|
Post by glen on Oct 3, 2020 18:42:37 GMT -6
Rick, I appreciate the recipe. I am going to be fermenting just peppers, onion, and garlic. I am using much hotter peppers in my recipe. No carrots. I also have a scale in the house now as well so I can weigh my ingredients and adjust the amount of salt I need. I still need to pick the chili's so I don't know exactly how much I have. Again, thanx.
|
|
|
Post by rdback on Oct 5, 2020 8:39:09 GMT -6
Rick, I appreciate the recipe. I am going to be fermenting just peppers, onion, and garlic. I am using much hotter peppers in my recipe. No carrots. I also have a scale in the house now as well so I can weigh my ingredients and adjust the amount of salt I need. I still need to pick the chili's so I don't know exactly how much I have. Again, thanx. You're welcome!
I think the "process" Dru outlines in this recipe is very good. What peppers you use is up to you, of course. The onions and garlic add bulk and brighten the flavor of the sauce. The carrot enhances color, but most importantly, increases sugar availability for the Lactobacillus to feed on. If you omit the carrots, add some raw sugar to replace.
Being able to weigh your ingredients is great. It makes repeating a recipe easy. Also, if you can use the Metric system for weights and measures, it makes scaling a recipe up (or down) a snap.
Best of luck with it!
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 5, 2020 13:55:46 GMT -6
Rick, I did quite a bit of research on pepper fermenting. There are many ways to ferment chili's. I deviated from the recipe you gave me. The recipe above asks for a brine. Right now, I have the peppers split in a big plastic pail salted down at the about a 5% rate. I did mix some garlic into this. I am working with these peppers now, stirring them every couple of hours and pressing them with a potato masher also. I am using a mixture of peppers. The majority of the peppers are purple thunder which are thin skinned low juice type peppers plus I have those yellow peppers you see in the photo as well which are thicker skinned and have a higher juice level. Tomorrow, I will see how much juice I have produced. I don't think it will be much. I will add water at that time. I am going to add water sparingly. I might add a cup of water tomorrow depending on how much juice was excreted by the peppers. Maybe less I hope. I will add a little sugar like you said also. I have a big plastic container with a screw on lid to use tomorrow. The plan is to put the chili's in the container tomorrow. I will pack them in well. Then I will use a big plastic bag full of water to hold down the chili's. This time I won't lose brine when the peppers begin to ferment since the container I am using is very big. I have 750 grams of pepper, one head of garlic plus approximately 40 grams of salt in this recipe. I will probably stir in a spoon of sugar to feed the bacteria. I expect this ferment to bubble fast and furiously for a couple of days and then it will just slow down to very little bubbling. I want to try and ferment these peppers for several weeks. Oh, I did not chop up the chili's. I read that chopping up the ahi's gives me a higher possibility of mold. So, we will see what happens.
The last time I tried to ferment I prepared a mash by chopping up the ahi's using a food processor. I then made a brine. I poured this brine over the chili's in some quart sized jars. The mash fermented furiously and the brine bubbled out of the jars. There were 2 jars. Then, about 4 days into this I noticed the white yeast forming inside both jars. I spooned this off. The mash had this green smell going on that I did not like. I was afraid at this point so I stopped this ferment and poured this mixture into a blender and mixed it up. Then, I poured this stuff into a pot along with some vinegar and cooked it for about 15 minutes. I let it cool. I strained it. I put it in the fridge. It still had this green smell. I tried it on food. I didn't like it. I poured all of this crap over the fence, into the cow pasture so the cows could enjoy it. An abject failure.
This new experiment could also fail. Thats how I learn.
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 5, 2020 14:09:26 GMT -6
I have a batch of sauerkraut working in the kitchen as well. Right now its going on 10 days old. I ate some yesterday. Its still real crunchy but its good. I plan to let continue to work for another week.
Cabbage makes all its own juice. I just salted down the chopped cabbage. I used a big mixing bowl and worked with it for the first day kneeding it and mixing it around with my hands. The next day I packed it into a huge jar. I used a bag with water in it to hold it down. I used a small bag to cover the mouth of the jar and screwed the lid on loosely.
