to shelf stability, but I haven’t noticed any particular setting. I do tend to do thicker sauces (less add back of fermenting liquid) so maybe that’s the difference? I’m not sure other than that. Sorry I can’t give you a better answer, but as you say, giving it a shake is just fine if it works for you.
May I also say how jealous I am of the English skills of Norwegians.
Thanks for reading!
Thomas says
Hehe, I am French, and don’t say it’s even more surprising, I wish I could write more academically.
My question about the vinegar was about how come Tabasco stays homogenous (meaning it satys “red” despite them adding vinegar) and mine stays layered, solids to the bottom, when not shaken.
I am also trying to get a Tabasco consistence, meaning coming out drop by drop, my sauce is slightly too liquid to my taste.
I’ll try without vinegar next time, but then I’ll have to balance the taste with bell peppers to get some liquids, 100% habanero is very strong, even for me, and gives little juice. I don’t have access to a broad range of peppers and don’t have room to grow them anymore. I did a Baccatum fresh sauce years ago, I called it the Molotov Cocktail, I made an Ugandan guy taste it, he almost turned white… 😀
CannerSC says
Most hot sauces use Xanthum Gum (a derivative of corn) to stabilize the sauce. Personally, this is an ingredient I want to avoid as an unnecessary food additive. As far as I can tell, Tobasco does not use Xanthum Gum. You can get Xanthum Gum for home use if you wanted to use it to adhere the sauce together.
Very likely this means that Tobasco Sauce is made using industrial equipment that can heat the peppers so quickly that enzymes are destroyed and the pectin is not broken down between cells so therefore doesn’t separate. In your standard home application you are “cold breaking” the pepper and thus the pectin is being broken down by enzymes. This is the same reason that homemade tomato sauce separates in storage.
Amanda says
Hell yeah! Thanks for the great response. I have no knowledge of either of those processes, but it’s a great jumping off point for research. Thanks for sharing!
dawna says
actually, the process that Tobasco uses is very interesting… and neat! They ferment their peppers in wood barrels for 3 years! They then churn them for 3 weeks straight to break them down and eventually get to the consistency we know and love. I can’t say for sure for sure, but I do believe it is also raw. however, I could be wrong about that. I went to the website last year and they had a whole video.
Luke says
You can use a magnetized storing plate to emulsify your sauce for three days and it won’t split.
Jen Leithead says
Hi! I have a quick question – I have a LOT of peppers, and would like to start them fermenting like this and use them a little at a time. Will it work to expand the batch to fit in a gallon jar instead of just a quart? I also don’t currently have quart jars in my house, though that is easily remedied…
Amanda says
Absolutely! I love to do large batches. I’m jealous! 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Nemat Heydary says
This site is a huge help in getting me started with fermenting some of my superhot peppers I’ve grown this year.
I started fermenting last week with salt and water. I put the mash into a mason jar and put cheese cloth on top and screwed it down. I haven’t seen any bubbles or signs of fermentation. My house is kept at 72 degrees. Should it be moved to a dark shelf?
Thanks!
Nemat Heydary says
I almost forgot, I added some brine from sauerkraut and some whey from yogurt to try and kick-start the process.
Amanda says
Hi Nemat,
First, thanks SO much for the kind words! I really appreciate it!
As for your peppers, I will tell you that they just aren’t the most vigorous fermenters, so I sometimes keep them in a sealed jar for a couple days just to make sure that there’s some action in there. The fact that you used a starter (or 2 starters!) is what’s confusing me. Live whey will kick start basically anything that has sugar (natural sugars included) in it, so I would except to see bubbles even on something that normally wouldn’t be very naturally bubbly.
I’m hoping that you’re just not seeing the carbonating effect because it’s faint. Is the mash separating? are the solids floating to the top? If so, I would assume that it’s fermenting, just with small bubbles. When it comes time to taste, start with a small taste. Sounds like you’re used to making kraut, so be looking for that certain “fermented” flavor and a bit of acidity. I have totally done pepper ferments that didn’t get super bubbly and turned out great, but generally you do need some CO2 action early in fermentation as proof that it happened at all.
Keep me posted!
Amanda
Hotpepper says
Loved your walkthrough on fermenting peppers!
I got a box of hots and super hots on thehotpepper.com and couldn’t eat a few of them (primos, scorpions, etc) as they were well into the millions of SHUs. I didn’t want them to go bad and had to do something with them. Anyway, in the mix were some pequins and some other smaller peppers. I only have 1 size of mason jars, so I crammed all my ingredients at the bottom, then crammed the peppers in. I then took a shot glass and stuck it open side down into the jar and moved it around a bit so it didn’t have air sitting inside it like a diving bell. It isn’t quite big enough to cover the diameter of the jar opening but it is big enough to keep everything packed tightly and under the brine and the smaller peppers from floating up. I then screwed the cover on tightly, but loose enough for it to push open when pressure builds. Just figured I’d share the shot glass idea in case others didn’t have different sized jars! 🙂
Amanda says
Great tip! Thanks for sharing!
Jill says
Hi! I’m currently fermenting thickly sliced peppers using your recipe above (had to slice for them to fit into the jar…), and my brine is slightly cloudy. Just wondering if the cloudiness is normal, or something to be concerned with.
When I smell it, I mainly just smell garlic (I put in the whole cloves). No terribly off-putting odors.
Thanks for any advice you may have!
Raymond DuBois says
We’re so glad we stumble on your site while searching for ways to ferment our chile pepper crop. We love the health benefits of fermented foods and have experimented with some of the basic fermenting techniques. The information on your site comes from true experience and will help us raise our fermenting skills to a new level. We’ve signed up for your emails and will be sharing your valuable and interesting content on our networks. Thanks so much!
Amanda says
Thank you so much, Raymond! I greatly appreciate your kind words and I was happy to see you show up in my social media feeds today! Best of luck with your continued journey!
Alison Heeres says
Amanda,
I work on an organic farm and we have tons of hot peppers. I want to make Aji Limon hot sauce and would like to add mangos for a sweet and sour hot sauce. Will this affect the fermentation? Can I add them at the beginning or should I add them when I process the peppers and food mill.
Thanks so much. Love your site. Love your attitude.
Alison
Amanda says
Hi Alison,
Thanks so much for the kind words!
Yes, adding sweetness to vegetable ferments is quite tricky. Since bacteria are specifically consuming the sugars in the ferment, the end product won’t be sweet. Depending on how long you ferment, how much salt you use, temp, etc, you could end up with something mushy, something boozy or something slimy. If you’re only fermenting for a few days, you’ll probably still might have some residual sweetness, but the problems I mention above could still occur.
I definitely do sweet vegetables ferments sometimes. It’s nothing to be afraid of! Just know that there are potential obstacles, and that if you really want a sweet end product, it might be better not to ferment it. Or if you do want to ferment it, to stabilize it and stop fermentation by adding distilled, white vinegar when you’re happy with the flavor. This will potentially kill of your good bugs, just FYI, but it will allow you to add a sweeter element that doesn’t get de-sugarified by said good bugs.
I would recommend trying it with a small batch, or waiting until you’re happy with it as a hot ferment and then serving it with the addition of the mango.
I hope that helps!
Becky Hand says
I had to pick our green Tabasco peppers today since we may have a frost tonight. I pureed some and added salt. How long does it take for a liquid to form? They seemed quite dry, so I added some water. Was that the right thing to do? From what I read, you don’t want any air in contact with the mash. Any help is very much appreciated!
Amanda says
Hi Becky,
Sounds like you’re doing everything right. The trick with making peppers with a mash is that there’s no way to weight them, so you either have to use an airtight vessel or stir regularly until bottling to keep any surface molds or yeasts from forming. If you have an airlock, you can do that. If you don’t, just grab a chopstick or a spoon and remember to give it a stir once or twice a day until bottling (or refrigerating).
It may take several days for the mash to separate, and if you’re stirring regularly it won’t. Look for air bubbles along the sides of the jar (in the mash) if you do see those, you’re in good shape. You should see them within a couple of days.
I hope that helps!
Amanda
Ed says
Hi. I made a very successful 4-pepper sriracha mash ferment last year. At first I stirred the mixture to release the CO2 bubbles, but I quickly learned that a round-headed potato masher — the large-mesh, grid kind — works really great. Mine is just a little smaller in diameter than the jar opening, so I can push down on the mash till it’s below the liquid level, releasing all the bubbles to the surface. Do this a couple times a day and no more stirring!
Shane says
Hey so do you not need to mash or blend the peppers before hand to ferment? Also if I put too much salt in there will it cause the fermentation to not even happen? I blended up a ton of peppers, but I think I put waaaay to much salt in there, and I think I over processed them. i heard too much heat and salt will kill the bacteria needed? Think im gonna start all over ebcause its been over a week and I see no fermentation happenening.
