Nateo
Well-Known Member
My neighbor got a good deal on a bushel of peppers, and gave me half of it. I'm pretty sure they're cayenne, or something that looks like cayenne. I'm not really sure what to do with all of them. Any ideas?
What to do with a box of cayenne peppers?
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cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
Got a dehydrator?
Fresh cayenne powder or crushed red flakes are SO much better than storebought.
Sauce is another idea, puree with garlic and vinegar and salt. Can or refridgerate.
Fresh cayenne powder or crushed red flakes are SO much better than storebought.
Sauce is another idea, puree with garlic and vinegar and salt. Can or refridgerate.
milldoggy
Well-Known Member
I like to pickle. I usually do 1 cup white vinager, 1 cup rice vinager, 1 cup apple vinager, 2 -4 cups water, some salt, not much, 1-2 cups sugar. boil and taste, add more sugar or salt if you want, maybe other spices. When sweet and vinagery, add peppers, turn off boil, then hot pack jars.
let sit for 4 weeks, more the better. Enojy
let sit for 4 weeks, more the better. Enojy
ultravista
Well-Known Member
Did you know Tabasco hot sauce is fermented?
The Original McIlhenny method
The McIlhenny Company, makers of the original Tabasco ® Sauce, still use the same methods perfected on Avery Island in Louisiana a hundred years ago.
They pick fresh, ripe Tabasco peppers grown on the island, grind them up and cover with salt to make a pepper mash. The salted mash goes directly into oak barrels. The mash is packed down and the top is sealed with oak planks into which holes have been drilled.
The barrels are topped with a thick layer of salt and allowed to ferment. The salt layer serves as a permeable barrier that allows gases to escape but allows no bacteria, fruit flies, etc. access to the mash. McIlhenny allows them to age three years in these oak barrels.
After aging, the mash is pulled, checked for quality and, if OK, it is blended with white wine vinegar (they don't say how much) and aged some weeks more ('nother secret!). Finally, the product is pulled, strained and the liquid bottled.
http://www.google.com/search?q=fermenting+hot+sauce
The Original McIlhenny method
The McIlhenny Company, makers of the original Tabasco ® Sauce, still use the same methods perfected on Avery Island in Louisiana a hundred years ago.
They pick fresh, ripe Tabasco peppers grown on the island, grind them up and cover with salt to make a pepper mash. The salted mash goes directly into oak barrels. The mash is packed down and the top is sealed with oak planks into which holes have been drilled.
The barrels are topped with a thick layer of salt and allowed to ferment. The salt layer serves as a permeable barrier that allows gases to escape but allows no bacteria, fruit flies, etc. access to the mash. McIlhenny allows them to age three years in these oak barrels.
After aging, the mash is pulled, checked for quality and, if OK, it is blended with white wine vinegar (they don't say how much) and aged some weeks more ('nother secret!). Finally, the product is pulled, strained and the liquid bottled.
http://www.google.com/search?q=fermenting+hot+sauce
cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
Awesome post my friend!
dataz722
Well-Known Member
Check out www.thehotpepper.com for a lot of info about fermenting the mash.
frailn
Well-Known Member
+1 to fermenting peppers. I just started my first batch this past weekend! I added some whey from a batch of kefir to a mixture of cayenne, anaheim and jalapeno peppers with some garlic cloves and salt. Can't wait to see how this turns out.
So, home brewing is getting me into fermenting peppers, milk, tea (kombucha) and soon sauerkraut. Is there anything you can't ferment?
So, home brewing is getting me into fermenting peppers, milk, tea (kombucha) and soon sauerkraut. Is there anything you can't ferment?
cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
Why not beer yeast?
dataz722
Well-Known Member
It ins't yeast that ferments it but actually lacto and other bugs. You could probably use sour beer culture though.
cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
How do you safely get lacto?
dataz722
Well-Known Member
You could let it wild ferment or some people use a little bit of sauerkraut juice or a bunch of other things too.
cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
COOL!
Prost DAMMIT.
Prost DAMMIT.
OP
OP
Nateo
Well-Known Member
I like the fermented idea. Has anyone tried using grain to start the lacto culture? I usually have some kimchi, sauerkraut, and yogurt around too, but I'm not sure if they're pasteurized or not. I'm sure one of them isn't.
dwarven_stout
Well-Known Member
Lacto grows naturally on darn near everything. I would bet that you wouldn't even need a "starter", but if you're worried about it just throw in a handful of chopped up cabbage. I wouldn't do grain, myself, because there are other, less appetizing bugs growing on there as well.
ultravista
Well-Known Member
What is the proper salt ratio to prevent bad bacteria? I grow my own peppers, many are wild varieties and would like to ferment a batch of sauce.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
I know exactly what to do with em, and in fact I grow about 50 assorted hot peppers every year for this very purpose. Make hot sauce! It will be better then any hot sauce you could ever buy in the store. You basically just blend the peppers in a food processor with salt, and let them age in a 3 gallon pickle jar for a week, then you add vinegar and let them age for a month. Then you blend the mixture again and can it in half pint jars. There's probably lots of recipes for it on the net. I promise you it'll rock your world
I plan on making kraut and using some of the liquid as a starter for this year's hot sauce batch, but so long as you don't cook it, there are likely to be natural bugs that would ferment on its own. Just a matter of speeding the process up by adding an active culture or not, IMO.