So far, I do not see any mold. I have my fingers crossed.
Sauerkraut is very practical to have in the kitchen so if I can learn how to make it dependably I will be making it frequently when needed.
The pepper ferment is different. I may have to add some water to the mash since my peppers will not produce much I am afraid.
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 5, 2020 18:34:10 GMT -6
Ok, for right now I have the salted split peppers in a big plastic pail type container in the kitchen. The only ingredients are 750 grams of split super-hot peppers(deseeded), plus 40 grams of salt, plus an entire head of garlic chopped, and a spoon full of yellow sugar. I used one of those tools for mashing potato's to mix and press everything in this container. I have been stirring and pressing every few hours. Its now been probably 5 hours since I started this experiment. I noticed that since these peppers are thin walled they were not going to excrete enough water so I added about 5 oz of water. The smell of the new mash is good so far. The hot chili's are limp in the mixture and water is being sucked out of them because of the salt. My plan is to put these chili's in a large container and ferment them for a month. Obviously my enemy is going to be mold. So, this experiment is only beginning and yes, it could turn into another flop.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 6, 2020 12:27:34 GMT -6
Glen,
That method sounds like it ought to work out well. Thanks, for the detailed account with weights of ingredients. I'll bet that mash smells really good this time. I can almost see the bubbles forming, just reading about it.
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 7, 2020 16:34:50 GMT -6
Ron, the mash smells good. It has been 48 hours. I am not noticing any bubbles though. I was worried about getting that greenish type of smell. So far, it smells like pungent peppers which I assume is the correct smell. I feel like the evil Doctor of doom, experimenting in the lab.
|
|
|
Post by rdback on Oct 7, 2020 16:51:31 GMT -6
Something else you can do is add a "starter". I add the juice from a mature ferment to a new ferment I'm starting. My choice is sauerkraut juice. I add 1-2 Tbls per 1/2 gallon. I do this so I can lower the amount of salt I use. Salt is used to keep bad bacteria at bay until the Lactobacillus colony increases. By using a starter, you're increasing the LAB colony right at the start. More LAB accelerates the amount of lactic acid created, which lowers the pH faster. Bad bacteria (mold) cannot flourish in a lower pH environment.
jmo. Keep after it!
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 7, 2020 21:10:07 GMT -6
That's a good idea Rick. I have some sauerkraut going also. I will add that now. I am a little worried about the ferment. Water is not covering the mash. But, the recipes I read did not say it had to cover it. I am 2 days into this and so far no bubbling and no mold. Its still on.
Ok, I added the hootch to the peppers. It still smells good now. I am still in the game. No bubbling noticed yet and its been 2 days.
My peppers are thin walled and mostly do not have much juice in them. So, when I salted them down they did not excrete much juice. I did add about a half cup of water. I hope what you are saying happens. If we can get the lacto bacillus bacteria to multiply, maybe the peppers can be saved.
I don't understand yet what happened in my first batch since I made sure and covered the peppers with brine. Those peppers begun to bubble real hard after the first 24 hours. Juice was over-flowing from the jar. The bad smell I complained about arrived after less than 48 hours. I believe that was the time the ferment got contaminated.
So far, no bad odors.
I hope the sauerkraut hootch helps this get going.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 8, 2020 20:09:33 GMT -6
Does your mash have enough sugar in it for the yeast to feed on? That might explain the lack of bubbles? Just guessing? From looking back through your list of ingredients, it sounds good though (like it ought to work) Those are the same ingredients I use to ferment my sriracha sauce. The sriracha usually starts bubbling by the morning of the second day. Could it be that the super hot peppers have some sort of retardant to fermentation? I'm at a lose there. I don't know anything about super hots and fermentation. All I've ever fermented were jalapenos and a few chili rayados.
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 8, 2020 22:43:12 GMT -6
Ron, I added a tablespoon of sugar. I don't want to add more than that. I still have not seen any active gurgling or bubbling. I keep opening the container to smell it and see if mold has appeared. So far, it still smells ok and I don't see any yeast or mold. I don't know what to do now except wait. Super-hot peppers are no different than other peppers I don't think.