Tom Larimer says
Shane,
You don’t have to blend the peppers first. Just pack the whole washed peppers into your jar as tight as you can. I use 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of canning and pickling salt per quart of water. Some people use more, some less. More salt slows fermentation.
Once the ferment is done, then you can blend it all.
Remember that you can put garlic and other spices in the jar with the peppers.
Tom Larimer says
Fermenters,
I came up with this solution for perfect fermenting. I use wide mouth Ball jars. To keep anything fermenting from being exposed to oxygen, I then take Ball small mouth plastic screw on lids and drill several small holes in the lid. These fit almost perfectly into the wide mouth jars. Insert them TOP down into the wide mouth mason jar over your new ferment that you have filled with brine. Then pour brine onto small lid with holes in it and screw regular cap onto mason jar. Do not tighten too much, let gas escape. Every day or so, check that there is brine covering the small cap and pour more brine in when needed. Also the small Ball plastic lids are free of any harmful things.
Josh Homer says
Thanks for the very good pointer. This is what I did to save my pepper sauce and it works great. It allowed me to top up the jars and still keep the peppers submerged. I ended up just going through the fridge though and all three lids I found fit perfect and I just replaced them with normal canning lids and rings.
Emarvydo says
I am new to making hot sauces. I have a recipe for hot sauce that calls for fresh thai chili peppers that are cooked on the stove with bell pepers, garlic, tomato, etc. but cannot find fresh thai chili peppers anywhere. I do have some canned peppers, however. Do you think they will work if I am not pickling the rest of the ingredients?
Amanda says
Hi!
If you’re cooking all of the ingredients on the stove, you would probably be adding vinegar rather than fermenting them. If you’re in to canning as a preservation method, definitely check out my friend Marisa’s acclaimed canning blog, Food In Jars.
If you do want to ferment them, you would have to use fresh, uncooked ingredients since the bacteria will be killed in the cooking process.
I hope that helps!
Brandon says
Thanks for the great post. I’ve made hot sauces through the cooking + pickling method before, and they turned out great, but I thought I might give the fermenting method a try this time around to use up some superhot peppers I picked up recently. Having no experience with fermenting, I’ve been scouring the web looking for recipes and tips, and your post is one of the clearest and most informative.
My question was whether you ever added onions to the mix. I know that a lot of the stovetop hot sauce recipes call for onions (often even carrots) to add some sweetness to the mix, but I’ve noticed that most of the fermentation recipes I’ve seen only call for the peppers and some garlic. I was just wondering if this was by design, if the onions complicated the fermentation process. Thanks!
Amanda says
Thanks so much, Brandon! You can absolutely add onion. Onion ferments very well and makes for a very tasty fermented hot sauce, too! I hope you enjoy your final product! Feel free to report back on the results!
Ann Percival says
Once you have processed your peppers and put them in their final jars- must they be refrigerated?
Amanda says
Hi Ann,
No, if you want to add vinegar (as described and linked to in the text) they can be made shelf stable at room temperature. The trade-off is that they will no longer be probiotic.
Cory says
Thanks for your site and advice. I may have screwed up something however. I made three jars and used airlock lids instead of your ghetto jar method. The instructions that came with the lids told me to leave about an inch open from the top of the brine and peppers to the top of the jar, and then screw the lid on. I am seeing the liquid in two of the jars starting to become cloudy. I am wondering if I should have had added enough brine to the top of the jars, and if so, can I open it and add it now, or is it too late? Hopefully you can see the pic that I took in the link below. Thanks for your help!
I did this on Sunday, so it has only been 3 full days, and it is already that cloudy in the two jars.
Amanda says
Your photo didn’t come through, but cloudy brine is a normal part of fermentation. I’m betting you’re fine!
This post explains in a bit more detail: http://phickle.com/index.php/whats-that-white-stuff-in-my-ferment/
John Reynolds says
I just finished two half gallon jars of ghost peppers, carrot onion and garlic. I didn’t realize until I was finished that I had mistakenly only used 1tsp of salt per cup of water. Do I dump and make new solution, or do you feel this will be ok? Thanks in advance. Love you posts!!
Adam says
I was told that you can add more salt at any time (via a thicker brine) but this was from a second party, so I’m not an authority on this.
Rebecca H. says
I was so excited to find this and the dregs post before hot pepper season this year. I just made a batch of habanero and a batch of jalapeno hot sauce last night after fermenting 9 weeks, and the dregs are in the dehydrator. I think they turned out great. I have 5 more jars of various hot peppers still fermenting, but they are questionable. I used your ghetto jar method, and I found that my brine needed to be topped up every couple of days, throughout the entire process. Does this happen to you? At first I thought it was bubbling out or absorbed into the peppers (I put them in whole without cracking), so I topped up with more brine. About halfway through the process when I knew fermentation had slowed, and it was still happening even with a jar of sliced peppers, I decided it was from evaporation. So I started topping up with fresh water. Getting tired of babysitting, I shoved the shot glass down into several of the jars and put a cap on them. Even while capped, the brine level dropped below the top of the chilies in a few days. So I started topping up with brine again, thinking maybe the brine is being soaked into the walls of the peppers? I composted one entire jar when we went on vacation for a long weekend and came back to find the brine had dropped enough that the whole top layer of peppers were sticking out of the brine. In a couple of the other jars I’ve thrown out a pepper or two that I found sticking out and discolored (but not fuzzy). I am hoping that the rest of the jar is still fine. I am still mystified about the missing brine, so if you have any insight into this, let me know. Thanks for all your great posts and recipes!
Amanda says
Hi Rebecca,
That’s a mystery! Evaporation definitely happens if your home is very warm and you have a very long ferment going. If I make summer sauerkraut, I have to start checking at about 3 weeks. Two days I’ve definitely never heard of, so I’m not sure what to tell you about that.
Btw, if your peppers stick out for a short while, it’s nothing to worry about unless they are mushy or do have mold. Even then, it’s just a matter of them not tasting quite as good as you’d like.
I’m sorry I can’t be of more help on the evaporation issue!
Josh Homer says
Hi Amanda!
Great site you have here. I was struggling to figure out what to do with all my extra peppers before I stumbled on your site.
I had already sliced my peppers and tried a couple ways to keep them submerged in the brine with poor success. In the future I have the answers but I didn’t want to loose this batch. I have been closing the lids and shaking on a daily basis as well as checking for mold. One jar started to show some mold one day but none since.
My question is: when would I draw the line of it being too moldy? Could I just pull off the moldy stuff from the top and be ok? What are the dangers of having too much mold? From what I have read it is mainly texture and flavor for the finished product and does not present a health concern.
Any insight you have would be appreciated.
Amanda says
Hi Josh,
Oooh! Lucky you. Nothing quite like fermented hot pepper sauce! The answer to your mold question is a little complicated, so please bear with me. The first question is whether it’s really mold. Is it white or beige? Flat with maybe bubbles and some lines? If so, that’s Kahm (see here for some photos of Kahm) and it’s harmless, but shaking or skimming is a good idea because it can impart some unpleasant odors.
If it really is mold (fuzzy, green, blue, etc), then you have a choice to make. I spoke with a wonderful microbiologist, Fred Breidt of the USDA, earlier this year and basically what he told me is that mold isn’t an issue unless you can tell it’s an issue and that it’s always a matter of degrees. The first thing you ALWAYS want to be aware of if you have a lot of mold is pH. If the pH has fallen or never went below 4.4, then do not eat the batch. If the pH has continued to lower into the 3s, you’re okay to eat it as long as eating it appeals to you. To some degree, before you break out the pH strips, you can use common sense. I’ve eaten my share of pickles with surface activity, but I recently composted a batch that were massively moldy (long story). They were not appealing to me, I could smell the moldy aroma and I had no interest in eating them.
Best rules of thumb: skim yeast or mold as soon as you see them and they won’t spread quite so much. Discard any batches that smell strongly of rotten eggs or swiss cheese. When in doubt, test the pH. Never eat anything that doesn’t smell appealing to you.
I hope that helps!
Josh Homer says
Thanks for all the great information. It was mold on a few of the pepper pieces that I could not keep submerged. It was not bad and I do not think it will effect the product.
That Kahm on the other hand is scary looking stuff. Glad it is not bent on Phickle domination;)
Jen Leithead says
Hi! I tried this recipe this summer with quite a variety of peppers. I started them in September and just recently processed them. The result is quite good, very spicy, with quite a flavor. It’s a bit sour for my and my husband’s taste, however, and we both think a bit of sugar would add a lot to the flavor. Since it’s naturally fermented, however, I’m rather hesitant to simply add it in. What are your thoughts on this? I’m not overly concerned with the probiotic effects – it’s wonderful, but honestly we’ll use it in such small quantities I’m not sure it matters much, so I’m ok with adding vinegar if needed to stop the fermentation entirely. What do you think? Have you heard from others about this? Thanks so much for the recipe and the help! Jen
Daniel says
Hello I just came across your post, I am growing around 20 varieties of habaneros this season and was wondering if there is a way to incorporate fruit into the hot sauce. If so when would I incorporate it, during fermentation or when I decide to blend it up after ferminatation?
