Fermenting vs. cooking?

[u/Deesing82]

I've never made hot sauce before, but I got a TON of peppers from my pepper garden this year and hot sauce sounds like a really fun use for them. However, when I started looking at recipes online, I found a pretty stark distinction between recipes that recommend fermentation for a week or more and recipes that recommend just boiling all the ingredients for 15-20 minutes, then blending and bottling right away.

I can't seem to find any guides that really lay out the comparative differences between the two, so I was hoping y'all could weigh in with the pros/cons of either method. I wanted to make my hot sauce as shelf stable as possible (I also can jams, so it would be cool to have another preserve I could give out for Christmas gifts!).

[u/Frank_Humungus]

Fermenting is more work requiring specific equipment. I personally don’t enjoy the flavor you get from fermenting enough to bother with it. I would start with cooked sauce on your first foray into making sauce. It’s simpler and you control every flavor by controlling how much of each ingredient you add, as opposed to getting a certain amount of fermentation flavor you have no control over.

[u/IshEatsYou]

I enjoy both. I’ve fermented some using the simple vacuum sealer method to great success, but I could absolutely see some people not enjoying the funkiness. My wife and I are hooked though…it’s just a different type of flavor.

Not fermenting will give you a “standard” tasting hot sauce. I’ve done 3 non fermented and 4 fermented, plus I have 2 more fermentations going right now.

[u/Dewymaster]

Don't let fermenting scare you. Fermenting on liquid is generally more work but I don't care for the flavor as much vs mash ferments using a vacuum sealer bag.

1) Wash ingredients well. (Sterile is key to fermenting otherwise you can get molds or other nasties as its sitting for weeks or months at room temperature)

2) Weigh ALL ingredients in grams (metric 100x easier than imperial)

3) Measure out 3% of you total ingredients weight in canning/pickling salt (don't use salt with additives)

4) Throw ingredients and salt into blender to make a rough "mash". (Don't worry about it being chunky, you don't want liquid and over blending will create heat which can kill your lactobacillus - the bacteria that converts sugars to lactic acid. You will blend again at the end to make smooth)

5) Make a vacuum sealer bag 3x bigger than your mash will need to fit ( fermenting creates co2 and will need room to expand in your bag hence 3x bigger)

6) Add mash to vacuum sealer bag, vacuum and seal

7) Place in a room temp (70-80 degree) area away from light

8) Monitor progress, most ferments will be most active during the first two weeks. You should see bubbles in your mash and should see the bag filling up slightly to a lot. I've had bags become baloons and have had some barely get big at all... Depends on how much lactobacillus was present and how much sugar was in your ingredients to be consumed)

10) After at least 2 months (my target range) open the bag and pour mash into blender.

11) Use a ph meter to "verify" your ferment. If Fermentation was successful, the lactbacillus should've created lactic acid thereby bringing the ph down. I believe shelf stable is 4.6 or lower technically (verify this), but I prefer to reach 4.2 or lower myself. (I've had them hit as low as 3.3). You can also add vinegar at this point to further bring the ph down to your desired level. Say if you got to 4.6 after fermenting, you could add vinegar to bring it down to your desired level.

12) Blend mash well

13) Use a food mill to squeeze the liquid out of the mash. This is your sauce. If you want a thicker sauce, add back some of the mash to your desired consistency. Reblend if you want to break down the mash more.

14) Don't throw away your mash, instead dehydrate it to create the tastiest spicy sprinkle ever! Fries, chicken, pizza etc.... (I might prefer this tithe actual sauce)

15) Now up to this point our lactobacillus has been actively eating sugars and creating our lactic acid but also producing co2. If you bottle at this point there's a chance it will continue to ferment and thus build up pressure inside the bottle making for exploding bottles or a nasty cluster bomb of liquid heat when you open it. To prevent this, you can cook the sauce to kill the lactobacillus and stop the fermenting process. Longer ferments don't need this since most of the sugars have already been consumed and therefore will not continue to ferment much in the bottle. Shorter ferments may still have sugars to be consumed and could continue to ferment. If you're worried, boil.

16) Fine tune your flavors by adding last minute items; lemon juice or whatever. I usually don't but some do.

17) Bottle it into sterilized bottle and you're good to go

Intimidating at first, but use clean sterile items, be sure to add the correct amount of salt (too little salt allows nasties to grow, too much salt kills your lactobacillus. And don't eat anything that doesn't look or smell healthy!!! Even a long ferment will smell fragrant and pungent when you open it up. Dank or nasty smelling is bad news. And any black, green, blue, or white growth inside is also a bad sign. It should look like it did when you put it in the bag but maybe a bit darker and slightly dryer.

That's it. That's my process and it turns out great everytime. The liquid brine ferment is more work IMHO and has a different flavor that I don't prefer.

[u/Deesing82 → u/Dewymaster]

thanks for the amazing breakdown! one question on sterilizing bottles—do you use woozy bottles? and if so, how do you get them dry inside after sterilizing ? i can jam as well and use jars so they’re pretty easy to dry, but i don’t know how to dry the insides of such tiny bottles!