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 11, 2020 19:47:18 GMT -6
Here is a photo of the fermented peppers in a large glass jug. This started out as 750 gms of peppers. This is a new mash I started today. This time the harvest was 1700 gms of peppers. I mixed in 2 heads of garlic(not cloves). I did not add water. Just 65 gm of sea salt. Tomorrow I will jug this up. This is a close up shot. Its a mix of different variety's of spicy chili's. I had to destroy some big Chili pepper plants today due to white fly's. I harvested all I could before I did that. Here is a tip. If you want to ferment chili's, harvest only the best peppers then process them as quickly as possible. This gives you a better chance of being successful. There is always a chance of mold. But, we can reduce the odds. I got lucky on my first batch. This second batch, if successful will make a huge amount of hot sauce. If I see mold, it goes over the fence. I want to ferment it for several weeks.
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 14, 2020 14:52:26 GMT -6
Ok, I now have 2 ferments going. One is the photo shown above in the jar. Its been fermenting for about 9 days. It now has a nice juice in it that is yellow in color and has risen higher in the jar. In other words it has been making more juice. Quite a bit more. Now, to jog your memory a bit on this ferment, I did not use a brine. Well, I did add a half cup of water to it to help it along. My method is to salt the peppers using about 5% salt. Then I kneed and stir the peppers using a potato masher every hour or so for about 8 hours. Since the peppers are thin walled I did add a small amount of water to help it along. After 9 days, the level of brine in the jug still does not cover the peppers. I know, this is counter intuitive because most recipes use a salt water brine. I had to do quite a bit of searching to find a recipe like I am using now.
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 14, 2020 15:06:44 GMT -6
Now, I am only speaking about the first ferment that is in the glass jar. The jar is closed using a small plastic bag plus the lid. I have the lid closed loosely to allow gas to exit and the plastic is to help keep out fly's which would gladly enter and lay eggs if I left them a way to do so. I have been keeping an eye out for Kahm's yeast and mold. So far I see neither. What a stroke of luck? I must be doing something right? There is a lot of information online on fermenting, almost all of it I have found involves using brines to cover the chili's. I think this is because they fear the dreaded mold. Molds will enter your ferment when using brines also if you are not being squeaky clean with your process. You need luck also.
A Kahm's yeast is a white in color looking film that forms. Its not poison but it does taste bad. You can try to scoop it off. I haven't seen this yet. You want to use garlic along with the peppers to sort of mask any unwanted odors you get in your ferment(for example-Kahm's yeast is bitter smelling). My ferments now smell very mellow and peppery now and good. No greenish smell. So far so good. Sunday is the day I end the first ferment. The first used 750 gms of peppers or about 1.5 lbs. My plan is to make a chili relish out of this. I will shred the chili's which are halved in a food processor along with some white vinegar. I might not use the brine. The brine will be spicy but also salty. I might pour the brine into the second ferment which has quite a ways to go. I don't need the spicy brine in my relish. Believe me, the peppers will be spicy enough. Spicier than most of us can tolerate as it is. Nuclear might be a better word. I will have to let you know how hot the relish is after it is made. Oh, I enjoy a relish better than a sauce. The solids are quite delicious and are a waste to throw away.
As far as how much vinegar I use in a chili relish. I go by site. I pour a little vinegar into the food processor along with the chili's and shred. Once I finish shredding all the peppers I will add enough vinegar to cover them in the jar I am storing this in. When using this relish, use a spoon and scoop what you want-with or without the vinegar and use as a condiment on your food. Believe me, a teaspoon of this in a bowl of chili will light up your world.
|
|
|
Post by glen on Oct 14, 2020 17:43:48 GMT -6
Ok, I found this recipe for making basic chili relish. I make fresh chili relish just like this actually but this website does a much better job of explaining how to do it. www.chilipeppermadness.com/chili-pepper-recipes/sauces/hot-pepper-relish/Now, what I plan to do with the fermented chili peppers is make a chili relish. The above recipe does not call for fermented chili's. So, I am taking the recipe one step further. I have never tried doing this. However, the fermented chili's smell very good and mellow and peppery. It should be very good. George, I highly recommend that you use this recipe with the Chili Rayado peppers.
|
|