Also I have a 5 gallon Oak barrel back from the days when I used to make wine, any chance I could make a large batch hot sauce in there? If you know any books or other sites that talk about making aged/fermented hot sauces please let me know.
Thank you.
Amanda says
Hi Daniel,
First, wow! I am so excited for you. I adore habanero hot sauces and it sounds like you’re going to have a lot of wonderful variety! As for fruit, there are a few things you can do.
In every case, you should add it after fermentation. Pepper ferments can get a bit yeasty (lots of excess sediment in the vessel, occasional thick, viscous brine). It’s not abnormal and it doesn’t mean anything is wrong, but it can look off or impart off flavors. If you add fruit at the start of fermentation, you’ll increase the odds of that happening and potentially even shift the fermentation from bacterial to yeast (wine-ish hot sauce may not be your goal :-).
If you do want to add fruit, add it just before blending (post-fermentation) and then put it directly in the fridge. You will still get some fermentation in the fridge, though, so if you want to make sure that doesn’t happen, and you don’t care about the probiotic benefits, pour the whole puree into a sauce pan and boil for 5 minutes before straining and refrigerating. That will result in some changes to the flavor profile as well, but I think it’s still very tasty!
I hope that helps!
Daniel says
Thank you for the reply, I didn’t think about the wine affecting the flavor but I can see how that would affect the fermentation. At this point I have more then I can handle I have over 120 plants. So if my hot sauce succeeds then I may try to sell it so fingers crossed. I love mixing fruit with hot sauces as I feel that it helps to balance the heat to flavor profile. Ill let you know how it goes in the upcoming months.
Padraic says
Hello!
I’m totally new to fermenting things. I have a background in the retail wine business, though, and my question is about flavor. Say I make a sauce with sweet peppers and add garlic and other stuff. I can jar it and age it for a few weeks, or ferment it. What might, in the most general sense, be the flavor profile difference? I’m new, so if this question is missing parts, please elaborate. Much thanks!
Teddy says
Thank you for your wonderful informative blog. I raise habanero peppers and make different sauces usually via cooking and bottling, and I’d like to try fermenting some. My question is by fermenting just the habaneros will the end result be a sauce with to much heat?
Amanda says
Hi Teddy,
Thanks so much! Whether or not it will be too hot is going to depend on you and how long you age the sauce. The heat mellows over time, but for serious mellowing, you’ll want serious time. Don’t expect the kind of tamed peppers that you get from a vinegar sauce, because fermentation will take a much longer time to chill. I have a full habanero sauce in my fridge that is almost a year old at this point, and it’s still incredibly hot, but I have hardcore pepper head friends who can squirt it on everyone and only cry a little.
If you can’t eat a habanero alone, I would personally recommend cutting it with a more chill pepper, but ultimately, it comes down to your pepper love.
I hope you enjoy it!
Leah says
Wow! What a great site! I have a couple questions about this process. I will be using an airlock. You write to “Allow to ferment for at least two weeks and up to 8 (or really, a year if you’d like).” Do you mean to allow for a few weeks and then in the refrigerator, or can I leave it out for up to a year? I understand to put it in the refrigerator after I ‘sauce it’.
My other question is, do I leave the airlock on once I put it in the refrigerator, whether a ferment is sauced or still left in its whole state to continue to ferment? (I will not be using vinegar.) In advance, my appreciation for you taking the time to answer my questions.
All the best to you and all you love, Leah
Amanda says
Hi Leah,
Thank you! Hot sauce is one of those things that I frequently let ferment (at room temp) for a long, long time, so a year is not uncommon in my house. Two years isn’t that uncommon either! If this is your first go, I would probably just do a shorter one to make sure you love it before delaying gratification for that long. The aged ones are amazing, though!
If you’re done processing the sauce, definitely remove the airlock before you stick it in the fridge. When mine is “done” fermenting, I put it into squeeze bottles or small bottles are easy to pour from.
It will continue to age and ferment in the fridge, but in my experience, that’s pretty much a great thing. Aged sauces get pretty amazing.
I hope that answers your questions!
Thanks for reading.
angelo corriea says
Question:
I am fermenting red cherry peppers in 5% brine with seasonings, and topped with vines leaves and a weight, all in a fermentation croc. It’s only 3 days on and the top ones seem soft and mushy. I was afraid of that ! The fermentation is by no means complete.
Is it possible with time they will return to being crunchy.
Does anybody have success with fermenting these ? If so, what method and recipe ?
Amanda says
Peppers tend to have lots of names, so I’m not sure if I’ve fermented the ones you’re speaking of. Are they also called Hungarian Cherry Bombs? If so, I have. But I’ve fermented a lot of peppers of a lot of different varieties, so I think I can help you. Some peppers, especially those with thicker flesh, will get soft over time. (Check out my post on “Floppy Pepper Pickles”
Softness isn’t something to worry about in and of itself, because it can really just be a feature of the particular vegetable. 3 days is pretty quick for softness, though. My one question would be how you know they’re soft. Once you pack your vessel, you kind of want to leave them be. Opening, closing and poking around are only desirable when absolutely necessary, and it shouldn’t really be in this case. The air exposure could be the issue.
They won’t return to being crunchy, but if you’re using this to make sauce, that doesn’t actually matter.
I hope that helps. Feel free to respond with more detail if not.
Danny says
So I’m an uber beginner, but I tried this in a sealed mason jar and it just got PUTRID. I’m assuming that is because it was anaerobic fermentation? I could be 100% wrong I’m not sure. Is that what the lids with the air thing on top is for so that sir flow can happen? Would this have also worked with just regular old cheese cloth?
Amanda says
Hi Danny,
So vegetable fermentation is anaerobic fermentation. The things that need air, like vinegar and kombucha are the exceptions to the rule. The putrid thing would more likely come from irradiated peppers, because in a sealed jar, they would ferment (and your jar lid should have been very puffed up and bubbled a ton when you removed it). It really sounds like there was no fermentation, and the only reason for that that I’m aware of, especially if you followed this process, would be peppers that were irradiated. If that’s definitely not the case, I’m not sure why fermentation would have stalled or failed to initiate.
The airlock is to let CO2 escape while keeping air from getting in. It’s not necessary, but it can be helpful in some cases.
I wouldn’t recommend cheesecloth for anaerobic fermentation. You’re pretty likely to end up with surface mold, or at least a healthy dose of surface yeast that can smell and look unpleasant.
I hope that helps!
Blake Jehle says
Curious question………..
My fermented mash went crazy for 4-5 days. I started with coffee filter over it and then it settle down for 2 days. During the fermentation, my PH was under 4………afterwards, I checked the PH and it’s around 4 (maybe slightly higher). I’ve placed it in the refrigerator now with an airlock and have seen “zero” bubbling action or any signs of activity. Will it still take some time to still ferment? Total time since blending and placing in the refrigerator is 7 days.
Amanda says
It’s a very rare vegetable ferment that bubbles vigorously beyond the first week. Some vegetables do, but mostly, you’ll see a lot of activity at the start, and then very little.
I would be concerned if your pH is rising, though. I have never had that happen, and unless you see a pretty serious fungal infection (heavy yeast or mold layer on the surface), it’s unlikely that the problems that would cause the pH to rise would occur. Having said that, it’s worth testing it and waiting. If the pH is rising, it could indicate an undesirable secondary fermentation. Please keep in mind that this IS VERY RARE. I have never had it happen, I’ve only read about the rare cases in the scientific literature.
I would normally not be alarmist, and since you didn’t mention a serious mold issue or horrific smells that are said to accompany a secondary fermentation (in veg), it’s most likely fine, but still, I would rely on the pH. Check it a few more times (and take note) over a week or two. If it rises, I would probably not eat it. You want it at 4.0 or below, unless you have an uber-mega commercial meter with proven superior accuracy.
I hope that helps!
Dave says
I have had habañeros fermenting, according to this recipe, for about three weeks now. Everything looks good, except that the garlic cloves are turning a turquoise color. Do you have any idea what that’s about?
Dave says
Hmmm. I may have found the answer to my question. Perhaps you can see if you agree with the information here: http://extension.psu.edu/food/preservation/news/2012/garlic-turns-blue
Grover says
Hello! I followed this recipe with a batch of Trinidad Scorpion peppers (!!) and let it ferment for about 5 months. I just finished the sauce today, but I’m not sure if it is safe to eat. I measured the ph of the brine and it was 5.6, not below 4.0 which I’ve read in the comments being desirable.
