Do you know how to make a hot sauce that goes bad and last long?
I've always been a Tabasco man.I like a lot of hot sauces, but for me the alpha and Omega of pepper sauce is Tabasco.I didn't know it was a hot sauce.
Sauces like Tabasco are more refined and mellow because of the slow fermentation.I didn't know what it was until I traveled to Louisiana and met the McIlhenny family face to face.
I was surprised to learn that the recipe for Tabasco is not a secret.They will tell anyone what it is if they ask.There is a lot of time.The time was Winemaker-style.Tony Simmons was the company's CEO.
The Tabasco chiles are chopped up, mixed with salt mined right from the island itself, and poured into old oak barrels to ferment in a barn for up to five years.Three years.
They mix the mash with distilled vinegar and let it ferment for a month.They strain out the seeds and bottle the sauce.
I was interested in this.Are you aged in oak?For three years?Damn.The gauntlet was thrown.I will pick it up.
Why would I want to replicate it?I can buy the stuff at the supermarket even if I succeeded.I would use the method to make my own hot sauce.There are two sauces, one red and one green.
I grew a lot of chiles that year, so I used a variety of them.I know doing this makes this sauce unrepeatable, but so be it.Since hot sauce keeps almost as long as wine, it would be fun to play with annual vintages.
I used 2 1/2 percent salt in my food processor to protect the chiles from badbacteria but not enough to prevent them from being eaten by good bugs.
They all went into quart jars.The smell was like a cross between Mace and a loaf of bread.It's not that unpleasant.I let the mash breathe.I put the jars in the fridge because it is a cool 55F.I grabbed some oak cubes from the winery and threw them in.An instant oak barrel!
I forgot about my hot sauce.For two years.That is not completely true.A film of mold would grow on the surface three times when I checked on them every few months.I called it good after picking it up.chiles and salt are inhospitable ingredients to any truly bad wee beasties.
I decided to make my own sauce.If such a thing can exist, I stared at that smooth and mellow mash.I could not discard it.I added xanthan gum to make it stable.
The hot sauce is lovely.Tangy from the fermentation, hot but not overwhelming (a result of the mix of chiles I used), and a bit salty.It is not Tabasco.It is something different.Something better?Allow the thought to come to you.
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Hi to you all, thanks Hank!Does anyone know if the green pepper sauce is yeasty or if I can get closer to it with the Hanks quick hot sauce recipe?
Liz said that the green pepper sauce is fermentable.They hid the Army green color by putting it in green glass.
I have gathered my gear and ingredients and am ready to start.Do I wash my peppers?Do I leave them dirty?
Either way, Al.I don't use sprays of any kind and they never touch dirt, so I rarely do.It can not hurt.
I cold smoked my peppers, as much heat as possible without drying them, then ran the food processor with just a bit of water to make a paste.I put quart jars with kosher salt and a spoon of liquid from fresh sauerkraut in them.The lid is barely finger tight.I stir once a week for a month and once every 4 months.For at least a year, this sits on my counter in the center of the kitchen.I have two batches running at 2.5 and 1.5 years.When I am ready to make sauce, I use about half a cup of mash to a good vinegar ratio, 1/3 cup, adding in a heaping portion of crushed garlic and a dash of kosher salt to taste.
I'm getting ready to bottle the crop of Ghost, Carolina Reap, and Habanaro.Should I cook the pepper/oak/vin mix or add X gum at room temp for proper blend?
If you cook a ferment sauce, it will kill all the beneficialbacteria that make it so good tasting, long lasting, and shelf stable.If you blend in a Vitamix, make sure it doesn't heat up too much by using ice and cold water.Adding xylan gum slowly will keep the sauce from separating.
I wonder a percentage when I see it.Does 2.5% salt mean 2.5% liquid?If you have 10 ounces of liquid, how much salt will be added?I don't understand the percentage ingredient...Percentage of what?
I have been making sauerkraut, szechuan pickle, piccalilli, and hot sauce from vegetables for over 30 years.There are a few pointers here.
It is not true that raising the salt content will limit the growth of yeast.The limit is high.It will take place with a high salt content.I think the limit is to match the recipe.Salt contents for such products can be as high as 5%.4% sea salt is what I use for hot sauce.It's better to have mined rock salt.The white film that grows on the surface is yeast.They are opportunist yeasts that can be found on the surface of many vegetable fermentations.CO2 is heavier than air and when the fermentation is active, it creates a blanket over the vegetables.If the CO2 volume is enough, the container will be opened and replaced quickly.Once yeast is seen forming, the fermentation has slowed to the point that very little CO2 is being created but the yeast growth has been there for 2 or 3 days already.The idea is to keep the air out of the vegetables.There are many techniques that work.
