#batch 19

Superman daily comic strip from July 17–27, 1950.

Foiled once already, Lois and Clark learn of the Underground Army's second heist: a robbery at the Third National Bank. Part 3 of the Underground Army arc.

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2020/03/11/how-to-make-awesome-hot-sauce/

How to Make Awesome Hot Sauce

Making truly delicious hot pepper sauce is easy thanks to the magic of fermentation

TL/DR: Click here to skip to recipe

I love a good hot sauce.

Not that crazy “it’s so hot it has to be stored in a liquid nitrogen cylinder” stuff, but the spicy, complex kind that delivers a wave of interesting flavors as well as heat. For me, fermented hot sauces are the best at delivering that combination.

Fermented hot sauce, like yogurt, sourdough bread, Kosher pickles and other fermented foods, gets its unique flavor from a naturally occuring microorganism called lactobacillus. These little critters consume sugar and convert it to lactic acid which both helps preserve the food and creates unique flavors. Based on the type of pepper, the variety of lactobacillus in your surrounds, and the temperature and length of fermentation, you can make sauces that range anywhere in flavor from hot pineapple and vanilla to tangy curry and lemon grass.

Hidden Lake Hot, my pepper of choice.

Every year I make a batch of fermented hot sauce that takes nearly six months, but you can actually produce a pretty dang good batch in just a week. Even over a period that short, the fermentation process will convert the sugars in the peppers into new flavors and aromas you just don’t get with fresh sauces.

If you haven’t ever tried making your own, you definitely should. Here’s my basic and advanced recipes: 

Hot Sauce Recipes

QUICK NOTE ABOUT LACTO-FERMENTATION:

These are simple lacto-fermentation recipes using brine. Basically we want a brine salty enough to prevent bad bacteria from taking up residence, but not so salty it prevents the lactobacillus from fermenting the sugars in the peppers.

The proper proportion of salt to water is ½ tablespoon salt for every 1 cup water.

The water should be filtered, not tap, and salt should be iodine free to prevent off flavors or colors. Just remember to keep to those proportions you can scale to larger batches with no problem.

Basic Fermented Hot Sauce Easy, 15 minutes prep, 7 days ferment, makes about 1-½ pints of hot sauce

Ingredients

1 pint ripe hot peppers chopped or sliced (I like the cayenne varieties)

1 pint filtered room temperature water

1 tablespoon (non-iodized) salt

Instructions

Make the brine by mix the water and salt until the salt is dissolved

Place the hot peppers in an empty quart-sized jar

Add the brine to the jar and stir to remove air pockets

Cover the jar loosely and put in a cool place out of sunlight

Stir every so often to prevent white mold from forming on the surface (if it does appear, just scrape it off with a spoon)

In a few days the mixture should become cloudy and the pepper mixture should have a slightly sour aroma (this is the lacto doing its work).

On the 7th day of fermenting, pour your pepper mixture into a blender (or use a stick blender) and puree the mixture until smooth.

Transfer the sauce to clean bottles and cap.

The hot sauce is ready for use.

Because we haven’t stopped the fermentation by heating the sauce or adding a stabilizer like vinegar, this hot sauce will continue to ferment (though more slowly) in the bottle, gradually mellowing the sharp notes and changing the heat profile.

As long as you don’t open the bottle it should keep just fine at room temperature for several months. Once you do open the bottle, just keep it refrigerated.

Long Ferment Hot Sauce Easy, 3-6 months ferment, makes about 1 gallon of hot sauce

I make one batch of this hot sauce every year. I start it in mid-September and finish in mid-March which provides an extended period of fresh pepper additions followed by a long, slow fermentation period over the winter.

Because of the long fermentation, the heat profile on this moves it from an upfront peppery hit, to a lower, slower build with lots of spice, grass and vanilla flavors followed by a smooth, hot finish that really sets the sauce apart from others.

I use my favorite hot pepper (an accidental cayenne/thai cross from 20 years ago), picked fresh from the garden, but you can use whatever variety or varieties of hot peppers you like most.

Ingredients

Ripe hot peppers (you’re going to add about 4-6 ounces each week)

2 whole garlic cloves (peeled)

Filtered water

Non-iodized salt

2 seasoned hardwood staves (oak, hickory, maple, etc.), bark removed

1 cup white vinegar

Instructions

  Week 1: Place a handful (4-8 ounces) of whole peppers in a large, non-reactive container (I use a 1 gallon pickle jar). Add enough brine mixture (water and salt at the 1 cup to ½-tablespoon ratio) to cover your peppers. Cover the container loosely and place in a cool dark place.

Week 2: Scrape off any white mold that has formed on the surface and stir the mixture. Add a handful of fresh whole peppers and enough new brine to fully submerge the peppers. If the peppers float, use pickling weights (or a zipper baggy filled with water) to keep them submerged. Again, cover loosely and return the container to a cool dark place.

Week 3: Repeat the steps in week 2, but add two whole cloves of garlic as well.

Week 4: Repeat the steps in week 2. If it’s fermenting well, the mixture should be cloudy and yellowish.

Four weeks of fresh pepper additions has fermentation going well

Week 5-11: Repeat steps in week 2 for as long as you have fresh peppers to add. Cold weather usually kills mine off in late Autumn, so I can add fresh peppers until mid-December. If your season is shorter, just skip to the next step (week 12).

Week 12: Scrape any mold from the surface of the pepper mixture and stir thoroughly. Add your two hardwood staves to the mixture, making sure they’re fully submerged. Return to the cool, dark place.

