As some of you know, I am a chilli and hot sauce nutter. So are my kids, and interestingly my dog loves Tabasco. Also, as many of you know too, I am a nerd and have been studying the microbiome a lot recently and found it is very important for overall health to care for our good bacteria. See here for my thread on this topic.
So I have been experimenting with fermenting foods and water kefir, to have cost-effective live probiotics regularly.
Fermented hot sauce is very nice. Tabasco ferment their chillis for years before blending with vinegar and salt as one example. The lactic acid created by the good bacteria preserves it and gives it a nice zingy flavour.
It’s very easy, so I thought I’d share what to do…
For this sauce, I used 50% scotch bonnet chillis, 50% red jalapeño peppers and two cloves of garlic.
All you need to do is roughly chop them up, shove them in a clean jar and cover with brine. I used a 2.5% brine. Try to ensure the brine totally covers the chillis to minimise a harmless growth of mould (like a cheese rind). I used the plastic gadget from a jar of Peppadew peppers and a small plastic measuring spoon (the blue thing seen in the jar) to keep my chillis submerged in the brine.
It’s important to use filtered, or boiled and cooled water to make the brine to ensure it is chlorine free.
To work out how much salt to use for the brine, multiply the amount of water in g or ml (which is the same) by 0.025. So 300ml of filtered water needs 7.5g of salt.
Once it’s all in the jar, all you need to do is leave it in a dark place at room temperature for at least 2 weeks. Bubbling is visible after a few days. Occasionally open the jar to release CO2 pressure.
I left this one 3 weeks.
Then all that’s needed is to spoon off any mould/ rind that’s formed (again, it’s harmless) and blend it up. I added a teaspoon of sugar to feed the probiotic bacteria to ensure a high amount continues to grow.
Transfer back to the jar after cleaning it, and either leave to ferment a bit longer depending on taste, or put in the fridge to slow fermentation. It lasts a couple of weeks or so.
I also mixed some of the sauce with some honey apple cider vinegar for my kids, although my daughter prefers the hotter straight sauce.
So there you have it. Probiotic hot sauce that tastes lovely, full of live beneficial bacteria, primarily in the Lactobacillus groups but with various others.
EDIT-
I should point out the beneficial bacteria are already present on the chillis and in the environment. No starter cultures are needed. The salt contained in the brine prevents harmful microbes growing.
This technique can be used to ferment all sorts of vegetables, giving them a pickled flavour.
So I have been experimenting with fermenting foods and water kefir, to have cost-effective live probiotics regularly.
Fermented hot sauce is very nice. Tabasco ferment their chillis for years before blending with vinegar and salt as one example. The lactic acid created by the good bacteria preserves it and gives it a nice zingy flavour.
It’s very easy, so I thought I’d share what to do…
For this sauce, I used 50% scotch bonnet chillis, 50% red jalapeño peppers and two cloves of garlic.
All you need to do is roughly chop them up, shove them in a clean jar and cover with brine. I used a 2.5% brine. Try to ensure the brine totally covers the chillis to minimise a harmless growth of mould (like a cheese rind). I used the plastic gadget from a jar of Peppadew peppers and a small plastic measuring spoon (the blue thing seen in the jar) to keep my chillis submerged in the brine.
It’s important to use filtered, or boiled and cooled water to make the brine to ensure it is chlorine free.
To work out how much salt to use for the brine, multiply the amount of water in g or ml (which is the same) by 0.025. So 300ml of filtered water needs 7.5g of salt.
Once it’s all in the jar, all you need to do is leave it in a dark place at room temperature for at least 2 weeks. Bubbling is visible after a few days. Occasionally open the jar to release CO2 pressure.
I left this one 3 weeks.
Then all that’s needed is to spoon off any mould/ rind that’s formed (again, it’s harmless) and blend it up. I added a teaspoon of sugar to feed the probiotic bacteria to ensure a high amount continues to grow.
Transfer back to the jar after cleaning it, and either leave to ferment a bit longer depending on taste, or put in the fridge to slow fermentation. It lasts a couple of weeks or so.
I also mixed some of the sauce with some honey apple cider vinegar for my kids, although my daughter prefers the hotter straight sauce.
So there you have it. Probiotic hot sauce that tastes lovely, full of live beneficial bacteria, primarily in the Lactobacillus groups but with various others.
EDIT-
I should point out the beneficial bacteria are already present on the chillis and in the environment. No starter cultures are needed. The salt contained in the brine prevents harmful microbes growing.
This technique can be used to ferment all sorts of vegetables, giving them a pickled flavour.
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