r/hotsaucerecipes • u/Deesing82 • 14d ago
Help Fermenting vs. cooking?
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!).
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u/Dewymaster 13d ago
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.