Toasted oak ready to be added to the pepper mixture

Hot Pepper sauce with oak wood added and ready to return to aging.

Week 13-24: Now we’re just going to let the mixture continue to ferment and age. Each week take the mixture out, scrape off any mold and stir before returning to the cool, dark place.

Week 24: Let’s bottle!

Pour your pepper mixture into a large bowl or pot.

Fermented Peppers in the pot (click to watch)

Remove the hardwood staves from your pepper mixture and use blender to puree it into a semi-smooth sauce.

Using a stick blender to puree the peppers

Place a colander on a large, non-aluminum, pot and pour the pepper slurry through the colander to filter out the seeds, stems, and pepper pulp.

Straining the pepper pulp and seeds through a colander

Pepper pulp after straining through a colander

Add 1 cup of white vinegar to the pot of sauce and slowly heat and stir it until it begins to boil. Reduce the heat and allow the sauce to simmer for 10 minutes (we’re stabilizing the sauce so it stop fermenting).

Bringing the hot sauce to a boil

Pour your hot sauce into clean, hot jars and seal. (I like to use 5 ounce bottles you can get on Amazon pretty cheap.)

Allow the bottles of hot sauce to cool, then place them in a cool dark place to rest for a couple more days before enjoying.

Batch 19 of Sage’s Fermented Hot Sauce

Because this hot sauce has been stabilized, it will keep for months (possibly years) at room temperature even after the bottle has been opened—no need to refrigerate to prevent fermentation from starting again.

Enjoy!

From the beginning

Check out these posts for the progress on the hot pepper sauce beginning with its start back in September 2019.

September 2019

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 1

Projects

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 2

Projects

October 2019

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 3

Projects

November 2019

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 4

Projects

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 5

Projects

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 6

Projects

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 7

Projects

December 2019

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 8

Photos, Projects

Hot Pepper Sauce Batch 19 – Entry 9

Projects

End of the Line for Hot Peppers 2019

Photos

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 10

Projects

January 2020

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 11

Projects

12Next

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2020/01/14/hot-sauce-batch-19-entry-11/

Hot Sauce Batch 19 - entry 11

The hot sauce has been quietly fermenting in a cool, dark area of the garage for several weeks now. It was before Christmas when I added the toasted oak staves and the last of the fresh peppers from the garden, so the bright red color is giving way to a duller brick red/orange.

The peppers, which I added whole, are beginning to dissolve and fall apart, leaving a layer of pepper seeds at the bottom of the jar. A little white mold has accumulated at the top of the jar and there’s a musty, tangy scent telling me that fermentation is still happening although at a slower rate.

I scraped off as much of the mold as I could then gave the mixture a thorough stir with a slotted spoon. After that I re-covered the container and returned it to its corner in the garage to rest again. Another 8 – 10 weeks and it’ll be ready to puree and get bottled.

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2019/12/23/end-of-the-line-for-hot-peppers-2019/

End of the Line for Hot Peppers 2019

The summer ended with the rain in November. Then came the frost. Then came the rain again. These are officially the last peppers of Hidden Lake Hot Batch 19.

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2019/12/17/hot-pepper-sauce-batch-19-entry-9/

Hot Pepper Sauce Batch 19 - Entry 9

Rain and persistent cold weather have slowed the peppers to a crawl. There’s still a few left on the plants, but not enough to hold off on moving the hot sauce to its resting stage.

To enhance the flavor I add a couple of oak staves to the pepper brew and let it sit for another 8 – 12 weeks. American oak happens to be high in a compound called vanillin, which is why things that age in American oak barrels (like Bourbon) have subtle vanilla aromas and flavors. Toasting the oak helps make those flavors more pronounced, so I split and roasted my staves on the barbecue before adding them to the pepper mixture.

A dried oak branch with the bark removed and the wood split

Toasting the oak staves on the barbecue helps bring out the flavor

Toasted oak ready to be added to the pepper mixture

Oak submerged in the pepper brew

Hot Pepper sauce with oak wood added and ready to return to aging.

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2019/12/09/hot-sauce-batch-19-entry-8/

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 8

Here it is, week 12 since I started the peppers fermenting. I don’t know how it’s possible, but the Hidden Lake Hot peppers in the garden are still hanging in despite heavy and 40 degree temperature swings between night and day. I managed to pick about 2-3 ounces of fresh pepper for a new addition (along with 1/4 teaspoon of salt, but no additional water), and will probably get 2-3 ounces more based on the number of peppers and new flowers on the plants right now.

Hidden Lake hot peppers still flowering and producing fruit in December

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2019/11/26/hot-sauce-batch-19-entry-7/

Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 7

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2019/11/19/hot-sauce-batch-19-entry-6/

Hot Sauce Batch 19 - entry 6

It’s week seven of my hot sauce fermentation. I added another 4 ounces or so of fresh peppers, salt and more water and gave it a good stir. The fermentation is now giving off a tangy smell that’s both spicy and funky. I figure I’ll only have room for one more addition of fresh peppers before I add small amount of toasted oak and set it aside to age through the winter.

The liquid is getting a little murky from the garlic and fermenting peppers, but that’s not an issue since I’ll blend it all right before I bottle. Here’s what it looks like from the top:

Looking down into the jar of fermenting peppers on week 7

And for those of you who want to see the progression from week one to now, here’s a gallery:

First round of peppers in week 1

Second week of fermemntation with more peppers and a couple cloves of garlic

Week four and two addions of hot peppers (I forgot to take a week 3 photo)

Week five and another addition of peppers

Week six, added more peppers