My wife told me the house smelled “almost like rotten eggs”, but not to the point where you wouldn’t want to eat it. I thought it smelled fine, but my sense of smell isn’t as fine-tuned as hers.
Anyway, how can I tell if this stuff is safe to eat?
Amanda says
HI Grover,
I would not eat that sauce. Although it’s possible it’s fine, it’s not worth the risk.
I would expect the pH to be much lower, and definitely in the safe zone (which 5.6 is not). I am also concerned about the odor you mention. This has never happened to me, but in the interview I did with USDA microbiologist Fred Breidt for my book, he specifically mentioned a rotten egg odor being associated with an undesirable secondary fermentation that could cause the pH to rise rather than fall into safe territory.
As to why that would happen, I really can’t say. One possibility is that it never fermented at all because the peppers had been irradiated, but I can’t say for sure that that’s the case. If it were me, I would definitely not be eating the sauce. I have only ever had 1 pickle fail to ferment, and it just turned to mush.
If you’re new to fermenting, please note that this is extremely rare, in life and in the scientific literature, so please don’t let it discourage you, and maybe add a bit more salt next time.
Jenea says
Hello,
What a great post. I have a couple of questions. My lid has a hole in it will that cause any problems? I use a little green apple to sweeten will that work?
Amanda says
Hi Jenea,
I wouldn’t use green apple, and I would also not use a lid with a hole. Both are more likely than not to give you some surface issues. Adding sugar (an apple) to a ferment is just giving the bacteria more food (they don’t really need it) and it won’t result in a sweeter sauce. It could feed the yeast that are also naturally present instead, and result in a yeasty surface or a slimy brine. When fermenting vegetables, you always want to limit air exposure as much as possible. A hole would definitely allow flies and dust in, but it could also allow yeast and mold spores in.
I hope that helps!
LeanGreenBean says
I’m wondering if anyone else had this same interesting experience with this recipe: after the initial room-temperature ferment I moved my peppers (yellow hots) to the fridge, and the brine looked cloudy as I would expect with a ferment. After about three months in the fridge (I’m going to wait 6 months before pureeing) the brine became crystal clear again! Has anyone else experienced this with a very long ferment?
Amanda says
Hi! I would guess that the clearing of the brine had a lot less to do with long fermentation than it had to do with the long post-fermentation in the fridge. The cloudiness of the brine is created by the bacteria and other microbes and byproducts created during fermentation. When you set it in the fridge, my best guess is that they all settled to the bottom. Can’t say for sure, but that would be my guess.
Chris says
I’ve followed this recipe and the peppers have been fermenting for about four months now. I am concerned about botulism, how do I control for it? Is it OK if the pH is below 4?
Amanda says
Hi Chris,
Fermentation is actually how you control for botulism. Among other things, it’s the process of making foods safe to consume over time. If the pH is below 4.0 on a pH strip or meter, you are fine. C. Botulinum cannot sporulate above 4.6, but a reading of 4.0 or below is recommended to account for potential issues with accuracy.
No one has ever gotten botulism from fermented vegetables (in 4,000 years that we know of vegetables being fermented, there are 0 recorded cases). That doesn’t mean that it could never happen, it means that the risk is minuscule and non-existent if you’ve followed the few basic rules of proper fermentation. The only possibility of risk is if the peppers didn’t ferment, and even then, if you used 4% salt or more, that should be the first thing that prevents the botulism toxin from forming. If you suspect they didn’t ferment (aka, they are mush and smell bad, they have a thick layer of mold or colorful mold on the surface, etc), then definitely test the pH to be safe.
But if you fermented within appropriate guidelines (aka used this recipe) and it seems like it fermented, there is no cause for concern.
Dan says
I used a teaspoon of plain yogurt as my innoculum. Make sure it says “contains live cultures” and try to get plain that has no guar gum carragenan, etc. should just be milk and live cultures.
Amanda says
Hi Dan,
That’s great if you’re happy using a starter, but just be aware that it is definitely not necessary. All veggies have the bacteria necessary for fermentation, so adding yogurt, whey or juice from a previous batch is definitely not necessary and some studies have concluded that it makes for a lower quality ferment (this has also been my own personal experience).
If you’re happy with what you’ve got, keep on keepin’ on! Just be aware that the addition of a starter is never required for vegetable fermentation.
Bob says
I fermented some chili peppers for about 3 weeks back in August then put the jar in the back of the fridge with no lid. I planned on making hot sauce but never got around to it. The peppers are still submerged with a weight. Is it still save to puree the peppers and make the hot sauce after sitting in the brine for 6 months?
PS. Just got your latest book and hope to learn a lot and do more fermenting.
Nic says
I was just reading this and was curious about the answer as well.
Jeremy says
Hey Amanda,
So I’m just starting to experiment with fermented hot sauces and I want to use your method but I have a few questions. I checked the posts above and most of them were answered, but a couple I couldn’t find.
I normally use a fermentation crock for my pickles but I am going to use quart size jars as I want to ferment for a year and don’t want to give up my crock for that long. I think I understand your “ghetto jar” method by packing the jar with whole peppers and garlic, but do I need to insert something to ensure they are submerged, like the stones in my crock do? And am I using normal lids or a cheesecloth as the top for the jar?
And my other question is about vinegar. When the fermentation is complete and I purée the peppers, how much vinegar is customary to add along with the brine to help ensure its stable? And I ferment at room temp normally, should I do this with the peppers?
Amanda says
Hi Jeremy,
Click the link in step 3 of the recipe to find some options on how to submerge and cover your ferments.
I do not add vinegar to my ferments following fermentation. I know this is popular in hot sauce, but unless you’re pasteurizing, you aren’t making your ferment more stable. The lactic acid bacteria should have sufficiently lowered the pH, and there is some evidence that lactic acid (in a ferment) is better at keeping pathogens at bay than vinegar is.
Vegetable fermentation should always happen at room temperature. The room temperature range is the preferred range for happy lactic acid bacteria.
I hope that answers all of your questions!
Jeremy says
It did! Thank you so much! I can’t wait to get started. What interests me the most is that when I bottle it, it will already be shelf stable, so all I need to do is cap it and give it to friends!
Richard Held says
Hello and thanks for the wonderful blog (this is a blog isn’t it?)! I stumbled upon this site while searching for information on how to preserve my garden harvest of chiles by making a mash. Last year I gave most away and one friend made into some sauce, which then fermented in the bottle. I realize now that I need to ferment the chiles BEFORE making into sauce. Today I’ve been reading about the methods on various sites regarding “chile mash”. The idea of using whole pods instead of ground or pureed pods appears novel compared to the several other sites I visited (including one you provide a link for earlier in the recipe). I suspect that grinding the pods first will maximize the yield (less dead space in container from hollow pods) and possibly accelerate the fermentation time somewhat due to the mechanical breakdown and blending of the natural organisms and pod components. I’m not sure what I’ll do, but I am thinking about trying both ways to see which I prefer. I do have a couple of questions if you would please.
The amount of salt I’d seen recommend for chile mash was 10-15% on other sites. Some advocated far less (2-3%) and one suggested 6%. Two sites stated less salt for hotter chiles, more salt for less hot chiles (is there a word for “less hot”?) Your recipe I believe is approximately 3.5% salt (1 Tablespoon to 2 cups water). You also give another ratio (1.5 Tablespoons to 1 Quart) in the blog that is even less. Reading all the responses above, I gather that more salt slows fermentation, and you need to have some. For my purposes I can always adjust the flavor of my finished sauce with additional salt at the very end of the process, and once added, you generally cannot remove salt, so it is probably better to start with less. I’m wondering if I am interpreting this all correctly and if you had any comments or feedback about the amount of salt being used.
My other question is more of a comment than question. Today there seems to be increased interest in “sour beer” and “wild fermentations”. Several breweries are reviving “farmhouse” ales and creating American versions of traditional Belgian “Lambic” type beers. These often use a blend of many organisms such as various lactobacillus species, brettanomyces species and other organisms. I am an avid homebrewer and have ventured into making some of these beers with access to several of these organisms as well as “bottle dregs” containing viable organisms in the bottom of the bottle that can be used as well. I know that you state that you are not a fan of using starters, one being that it is a single organism. I am wondering if you had any thought about the sour beer mixed fermentation species being used for fermenting chiles?
I have added your book and two others cited to my Amazon cart and look forward to reading them.
Thanks again!
RH
Paul Hue says
Why can’t I blend the peppers at the start of the fermentation process? Won’t they ferment pastor if they’re already broken apart?