The wide jar has a tight fitting lid.Only 1/2 way is how to fill the jar.After filling the jar, place it in one direction only, rotating it four times a day.A complete rotation is done about 3 times.The process is similar to a washing machine.The back side of the rotation will spill over the foreside.The original top contents will be well under in 3 or 4 rotation.This will kill any yeasts that have started to colonize the surface.The fermentor's lid will dome a little when it is very active.There is virtually no danger of a sealed container bursting but if you feel the dome is too great, just open the lid and burp the contents occasionally but be careful towards the declining side of the fermentation to not release important volumes of CO.The technique keeps the yeasts down.With care, it is possible to keep them down to nothing.
An airlock is a technique.There are specialized jars for szechuan pickle that have a moat around the lid and an overhanging lid that allows CO2 out and no air in.One can make a jar with the type of lock used for wine.
Stirring.The protective layer of CO2 is released when you stir the contents well daily.In order to suppress yeast growth, stirring must be regularly and rigorous.
Skimming.Skimming is the least effective method of preventing spoilage because by the time you see the yeast bloom, it has already been there for a while.Off flavours can be caused by yeasts.You have to dig a lot deeper in order to get to the lower levels of yeast growth.It could be argued that due to the fact that no fancy yeast controls were available in the past, why are they necessary?It could be argued that yeasts impart a certain amount of flavour to many fermentable foods.The flavours of yeast can be seen in fresh and aged Kim Chi.Many Korean children will attest to the undesirability of having to eat yeast Kim Chi soup in the summer, 8 months after the delicious fresh stuff warmed their tummies on a cold fall day.
It's hard to ignore the fact that vegetable ferments cause spoilage.Oxygen and CO2 need to be kept down.
The air space should be limited as much as possible.In practice, even a small amount of head space will provide enough oxygen for the yeasts to thrive on.The key is not the space it can take up, but the exclusion of air.A weak fermentation can fill a small head space better with CO2 than a strong one.
Keeping the vegetables submerged under the developing brine with a weighted plate or wooden lid is a good technique and makes skimming surface yeasts on the brine really easy, while also removing the worry about head space.Once yeast is detected, the fermentation has slowed to a trickle, which is one other piece of advice.Sometimes 6 is enough to put the integrity of the product at risk.I use the suns energy as much as possible and when it isn't enough, I cozy up to some artificial heat source.After about a week, I cool things down.By that time, almost nothing is left to ferment.In the case of hot sauce, I keep the system going for another week, by which time it might as well receive it's vinegar dose.The lactic ferment component will continue to finish in concert with the vinegar as it ages.There is a need for diligence when it comes to yeast contamination.
I have been fermenting for a long time, and the info you have given is wonderful.I hope others follow your advice.If your product is heated, boiled, or canned, it will not ferment since all thebacteria are dead.One can't ferment without these beasts.!
I did the same thing a few years ago, but this year I added it.I used my speed pot to can the mason jar.It was up to the perfect temperature.I will come back in a few months to let you know how it is going.
Head space!That is my problem!Transfering mash to a smaller jar.You should be posted in a couple of months.Thanks!
Hey there!I've been spending a lot of time on this recipe.This is my first batches.The white mold forms after a week.This shouldn't be a problem if you say you skim.Adding more salt was something I was thinking about.Is it possible that the jar would be free of evil?Getting ready for a long winter while waiting for oak chips to arrive.
Darrell: The best way to mold is to not have a lot of head space in your jar.I only skim once a month or thereabouts.You won't get proper fermentation if you go higher than 3% salt.
There are 17 jalapenos.There are 35 Thai chilis.Not seeding 1 red bell pepper, 1/2 yellow onion, 4% saline solution and four weeks ferment.
That is hot.A food processor is used to process food.Process with a blender.2 tbs of cider, salt, sugar, and garlic powder.It's hot to strain hot.And good.
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Hank Shaw is my name.I am a James Beard Award-winning author and chef who focuses on wild foods: Foraging, fishing, hunting.I also do a show on the website and write cookbooks.If it is wild game, fish, or mushrooms, you will find it here.Hope you enjoy the site!