Fermented Hot Sauce

Habanero-garlic and Ghost pepper sauces

I love hot sauce. A few years back I discovered that I also like growing the peppers and making the sauce myself. My favorite method of making hot sauce is fermentation because it gives you a lot of variables to play with that can result in a wide array of heat and flavors.

In this post, I will provide a process that I recently used to make two different sauces and after that I will discuss some other variations that you can make for your own sauces.

At it's most simple, there are only 3 ingredients for a hot sauce: brine, peppers, and vinegar. The brine is a salted liquid that provides the proper anaerobic environment for fermentation to happen. Vinegar will stop the fermentation and preserve the sauce. Many hot sauce recipes use a simple water brine, but I like to use a sweet white wine for my brine. You may also include adjuncts in your fermentation to change the flavor. I more frequently use garlic or ginger but you can use vegetables and fruits as well.

Here are the steps for two hot sauces that I made recently:

1- Prep brine (1tablespoon salt to 1 cup liquid). Set this up ahead of time so that all of the salt dissolves.

2- Clean and prep peppers. Thoroughly wash the peppers. For a smoother sauce, I try to de-seed as much as possible, though it is okay if some go in. If I am using very spicy peppers such as ghost or scorpions, I will try to remove as much of the seeds and veins as possible. I want the heat, but I also don't want the heat to overtake the flavor.

3- Rough cut the peppers and any adjuncts. Everything is going to get blended together eventually, so your cuts don't have to be pretty. The main thing is to keep the slices even so that everything ferments equally.

4- Pack your fermentables into a non-reactive container. For ease of use, I just use mason jars. When I have made larger volumes in the past, I have also used larger fermentors and pitchers. Ideally, you just want something with a wide mouth that does not have a lot of head space. You can mush this stuff in a bit. Try to pack it in without a lot of voids in it.

Beginning of fermentation

5- Fill the container with brine so that your peppers are covered. Stuff can float, you can use weights if you have them.

6- Cover the mouth of the container with cheesecloth. This is why I like to use mason jars: they come in a variety of sizes and you can use the band without the lid to hold cheesecloth in place.

7- Wait it out. I generally let it go 4-6 weeks. You will notice that your fermentation will start smelling sweeter and you'll see it bubble a bit. This is sort of where the art comes into it. The peppers should be turning translucent and will start to look more broken-down. If you add garlic, it may start to turn blue or green.

8- Making the sauce:

Once you have decided your peppers are ready, uncover them and drain the liquid. Retain this for now, you may want to add it back in or keep it for future fermentation.

-Dump your peppers into a blender or food mill. If using a blender, you can start adding vinegar now.

End of fermentation: peppers are translucent

How much vinegar you add will depend on what kind you use and how spicy you want the sauce to be. I don't have a formula for this. You can get a sense of how strong the spice will be by smell once you begin to blend the peppers. **Note: do not stick your face over the blender when you take the top off, this is a good way to pepper spray yourself. You may also want to ventilate your kitchen if you live with people sensitive to spicy food.**

-Add vinegar until you achieve the level of spiciness you want.

9- Storage:

Pour the sauce off into glass or food-grade plastic containers with air-tight lids.

-Stored in the refrigerator, these are good for a year or more.

10- Variations:

These are the elements that you can change to vary the flavors:

Wine – adjust for sweetness in the brine and end flavor

peppers – blend peppers for flavor and spice level

vinegar – I like to use rice vinegar because it is slightly sweet and does not have a strong flavor on its own. In the past I have also used white balsamic vinegar for a clean, sweet flavor, and champagne vinegar. Fruit-infused vinegars are also good for desired flavor.

Adjuncts – these are anything beyond the brine and peppers that you use to add flavor. My favorites are garlic, ginger, and herbs. You can also add vegetables or fruit to the fermentation. You can add these at the start or further into the fermentation, depending on the item (fruits and herbs hold up better when added a few weeks into the fermentation because they will break down more than most vegetables).

-Use can use thickeners in your sauces as well. I don't mind if my sauces are a little on the watery side, but some folks prefer a thicker sauce. Do it if you want. I don't have instructions for that because I don't do it.