Amanda says
I don’t like to ferment it as mash because mash is very prone to getting a Kahm layer (or mold) and don’t want to keep that close an eye on it. I also like the adaptable texture that comes from fermenting the peppers themselves.
You can definitely try it as a mash. It works, too!
Greg says
Hi, I made the brine and filled the jar with several different types of peppers, garlic and several herbs. 2 days later I noticed the lid to the jar had a bulge. I opened it and there was a lot of pressure. I sealed the jar back up. Is the amount of pressure after a couple of days a concern? Thank you in advance.
Amanda says
Not at all! That indicates an active ferment!
Mick says
Hola.
I visited my Grandpa at the weekend and he showed me 2 jars of peppers he’d prepared.
I noticed the peppers weren’t completely submerged and asked him about it and he said he just turned it upside-down and on the bottom of the jar there’s some white residue.
They’ve been sealed etc for around 10 weeks now, he said they were bubbling etc for the first week or so.
Will these be OK/edible?
I really don’t want him poisoning himself!
Thanks in advance,
Mick
Amanda says
Hi Mick,
So it’s not that the peppers being exposed to air is a problem in itself. It’s that when veggies are exposed to air during fermentation, molds and yeasts are prone to growing on them. Your grandpa’s flipping the jar method is something I use on occasion, and it’s totally effective!
The white residue is normal (check out this post on that topic).
The good thing with vegetable fermentation is that in salted ferments, anything that goes wrong will announce itself to you clearly! You’ll see significant surface issues, it will smell disgusting or be totally slimy. Active bubbling at the beginning that dies down over time is totally normal.
If you’re concerned or if you have any doubts based on what you’re seeing or smelling, you can always test the pH with a wine pH strip. If it reads out below 4.0, you’re good to go.
I hope that helps!
Mick says
Hola!
Further to our last discussion, I visited and managed to get a couple of photos both upright and upside-down.
Is there any way I can post them?
Also, the liquid level seems to have declined – he’s adamant the peppers are absorbing it all!!
Thanks in advance,
Mick
Reuben K. says
My latest experiment has been Habanero Pumpkin hot sauce, with red ripe habaneros in all their gorgeous glory and cubes of calabaza squash.
I packed the chopped peppers and a few garlic cloves under a layer of the squash and submerged it via my favorite method, which is boiled rocks from the driveway. hehe.
I fermented it for a few days outside in the 90 degree (Fahrenheit) weather to get it started, and it’s been inside on the shelf for a bit more than a week since. The flavor is amazing, and the squash is nearly soft enough to make blitzing the whole batch in the blender possible.
The flavor is so rich and fresh and clean and bright. Such an incredible combination. I want everyone to know about it! 🙂
Amanda says
I love it! Sounds wonderful!
Laura says
Hi, this is my first time to make jalapeño hot sauce. I, of course being a newbie freaked when I saw the white on my jalapeño. It doesn’t look like mold, smells wonderful like hot sauce. But alas, I have read all about Kahm, and it doesn’t look like Kahm either? Is it possible that after a while the salt crystalizes again? I really have no clue what the hite is, and I don’t want to kill my family members with moldy hot sauce! haha. I have included a photo, and if you have any words of wisdom or suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it. (I don’t know if the photo will post?)
/Users/girlofsparks/Desktop/Hot Sauce.jpg
Amanda says
Hi Laura,
I can’t see the image, and I really can’t guess what the white stuff could be if it’s not Kahm or mold. Some veggies make a kind of “scum” (like bubbles at the top that turn a white-ish grey), but I haven’t seen that very frequently with peppers. It could be excess yeast? But that generally doesn’t form at the top. I’m just not sure enough to give you an answer!
Sorry I can’t be of any help here.
Thomas L Piecuch says
Hey I’ve got my fermentation going for a week now and it looks great, but also I’ve noticed a strong build up of gas in the jar, is it ok to loosen the cap and release the carbon dioxide build up? Or will it ruin the ferment?
Thanks.
Amanda says
Yes. Definitely loosen the lid. In general I either burp them or only loosely attach the lid. My rule of thumb is to keep it tight enough that if someone walked by and picked up the jar by its lid, it wouldn’t go flying, but loose enough that CO2 can escape.
Tony says
Should I be worried if the brine is a little cloudy towards the top of the jar? It’s my first batch so I’m super nervous about every detail!
Amanda says
Hi Tony,
Cloudy brine is totally normal. I wrote a post about it.
Owen says
hi
This is our second time making this
and our first one was a little to spicy.
have any tips for making it a little
Less spicy?
p.s I LOVE phikle!!!
-Owen (age 10)
Amanda says
Hi Owen! Thanks so much for writing and sorry it took me so long to respond (I was on vacation).
There are a couple ways to mellow the heat. The first is to use peppers that aren’t as spicy (like subbing jalapeños for habaneros) or replacing doe of the hot pepper with a little bit of bell pepper of the same color. That will also add a little sweetness.
The second is to let it ferment for a really long time. I once made a sauce with crazy hot peppers (scorpions, ghosts and habaneros) after a few months of fermentation it was waaaaaaay too spicy, so I let it go…for 2 years! After 2 year, it was a really, really nice (still spicy, but not deadly) hot sauce. I’m guessing that you don’t want to wait until you get to high school to enjoy your hot sauce, so the first option might work better.
I hope that helps! Sorry I don’t have a magic bullet for dropping the spice!
Micah says
Another option to the “too hot” problem is to add shredded cooked carrots and/or garlic after it’s done. I’ve done this in the past … ferment just the peppers, then add cooked carrots and garlic plus vinegar to make something like the Malinda’s brand hot sauces.
Amanda says
Great idea!
Adam says
I’ve had this going for about a week now, with ghost peppers, garlic, and a bell-like pepper from my garden. I didn’t pack things as tightly as i should have (this is my first time), but have been getting lactobacillus like crazy (posted a shot on reddit and got some incredulity that it had been less than a week). I’ve been struggling a bit with kham yeast, but have been straining off as much as i can every couple of days. I’m really excited to see how it turns out.
dan says
When i ferment my peppers, should they be refrigerated or left at room temp?
Amanda says
Room temp
thomas says
So I’m new to this fermenting business. I’ve read everything I can find and watched every video I could find. My question is when is your ferment done? My pepper mash looks and smells great atm. In the first couple days I had separation in my jar and it seemed to be going perfect. I got the layer of mold about day four. I took that layer off and stirred my ferment. Since then I haven’t notice a lot of doubles forming like i did before I stirred the mash. Now on day 9, no new mold and no separation. Is the ferment done do I need to finish it or due I just let keep going? Can I add some live cultures and maybe give it a boost?
Amanda says
I would give it a bit more time, personally, but the rule of thumb is that it’s done when you like how sour it is. More time = more sour, less time = less sour. As long as you’re using sufficient salt, it’s safe to start tasting pretty much immediately. Once you know your preferred time frame, you can apply that to future batches.
I wouldn’t add any live cultures. Fermentation is a cycle of bacteria, and adding external cultures may impact the cycle.
Emily says
I was so thrilled to come across this post! My local coop was overflowing with a variety of beautiful, farm-fresh hot peppers last month and I knew I had to act fast! I currrently have a quart jar of lemon drop, scotch bonnet, Fresno, and ghost peppers that’s been fermenting for 3.5 weeks. Also threw in some garlic, onion, and a few slices of carrot for some added dimension. So far, it’s looking (and smelling) great! Thanks for helping me get started with my first fermentation project!!
rory says
My Thai peppers started fermenting quite vigorously, lots of bubbles and smells, after about 3 days. Now I am two weeks in and the fermentation has slowed to a near stop. The sediment is settling out and white dust is accumulating on the tops of the peppers and the bottom of my jar. Does this mean that it is time to drain and blend or is there additional fermentation/aging taking place and perhaps another week or two would be beneficial? Love the site, keep it up.
Amanda says
Hi Rory,
At this point it’s up to you! It’s probably really ready to go, but the flavors may deepen (get crazier, more complex, etc) and the heat will mellow given more time, so if you’re looking for that, hang out for a while longer. If not, you’re good to start the actually sauce-making now.
Rory says
Thanks Amanda. I decided that since I had 2 jars of the same peppers on the go I would do one now and one later. The sauce produced has great flavour and adstonishing heat levels but unfortunately has a very bitter aftertaste. Is this something you have noticed with fermentations before? I had been eating the peppers all summer and never noticed any bitterness. Also I only used fully ripe peppers. Any help would be appreciated. I’d hate to dump a batch. .
Judd says
Hi Amanda,
Thank you for sharing your techniques!
Question, have you experimented with smoking peppers prior to packing (step 2) for the fermentation process?
Amanda says
I haven’t, although I’m sure the flavor would be amazing! If you have the ability to cold smoke, definitely give it a try! Hot smoke could definitely kill the all-important surface bacteria necessary for successful lactofermentation.