ultravista
Well-Known Member
bottlebomber - what is the correct salt to mash ratio?
jgln
Well-Known Member
Fermenting is fine but too much work, too much time and takes too much space for me. I just cut up the peppers, add some vinegar and salt and cook down for a few hours until mush. I then blend with a hand mixer then remove skin and seeds with ladle and large strainer (trick to it, only takes minutes), add more vinegar and salt to taste then bring to boil and then jar. To us tastes every bit as good as fermented (maybe better) but much easier IMO. It is more like a wing sauce for us. Been doing it this way forever. I grow about 80-100 hot pepper plants every year just for this purpose.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
ultravista said:
I weigh the peppers before I start and add 3 tablespoons of pickling salt for each pound of peppers
jgln
Well-Known Member
I grow jalepeno peppers for sauce too (when red) but I also like to have green ones for burgers and tacos but they don't last very long, a few weeks or so. I have pickled them but they lose some of the crisp in the processing so I tried cutting them up, adding them to canning jar and add some salt, some water and some vinegar and then seal and shake up and put in the refrigerator, no heat no boiling. They keep very well this way for a long time and have the same crispness as the day I cut them up.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
Fridge pickles rock. You can pickle just about anything and it tastes amazing. I like to do what you said, but I also put in fresh farmers market carrot slices and a little onion and garlic
jgln
Well-Known Member
I add some vinegar and salt to the water just to keep the water fresh, deter mold and make the peppers last as long as possible ( had had crisp peppers in winter this way) but I bet they would keep a long time just in water too. I wonder how long? I think I will try a jar with just water to see. Idea was to keep peppers fresh but not to really pickle.
****I must admit, I do not know how safe this method (just water) would be. Not sure if Botulism would grow in plain water conditions at those temps. I better check.**************
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
jgln said:
I was referring to using salt and vinegar as well... to do what your saying, I think you might definitely want to blanch the peppers for a few seconds, and make sure the water has been boiled
Now that we're onto pickling, my understanding is that using vinegar (pH 2.4) to keep the final solution safely below pH 4.6 and you avoid risk of botulism. This is really the key to be safe.
So, for peppers, I usually pack all the raw peppers, garlic, herbs into the jars and then boil some vinegar and salt and then fill the jars and pressure can for 5 min at 15 psi. The shorter processing time (and I try to cool them relatively quickly) keeps the peppers from going mushy and suffices to seal the jars... the vinegar does the job of the preservation. I try to keep the time at which the peppers are hot as short as possible.
So, for peppers, I usually pack all the raw peppers, garlic, herbs into the jars and then boil some vinegar and salt and then fill the jars and pressure can for 5 min at 15 psi. The shorter processing time (and I try to cool them relatively quickly) keeps the peppers from going mushy and suffices to seal the jars... the vinegar does the job of the preservation. I try to keep the time at which the peppers are hot as short as possible.
jgln
Well-Known Member
Yep, just what I do to preserve them for storage at room temps. But I think if you refrigerate you can get away without the cooking? Less acid? Less salt? I am happy to get feeback from anyone on this.
My understanding is that the canning isn't entirely required as long as enough salt and vinegar are used to ensure pH is low enough and salinity is high enough. I just take the conservative route of canning for longer term cellar storage and reduce any potential risk of contamination/spoilage. Better safe than sorry (although I am sure I am over-doing it)
OP
OP
Nateo
Well-Known Member
Local health department told me pH of 4.0 is considered "shelf stable." Not sure if that varies by who you talk to.
The idea behind using salt is that the kind of lacto that ferments sauerkraut or kimchi is salt-water tolerant, whereas other bugs/molds aren't. So the salt is just to kill (most) everything but the lacto, and the lacto is what lowers the pH into the proper range.
Lacto is inhibited in an over 10% salt solution. IIRC 1tbsp salt/cup H2O will give you about a 5% solution.
One reason not to can would be because it kills the beneficial bacteria, just like how certain yogurts aren't pasteurized. But for long-term storage I'd say canning is the way to go. Water bath canning is fine if the pH is low enough, but a pressure canner is the ultra-safe way.
The idea behind using salt is that the kind of lacto that ferments sauerkraut or kimchi is salt-water tolerant, whereas other bugs/molds aren't. So the salt is just to kill (most) everything but the lacto, and the lacto is what lowers the pH into the proper range.
Lacto is inhibited in an over 10% salt solution. IIRC 1tbsp salt/cup H2O will give you about a 5% solution.
One reason not to can would be because it kills the beneficial bacteria, just like how certain yogurts aren't pasteurized. But for long-term storage I'd say canning is the way to go. Water bath canning is fine if the pH is low enough, but a pressure canner is the ultra-safe way.