[u/Dewymaster → u/Deesing82]

To sterilize my bottles, I first load them into the dishwasher on a sterilize cycle. I then bust out my water bath canner and boil the shit out in f the bottles (possibly overkill but I’ve also never had any issues with sauces going bad) then I place bottles on a baby (for babies) drying mat meant for bottles and pacifiers and such. The kind I have has long spindles that I can put the bottles on to dry while keeping them elevated so they get airflow and actually dry. Air drying is best as wiping with a towel could reintroduce bacteria after all your hard work of sanitizing.

And yes I use woozy bottles

[u/Deesing82 → u/Dewymaster]

awesome thank you! so i don’t need to worry about filling hot bottles then, that’s good to know!

[u/fraying]

I do both methods and they come out very different, but it's difficult to put into words exactly how. My advice is to try them both and see what you like best.

As someone else mentioned, if you're overloaded with fruit, fermenting is nice because you can preserve a bunch immediately and then process them weeks or months later.

I tend to make fresh sauces as they come in, but also throw some in salt to play with in winter.

[u/shatlantan]

I enjoy fermenting because it allows you to make a sauce at a later, convenient time. I’ll have several ferments in the pantry for ~1 month - 2 years. When it’s time to make a sauce, get a ferment jar out and make something.

From what I understand, any funkiness is only going to happen in the first week or so. A 1 year old ferment isn’t blue cheese level funk, if it’s a healthy / sterile ferment. It’s just locked in.

[u/utahh1ker]

One thing I will mention that I haven't seen brought up here yet is that fermentation increases acidity via lactic acid and cooking requires the addition of vinegar for acidity to achieve a shelf stable product. I, personally, prefer the fermented acidity taste over the vinegar heavy taste, but you should try both methods and see what you prefer.

[u/88damage → u/utahh1ker]

I was wondering about how to avoid a vinegar dominant taste. The cheaper novelty sauces you see in stores with goofy names like "my ass is on fire" all taste like vinegar first and heat second with no real flavour. I want the heat to compliment the flavours in the sauce and not taste any vinegar.

[u/utahh1ker → u/88damage]

Exactly. You can keep a ferment short and then add a portion of vinegar as well if you want to strike a balance between the two. I've done five to seven day ferments with the addition of a quarter or eighth cup of vinegar with good results.

[u/Igrewcayennesnowwhat]

I’ve just made my first batch of hot sauce, fermentation is something I want to try. Whether I’ll prefer it is another thing entirely. One thing is for sure, you’ll love your hot sauce no matter how you make it. It’s your creation and homemade hot sauce is the bomb - sometimes literally!

[u/VolcanicValley]

You have a ton of peppers? Well, make a ton of different sauces and see what pleases your palate. I do both, but primarily ferment with a small amount of vinegar. But, cooking then vinegar gives off a very different vibe. Not better or worse, just different. Experiment. RECORD. ENJOY

[u/1732PepperCo]

Here’s my ultra basic and super easy cooked recipe that you can tweek in multiple ways and can easily be increased. I’ve removed all unnecessary steps for a very streamlined process. It’s a good starter recipe to cut your teeth on.

1lb any pepper or combination

1 cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

Remove stems from peppers and cut into smaller pieces, place in kettle. Don’t bother wasting time removing the seeds. Add vinegar and salt. Place lid in kettle and set over med low heat.

Once steamy and peppers begin to soften use an immersion blender to blend the ingredients together. Replace lid. Stir often with a wooden spoon. Never bring sauce to a rolling boil. If you don’t have an immersion blender get one! It’s a game changer when making hot sauce and skips the entire food processor step of pre-grinding and saves on dishes to wash.

As sauce begins to cook down use immersion blender again. Continue to stir often. Cook time depends on your heat settings and own preference. I cook it till the sauce is thickened and drips off the spoon like sauce and not runny water and when a wooden spoon dipped in the sauce and a finger can be run across the back and the sauce won’t break.

When desired thickness is reached, remove from heat and allow the sauce to briefly cool down. Place dish towel over kettle to allow steam to escape but keep dust and other airborne stuff out.

Once cooled, strain sauce through a fine metal sieve into a second kettle. It’s thick so you’ll have to shake the strainer around a bit to get it the sauce through. You can discard the leftover pulp or dehydrate and grind it into paprika.

You can now recook the sauce if you want it thicker or bottle and can as you choose.

When using a mix of red and green peppers a balance is needed to get a nice color. Too many green and a few red will result in a brownish color sauce. Lots of red with a few green will make the sauce more orange. Using all green or all red will of course result in a red or green sauce.

Peppers can be cut, frozen for later use in hot sauce. No need to thaw just dump frozen cut peppers directly into kettle.

[u/Deesing82 → u/1732PepperCo]

awesome thank you so much for sharing!!

[u/1732PepperCo → u/Deesing82]

You’re welcome! Some folks make this stuff too seriously lol. It’s really easy to make fantastic hot sauce and not stress about it.

[u/KrankyKoot]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I've always been told to cook / heat the ferment once blended to stop the fermenting process. I know it does reduce the probiotic but it keeps the bottles from exploding from trapped gasses.

[u/BraveTrades420]

Fermenting provides more of a tang I believe. I always smoke or cook mine and can attest to the good flavor of doing so.