Rebecca says
Hi Amanda,
I’m trying my first brine ferment of mixed spicy peppers we grew this summer here in BC’s Kootenays. My one question is can I follow my heart and add half an apple to the ferment, or would the sugar make it go too quickly? I could also try carrot or squash like other here are doing, but my heart wants to try apple! Any warnings or advice?
Thanks and glad I found you!
Amanda says
Hi Rebecca,
I would personally not add an apple, at least not until after fermentation. You can always add sugar (or fruit) at the end and refrigerate or pasteurize, but in my limited experience with this, it hasn’t given the best results. I’ve tried with a few different fruits (apple, pear, pineapple, mango, all in the same year, though). All of the got Kahm yeast, and none of them really had any nice fruit character after fermentation, so it seemed like a loss. Having said that, it’s always worth trying. Climate that summer/fall could have impacted the way things turned out here, and if you use a less sweet apple, you may have great success!
Rebecca says
Thanks for the frank advice. I don’t yet know much abut it, but something about the sugar content of apple was holding me back, so I’m glad I checked. I’m going to try smoked cherry wood for a few days instead, to give it a rounded flavour. I found the idea in Batch, the new Well Preserved cookbook 🙂
Thanks again and take care!
melissa says
Hi – I’m fermenting jalapenos with seeds with airtight seals/lids. I haven’t been using weights but rather pushing the peppers that float to the top down at least once a day… I’ve noticed that the jalapeno seeds are sprouting (but no mold has formed). Is this normal?
Thanks.
Jhon Korchok says
I make a lot of recipes with hot peppers (really hot ones) and I’ve found that ordinary latex gloves don’t necessarily stop capsaicin (the ingredient that makes the heat) from reaching your skin. I discovered nitrile gloves at the hardware store. They’re made for chemical handling and are more effective at preventing the “burning fingers” effect.
Scott says
Hi, I’m wondering if you can give me some advice.
I’m making pickled pequin peppers (small, thin skinned, hot). Whole peppers packed into the bottom of a jar. About 3% brine solution. They’ve been in the jar about 5 weeks now.
The first week they bubbled a lot and I got some clouding. That settled and the liquid has been clear for the past several weeks, bubbling slowed, but it is still active.
I measured the PH today, and it’s 6! My tap water is 7, so it has lowered. But not much.
Has there not been enough time? Not enough sugar in these small hot peppers? Should I add vinegar and continue fermenting?
They smell and taste like tabasco sauce.
Thank you.
Amanda says
Hi Scott,
That is very strange and very high. I would definitely not eat them unless the pH continues to drop (on a pH strip, USDA recommends a 4.0 or below). Has it dropped anymore in the past week?
joelfinkle says
Just blended and jarred about 3 cups of sauce, basically one whole plant’s worth of bhut jolokia and a dozen red-ripe jalapenos. Sauce is very hot but not blistering at the by-the-drop level, and big on flavor, great stuff. Only used a small amount of the brine to get a nice sriracha-like sauce, to which I added a bit of sugar to enhance that sriracha-ness.
The weirdest thing is that during the ferment, it had a distinct smell of “somebody’s smoking pot in the next apartment.” Especially if you jostled the jar, it would stink up that end of the kitchen.
Amanda says
Hi Joel,
That sounds delightful. As for the pot smell, I have nooooo idea about that one, but I’ll keep my nose tuned in.
Natalia Leelavetchabutr says
This recipe sounds great. I have never fermented anything. I got given a bag of Turkish green chilies today, and I was wondering if this recipe may work with them. I really don’t know what else to do with them, the bag I was given last year is still in the freezer!!!
I dont want these to suffer the same fate.
Thanks 🙂
Amanda says
Hi Natalia,
You can try with a small amount, but I would generally not recommend using frozen vegetables in fermentation. There’s a decent to good possibility that the beneficial bacteria responsible for fermentation have died after spending time frozen. The one option is to add some starter (juice from raw sauerkraut (not canned), etc).
I wish I could tell you otherwise!
Natalia Leelavetchabutr says
Thank you Amanda
I have a new fresh bag of Turkish chillies. I bought some hot green ones to add to it, and I will give them a go.
I will try the frozen ones, only if I succeed with the fresh ones. 🙂
Thanks so much for your response.
Oh and do you think that the leftover juice from fermenting the fresh ones, may work as the starter juice?
Joshua Smith says
I have some pickled serranos and pepercinis that were pickled in 2014. These should work for a pretty good hot sauce, you think?
Gnarly Pods says
Thanks for the great article! I’m growing 70 different types of peppers this year, mostly super-hots.
Anthony says
Hi Amanda!
Thanks so much for this amazing fermenting lesson. I have made many one-day hot sauces by cooking hot peppers in vinegar with some various spices, and I quite enjoy them. But I’ve been searching for a solid fermenting recipe.
Your knowledge and attitude is absolutely amazing! I almost always avoid the comments section on blogs, but this one was amazing to read. There was so much information, it’s worthy of it’s on wiki page!
Well, I guess that’s enough (well deserved) brown-nosing. 😉
I am a huge fan of pepperoncini, and just pulled a small batch from my plant. When I tried to find a recipe similar to mezzetta brand, I came across a very simple recipe.
(about) 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar
add salt
wash the jar, place peppers and a few black peppercorns (plus other spices, if used) inside.
Pour liquid over peppers, let cool slightly, close and throw them in the fridge.
Does this sound reasonable? The peppers have been hanging out in my fridge for a little over a month now. They don’t look mushy and there’s no cloudiness. I haven’t opened them yet, because I’m still working on the gallon jar of Mezzetta pepperoncini I bought just a few weeks before that. (Like I said, I love pepperoncini!) Also, on the forum where I found that recipe, someone recommended to make a small slit in the peppers to allow the liquid inside. Is that a good practice?
Thanks again for all the information you’ve already posted, and all the amazing answers to other’s questions!
I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Amanda says
Hi Anthony,
Thanks so much for the kind words!
I unfortunately have very little expertise when it comes to vinegar pickling. Fermentation is pretty much my exclusive jam. Since they were refrigerated, my guess would be that they’re totally fine to eat (but not fermented peppers).
A slit in the peppers sounds reasonable for a vinegar brine. In a salt-brined (fermented) pickle, the salt will do the job of getting you past the cell wall! Although fermenting whole vegetables is always a touch trickier than fermenting chopped vegetables, so personally, I would halve them.
Best of luck! They sound delish.
Asif says
Hey Amanda,
I love this post, this is going to me my second go at Fermenting. I grow habanero, wiri wiri and Cumari hot peppers every year. Last year someone sealed my jar and it exploded. I will take extra precautions this year.
You mentioned packing the jar tightly, I was wondering if there is any downside to starting a large jar and adding peppers as they ripen on the trees? this will mean that the peppers will not be packed tightly.
Amanda says
Hi Asif,
The issue there will be exposure to air. Generally once you have a vegetable ferment going, you want to limit the surface exposure to air as much as possible. (This post about submerging vegetables for fermentation might be helpful for more info). Having said that, peppers are prone to Kahm yeast anyway, and you’re going to be blending things down the line if there is a bit that looks unsightly.
If it were me, I would probably go ahead and use the homegrown stuff and risk the Kahm. Just skim it when you see it with a clean utensil. Alternatively, you could work in smaller batches or hang on to your peppers until you have enough to get it going.
Best of luck! There’s nothing like homegrown hot sauce!
Greg says
Hi Amanda,
I followed your excellent advice and the results were great!
I made a second batch and unfortunately had to travel for three days immediately afterward. When I came home, the jar had “popped” the lid and sticky juice was all over the place. I ordinarily stir 3x a day but couldn’t. The hot sauce still smells OK but the consistency was very strange (it separated and almost no liquid remains). There was nothing white inside the jar. Do you think this is still safe? I have to travel again for three days and wonder if I should move it to the fridge to slow the ferment while I’m gone?
Thanks!
Amanda says
I would definitely still say that its safe! Problems with vegetable ferments generally announce themselves in very obvious ways :-).
One thing I would be concerned about moving forward is the lack of liquid. If your veg is exposed to the air, it will start to mold. I would cut fermentation time short and move forward to the blending and refrigerating phase with this batch, personally.
One trick for next time: don’t tighten the jar lid all the way. With even a little room to breathe, you can avoid squirts and explosions. Best of luck! I wish you delicious sauce moving forward!
Matt J. says
I use one of those jars with the metal release levers. My wife suggested next time we have to go away, that I could rig a rubber band to hold the lid down but will allow for gas to escape.
Amanda says
I’m not sure I’m familiar with what you’re describing. I can tell you that a mason jar with a slightly loosened lid will keep things from building up!
