Making Hot Sauce.

After the Thai peppers ripened, and there were still some Cayennes, I made a small batch of Tabasco-like sauce. This was the same as the other, except I left out the garlic. I let it ferment for a little over two weeks. Lots of bubbles, and some overflow into the bowl I had this sitting in.



Then blended in food processor. This time I REALLY blended, almost a puree.



Then transfer to sieve in a bowl, and use a spoon and spatula to squeeze out all of the juice.


There was more seeds + pulp left over than juice. We'll see if that can be put to work somehow too.

Then I used a turkey baster to transfer the juice into some hot sauce bottles. There was one full bottle plus a little extra.



That's all. I'll store in the fridge, because I don't know how well it keeps. Name brand Tabasco sauce is just vinegar, peppers, and salt. This sauce is fermented in a brine, so should be similar but I'm not certain. This is brighter red than store bought sauce, but may change with age.

Now to test it.



Quite good, I think. A bit hotter than name brand Tabasco, good flavor. Definitely worth growing more peppers for next year.

 

This is very cool Daniel. When I read Turkey Baster my eye brows raised....then I saw the bottle you were putting them into. Clever

My oldest daughter would be most pleased to see a picture of someone putting hot sauce on an egg other than herself.

Your label says a lot...."Dragon Hot Sauce". Is that the variety of pepper, or the heat that made the label?

 

@Melody Mc. most of the peppers were the variety "Thai Dragon". It seems appropriate - very hot!

When I enlisted in the Army in 1974, they sent me to Ft. Polk Louisiana for boot camp. There the custom was to put hot sauce onto eggs - and just about anything else. I've been doing that ever since then.

For some reason, a couple of the images uploaded sideways. but I think they get the point across.

 

Here is this year's hot sauce. Yay, the hot sauce is here!



I filtered it through a sieve. The liquid gets used like Tabasco sauce. The pulp gets used in cooking. This is the main reason I grow hot peppers.

 

That’s a lovely line-up, Daniel.
will this last a year, or longer?

 

That looks great Daniel and yes how long will it last?

 

@Sjoerd and @Logan I think this will bea year supply of hot sauce.

 

Oh, that’s great. It does look so good all bottled-up and ready for consumption, doesn’t it.

 

That's great Daniel, it looks very good.

 

I showed these to Hubby and he now has me boarding the hot sauce bus! I will be looking for GPS pepper directions this summer from you

 

@Daniel W Do you lactoferment the chillis first?

 

Yes. I ferment them for a week in a brine. I start it with a little raw sauerkraut juice.

 

Very nice Daniel

 

@Daniel W That is how I like to do it too

 

I just took in the last of the peppers. We freeze this coming wednesday. I am going boil them and then ferment them. The same as tomato sauce basically except the fermenting. I actually wonder could one ferment the sauce after it is deseeded. The boiling sort of plumps them and softenes them and there is a certain body in the sauce that comes with that and I enjoy it. The boiling rounds the flavors a bit as does fermentation so I wonder about doing both.