Getting this year’s batch started, will check in in about three or four weeks.

Deets??

Half jalapeños in a 3% salt for pickled pepper poppers and a mix of habanero, scotch bonnets, ghost and carolina reapers for the hot sauce. Same salt ratio.

You might want to look into Puerto Rican Pique.

so what do u do? add salt. soak. then eat?

doesn't it go bad? do u need vinegar?

I blended a 7 day ferment in 2.5% brine of sweet red, habanero, red onion and garlic (the peppers were from our garden) with the juice of one lime today and then strained and bottled it, and it is excellent. I've done longer ferments in the past but I think I prefer them greener. The hab/scotch bonnet/ghost/reaper sauce sounds like its gonna be hot as hell. Scotch bonnets are my favorite peppers to work with, and while no-one round bout these parts sells starts, I successfully got peppers from seed this year for the first time so I think I'll try to grow a batch next season. I'm also drying the lees -- they go great on pizza.

It’s a lacto-fermentation.

Basically the 3% salt keeps the nasty bacteria away until the lacto guys bring the ph down to about 4ish and you create your own vinegar in a similar process to making sourdough.

I grind the solids after drying them and use it mostly in barbecue rubs but wherever it need a funky/spicy seasoning.

For those of us not well versed in fermentation, can you explain the syringey things (technical term) at the top of the jars?

I believe its an airlock. As the contents ferments, gasses build up. The airlock allows excess gasses out, but doesnt allow anything in

Exactly.

A one way valve that lets the carbon dioxide byproduct of the fermentation push the oxygen out.

those are airlocks. They let gas out but not in. Lactic acid fermentation happens more readily in the absence of oxygen. You can have lactic acid fermentation without this setup, but it's much easier to control the end product with the airlock setup.

If oxygen is present you're more likely to get other types of bacteria/fungus doing metabolic stuff and screwing up the process by making things taste horrible (or worse...)

Ooh I used to have a Carolina reaper bush! I made a fermented hot sauce and also dried reaper flakes:

ingredients

Getting started

A few weeks later

plant

flakes

edit: I think the raw ingredients picture was from a different batch than the fermenting bottles there, sorry

Do you add anything but peppers? I'm wondering what else you might use. I imagine peppers + fermentation is plenty flavorful on its own though

Sorry… are those dentures in the last jar?

(Joking! Joking!… though kinda does look that way.)

What’s the added stuff besides the amazing peppers?

Ziplock bags with water to keep the peppers under the brine.

You can add basically whatever veggies you want but I’m keeping it simple this year.

Using the lees is interesting, and I've never thought about it. You ever keep your fermentation liquid to use as a condiment? Obviously, I use some to blend in with the peppers to make hot sauce, but usually I end up with extra, and there's plenty of flavor in it.

It's basically the same as Hawaiian chili pepper water or Puerto Rican pique.

Do you just dry and grind for the flakes?

I baked them in the oven until they looked dry and then ran them through a food processor, but they were still too sticky to use the way I was expecting. It needs something else... maybe just added corn starch or an actual food dehydrator, but I didn't figure it out before moving to a place with no garden. Also, it made the kitchen uninhabitable for normies while it was cooking.

It looks like you have a lot of water. I've done this a few times, and I used just enough water to cover the peppers. It should be fine, but it may end up less potent (or you may end up pouring a lot of the brine off).

I hope you enjoy it! This has made the best hot sauce I've had. I always throw in some carrots, onions, and other things to ferment with them, and it makes a great flavor.

Sort of. It's more complex than that, but yeah. You basically add your peppers (and everything else), add water + salt, seal, and wait. There's yeast all over the peppers that will start digesting the sugars and break things down. You then just blend it all up when fermentation is done and you've got some of the best hot sauce you can get.

so you coat the peppers in yeast?

No. There's already yeast on just about everything in the environment. You don't add any.

What’s with the syringes on top are you giving them a drip feed of some super secret syrum?? Woah is the word syrum related to syringe? BRB googling stuff

Edit: Nvm I just spelled it wrong