Matt J. says
Thanks for the great recipe! I currently have about 2 quarts in a large jar that is going bonkers and needs burping daily. Smells amazing and the brine is already delicious. I have a couple questions (actually several, but I’ll limit it to three):
1. How do I know when “fermentation is complete”?
2. Should I be concerned about food safety – that is can bad bacteria or other contaminants get into the brine as it ferments?
3. Does my sauce have to be refrigerated or is there a way to bottle it without need of refrigeration? I bought a bunch of hot sauce bottles and don’t have a ton of space in the fridge.
Thank you!
Amanda says
1. Fermentation is complete when you like the way it tastes. Specifically, you want the pH to reach below 4.6 and other than that, it’s up to you. I generally don’t measure pH unless I’m trying something weird, so for me, it’s done when it tastes good.
2. Yes, there will be bacteria in the brine. No, you shouldn’t be concerned about food safety. Vegetable fermentation is the process of cultivating bacteria, so there will be lots and lots of bacteria in your brine and that’s a good and VERY safe thing.
3. You can leave it on the counter and let it continue to ferment, but if you want it to stay how it is, you’ll need to move it the fridge or can it. Canning it involves pasteurization (killing off the good bacteria and destroying many nutrients, but that’s okay if the health benefits of fermentation weren’t your goal). I am not an expert on canning, but I can tell you that you’d want to thoroughly research the pH at which you can can it, make sure you have an excellent tool for measuring pH, and make sure you’re using an approved recipe.
Unlike in fermentation, bacteria found in improperly canned recipes can kill you.
Moving your hot sauce to a cool place can serve to slow the progress of fermentation, which might be all you need to do. Some folks pasteurize and add vinegar, but the science of that doesn’t make sense to me, so I would either specifically can it or specifically ferment it. I hope that helps!
Cara says
Hey, an online friend suggested I try making fermented hot pepper sauce, when my attempt to freeze my fresh sauce seemed to lose its heat too quickly. I followed your recipe (excpet I cleaned the peppers before brining). I got the peppers from the farmers market, and for the first week or so, it smelled WONDERFUL, and was super bubbly!
But it was still hot-like-summer, and around the 10 day mark, I started getting yeast and it didnt smell so good any more. Not bad, just not really yummy like it did when it was bubbling all over the place. I skimmed, but it kept coming. I moved it to the fridge, but it kept coming.
I read more places and decided to remove about 1/4 of the peppers (it was overfilled and hard to keep beneath the brine). I pureed that with a little vinegar, and then salted the top of the jar of remaining ferment. No more yeast in either. But i still dont like the smell as much as before (again, not foul, just eh).
I’m planning on buying more hot peppers from the market next week and making another batch the following week. I’m wondering if you have any suggestions. Hope for the best since it will be cooler? Increase the salt? Move to the fridge earlier? Or some combination?
I know i’ve seen some places that sometimes a ferment goes through an intermediary stage where it smells less good, and then gets better if you wait longer – months or even years, right? any thoughts?
thanks
Balky says
This is why I came back to the post, actually. Was just a little curious why one of my batches smells less freshy-good, even though the acidity is clearly rising… so I jumped on to see if anyone else has this going on.
My case is different… it’s my least-packed batch with plenty of brine.
My sense is that the flavors are acquiring more depth. If you have ever eaten fermented shrimp or fish sauce or an amazing cheese, an “interesting” smell is not necessarily a bad thing for a food. Mine doesn’t have any mold on it and is progressing nicely. I think the funky one is going to be special.
Scott D Epter says
Hi Amanda,
I have what might be considered a strange case. I made a hot sauce out of habaneros, pineapple and garlic. Didn’t ferment them initially (just cheated by roasting it all in the oven with some salt to develop flavors quickly). Pureed it all into a hot sauce which was flavorful and tasty and stowed it away in the fridge. Everything was fine for about 2 weeks and then it started fermenting vigorously (hardcore bubbling, serious gas release when I open the top). Do I need to be concerned about this unintended fermentation? Is it an issue if i am fermenting already pureed peppers without an airlock? Thanks much…
Scott
Amanda says
Hi Scott,
Huh! That is indeed a curious case. Normally, if something accidentally ferments in the fridge, I’m like “yum.” Something that has been previously cooked, however, can be problematic. My short answer is that I don’t know. If you added something in there after cooking that was still fresh, perhaps that supplied the necessary LAB. These mysteries do occur, and I don’t want to scare you off, but fermentation is safe in part because LAB are great bacterial competitors. Killing them off with heat leaves room for potential pathogens to take root. Ultimately, I can’t tell you without having watched every step of the process, but with my basic understanding of microbiology, I would probably not eat that.
Sorry I can’t be of more help!
Charlie Loub says
I just blended a lb. Of peppers with one garlic clove, and a TB. Of kosher salt and packed airtight in a sterilized Mason jar. Will that work, or is water necessary?
Amanda says
Hi Charlie, that will work, except for the airtight part. Assuming you’re fermenting them and not processing them for canning (I don’t know much about that process!), you’ll need to loosen the jar lid or “burp” it regularly to allow the CO2 created during fermentation to escape without compromising the jar lid.
Herbert Hickey says
Hi my friend,
I’m so glad I found you!
About a month and a half ago, a box of garden stuff showed up at work. most of the vegetables were too far gone or went before I figured out what to do with them. What survived was a large amount of peppers – mostly jalepeños and chilies with a few anaheims and poblanos. As it was too much to eat I thought about hot sauce and found this recipe. I followed the directions and apparently made a few mistakes but I think I’m ok. As a first timer, I obviously have some anxiety. First, I used a large ball jar since there was a lot of fruit. the issue here is that the oppening of the jar is much smaller than the rest of the jar. not having anything else to use and following your suggestions in other posts, I used jar in jar but, because I had cut the fruit, I had trouble keeping the fruit submerged and eventually resorted to adding waxed paper to aid in this. I think i got everything under. there does seem to be alot of white around the peppers, and again, your posts have kept me from worrying too much about this as it appears to be yeast and a “Healthy part of the process” I used cloth and the jar cover without the insert to cover the jar and the odor seems smoky, peppery, and pleasant. However, the paper that is above the brine seems to be accumulating mold and I think that I should remove it ASAP. would it be a good idea to move the ferment to smaller widemouth jars at this point as well so that I can eliminate the paper”fix” altogether? if so, should I do anythind about the yeast? I am in no hurry to end the ferment and make the sauce.
Penn says
I’ve chopped about a pound of ghost peppers up, heavily salted them and mixed them twice a day for a week at room temperature. I’ve had them in my fridge for about 4 weeks since, salted on the top.
Any thoughts on how long I should let them go in the fridge in their air tight container. Ideally what would you do next with them? Just blend with vinegar in a blender?
Pete says
Dear Amanda,
I am doing one red batch and one green, both submerged with your “jar in a jar” method (covered with a cloth, but still “open” at the sides of the jar on top). One of the batches seems to be mostly fine except for surface growths that I have to scoop out now and then. But the other seems to be hopelessly contaminated with black mold (or bacteria?) that has gone under the surface and basically darkened the whole batch. How can this be? The brine was salty enough and starting to sour, last I tasted it. The peppers were clean and completely submerged. But I fear this batch is ruined — even if I were to take out every pepper and rinse it off, I would also be rinsing off any lactic acid bacteria that had grown so far. Any thoughts? I can send you a photo if you’re interested… Thanks! –Pete
Pete says
Hi again Amanda: actually, it seems that both of the batches are ruined. Even the other one (without the black mold) has rapidly gone bad — the liquid is brown and smells more like rot than like fermentation; to blend that in with the peppers would be wholly unappealing 🙁 FYI I am a relative beginner at lactofermentation, but I have successfully made sauerkraut twice, once with red cabbage and once with shredded beets, both in a sauerkraut crock. Never seen or heard of anything like this before. I would like to try again, but honestly have no idea where it went wrong… Thanks for your thoughts. –Pete
Amanda says
Hi Pete,
That’s such a bummer! I have no idea why that would happen. I have never had black mold on a ferment, but I know that some can be dangerous (although molds, by definition grown on the surface where there’s oxygen. To my knowledge they can “tendril” down, but those tendrils would no usually be visible to the naked eye).
If the peppers were sweet, it’s possible that you have some alcohol accruing at the top, although sufficient salt would generally prevent that.
If you have black mold in the air in your home, it’s possible that it colonized your ferments. Otherwise, I really don’t know what to tell you. Without seeing it in person, I wouldn’t be comfortable making a diagnosis.
I hope you find some answers! For sure sterilize the jars that you for this. That’s not a practice that I generally recommend, but when something you don’t want takes root, sterilization is always a good idea.
One thing I can tell you as encouragement is that what happened here is extremely rare. As I mentioned, it has never happened to me and I would wager that you’re the first person who has mentioned it to me IRL. Unless you do have a lot of mold in your home, I would be very surprised if this ever happened to you again, so please don’t be discouraged!
Best of luck!
Dev says
If I place my brine-fermenting hot peppers (plus a few slices of lemon and halved cranberries) in the fridge while I am out of town, will they resume fermenting once I pull them out of the fridge a week later?
I’ve been skimming kahm off the surface every other day now and would hate to come home to a kahm-foam party in my kitchen after leaving it home alone for too long.
I’m using cheesecloth beneath plates as my fermenting weights.
Thanks!
Balky says
Hey! Mostly, just wanted to share a recipe discovery that I just made… but also to comment on the starter question.
I rigged up a batch with the peppers on hand out here in the Balkans. They were fleshy, sweet, and quite spicy… so I cut them with a small onion, the garlic, and some turnips, to get the right amount of spice.
I was preparing three big batches, about 6 liters of hot sauce, and I had this idea which turned out to be a stroke of genius… galangal!!!!!!! Galangal is a thai root that is orange, and somewhat similar to ginger but then not similar at all. You can find high quality galangal dried, which is what I have. After two weeks of fermenting, it just blew the flavor right off my hot sauce. Definitely recommended for anyone who wants to make something that is immediately special to the taste. I mean, wow. it’s tasty.
Regarding starters, I’m no pro at this, but why would you use a starter? Throwing the chiles in the pot (I’m using big glass vases) with the brine will inevitably give you a good fermentation and it’s fast enough so what’s the big deal?
Amanda says
Great idea! Definitely going to try that next year!
Rich says
I’m a week into the fermentation process, but I’ve been wondering how the process affects the spicy-ness of the final product. So, how does the length of fermentation affect the hotness of the final sauce?
Amanda says
Longer ferments will be less spicy than shorter ferments, in my experience. I have no knowledge of studies done on the reduction in heat from capsaicin, but I’ve made enough batches of hot sauce to know that it will be incrementally less spicy.
It’s not going to be a TON less spicy in a typical fermentation period, but if you’re aging for, say, a year, you might find a significant reduction. I generally have. I hope that helps!
kristen says
Hi There,
This looks awesome and I am planning to try it asap. One question- why the food mill/strainer step at the end? Is this to catch bits of pepper or spice that didn’t grind well/liquefy? Would there be any problem if I skipped the step?
Thanks very much!
Amanda says
You can skip that! I prefer the texture after it’s been through the food mill or a strainer, but there’s nothing wrong with a chunkier sauce! Enjoy!
Marco says
Hi Amanda. I’ve been meaning to make a home-made hot sauce for a long time and I am finally ready to give it a go. There are a couple of things in the instructions that I am not very clear about. The first one is if you cover the peppers with a lid (sealed) or with a cloth. I guess that as long as they are under the brine, this wouldn’t matter too much but I’d like your opinion. The second one is the straining at the end. Is it the liquid part of the strained product that you keep? And if you use a fine mesh strainer as you suggest, won’t that make a very liquidy sauce?
Thanks
Eric says
The best thing everyone can do is to keep cooking & eating and experimenting for best results.
I have been cooking for over 50 years now and rarely fix a meal the same way as before. For when you get into that rut in life and everything becomes the same as before and you are always doing the same as before,……The you are a dead person.
No life, nothing new, no new flavors, old news……….
Get out and travel the world !!, See a new place and eat new foods that are legit, not Americanised or watered down.
Go for it !!
Jason Leighton says
I basically do it the same way you do it with a brine the only difference is i add the spices (Garlic, Onion, and a few dabs of Hickory Liquid Smoke) once i am done fermenting them when i add the vinegar, i then let them sit for an addition two weeks in the Vinegar with the spices. I ferment them with a tad more salt and i ferment them with added Hickory Wood Chips, you can use any kind of wood you prefer, but when you do it this way it’s basically a cheap way to make a Tobasco Style Sauce. I do have Tobasco Peppers growing right now and it will be my first year making a actual Tobasco sauce and i can’t wait.
I only really ferment them for about a month, maybe two if i want more flavor but the Tabasco people ferment them for over three years. They actually don’t keep their receipe a secret because their brand it so well known that it’s virtually impossible to compete with them lol. They ferment them in Oak Barrels for that time as well. All they do once they are done is add Vinegar. After fermenting for over three years i can see why as they are probably already packed with so much flavor from the fermenting process.
When i am ready to make my sauce i put it in a blender for about 5 mins and then strain it through a mesh strainer. I can sure tell you it’s better than any store bought sauce i ever bought.
I also use a mix of peppers i grow from my garden. I use Carolina Reapers, Ghost Peppers, Cayenne’s, Caribbean Reds, Lemon Drop and i couple hybrid plants i made from cross pollinating them. I never use just one style pepper because i find a mix will give the best flavor profile.
Hope everyone enjoy’s fermenting 🙂 It surely is a great hobby.
Amanda says
YUM!
Barbara says
I just tried my first batch. I cut the tops off my peppers and fermented them whole. When I thought they were ready to make sauce, I put them through the Squeezo. The residue was just a small bowl of dry skin and seeds.
Melissa says
I am hoping to try this out this weekend! I found your recipe from foodinjar.com. I have never done anything fermented before but find this recipe to appear fairly simple.
Question – after fermenting, can I seal the jars in a waterbath and make them shelf stable or would I have to add vinegar for that? My bf does not like vinegar hot sauces which is why I want to try this.
Thanks!!
Amanda says
Hi Melissa,
You DEFINTELY need to follow an approved recipe for hot sauce before canning. It’s highly unlikely that this will reach the necessary pH to be safe for canning (canning is NOT my wheelhouse, but I would personally always stay safer with a simple ferment). Vegetable fermentation is great for experimentation. With canning, I would rely on expert advice and recipes only.
Paul says
I’ve never tried fermenting without a whey starter from my own yogurt but I believe Tabasco sauce is strictly brined. Going to try both ways this year as I have an abundance of habaneros and after reading all the thoughts on it. The recipe seems to be simply double the salt. Why not? I can’t believe how close minded most people are to this idea. It’s great to see the art is alive and well. I’ve only convinced a couple coworkers to try it and they were instantly sold on the idea.
I’m definitely going to subscribe to this site. Nice resource!
Dr Don says
I would like to try this recipe as presented. Whole, tightly packed cayenne peppers. Is the jar top left open, covered in cheese cloth, lidded, do I have to add water/salt lost to evaporation?
Scott D Epter says
Hi,
Is there anything that can be done to control kam yeast? Extra salty-brine? Better aeration? Something?
I’ve been scooping off the top daily, sometimes more often; so far I’m keeping up with it.
Wanted to let you know that I’m back for my second year of following your recipes. I really appreciate what you do. You’ve opened up whole new avenue for me of preserving the harvest we all work so hard on.
I’m guessing you’re busy around this time up in New England. Hope the fall treats you well.
Amanda says
Thanks so much for the kind words, Scott!
In my experience, Kahm is tricky to beat once it’s there, even with vigilant skimming. If I can (aka if it’s in a container small enough) I move it to the fridge to finish fermentation once I spy any Kahm yeast. Alternatively, you can add a few drops of grapefruit seed extract to the surface of your ferment once you’ve packed your jar. It’s a trick I learned from a fermenty friend in Puerto Rico, where the temp and humidity mean fighting Kahm yeast requires some effort.
A few things I’ve found to be helpful preventatives: 1) very careful submersion. Make sure spices are at the bottom of the vessel and “weighted” with vegetables” 2) Sanitize any jars, crocks or implements (like weights) used in batches that developed Kahm. I’ve definitely noticed it coming back with certain pickle weights, but sanitizing helps. 3) Somewhat cooler temps. Kahm is way more kahm-on (hardy har har) in batches made in the hot heat of summer. If there are cooler spots in your home, that could help.
Where I live, Kahm isn’t a problem that often, but it can be a nuisance and the stuff above is the best path to avoiding it, in my experience! Best of luck!
Corey Harris says
Hello, I recently started fermenting different varieties of peppers and all has gone really well. I have had some very tasty final results. I have done a little experimentation recently by adding some cane sugar to the finished product rather than the initial fermentation. It made for a tasty, sweet and savory sauce but it seems to have activated the ferment again even with the vinegar and a Ph of >4, and being refrigerated. This fermentation is quite active. It will bubble out of the bottle and I suppose has the potential of making hot sauce grenades. Any advice on this at all? Would heating it help?
Amanda says
Hi Corey,
You could pasteurize it before storing it in the fridge. Some people definitely do that (including companies who want to be able to ship product). Keep in mind you will kill any probiotic bacteria and destroy some vitamins if you do that, but otherwise, I don’t know of any downsides.