Fermented Hot Sauces

L Ross

Well-Known Member
This is Sue's basic recipe for pickled vegetables. When used with hard boiled eggs simply refrigerate the jar. They keep just fine for months if they last that long. She always adds the jalapeno rings for me. All of the below veggies are good. The green beans and eggs are absolute favorites.



Pickled Brussels Sprouts

2 cups water
2 cups white vinegar
1/4 cup canning salt
1/4 cup sugar
8 drops hot sauce

Boil together.

Put dill in bottom of jar, fill with Brussels sprouts. Put more dill on top along with several garlic cloves. Pour boiled ingredients over veggies. Seal and water bath for 15 minutes. If you like it hotter add a few rings of jalapeño pepper.


I’ve used this recipe with Brussels sprouts, fiddlehead ferns, wild ramps, asparagus, green beans and hard boiled eggs. Don’t water bath the eggs - just put them in the fridge.
 
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hporter

Active Member
Thank you for sharing that. Sounds great. And the pickled eggs with Cholula looks mighty tasty to me.
 
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Ian

Notorious member
Boiled eggs with Pick'a'peppa sauce is good too, bet it would go well with pickled eggs too.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
One of the most unique and interesting pickled egg recipes I ever tasted was during my Rev War re-enacting period!
They were called "18th Century black eggs" ! Not really sure if this was a true 18th Century recipe but the lady that made them claimed it was It was made with a mix of 2/3 Balsamic vinegar a 1/3 red wine vinegar ......The darn things were black to the core of the yolk!
It tasted like it had the usual pickle egg spices but the balsamic vinegar was what really made the taste.
I never made the recipe myself because Balsamic Vinegar is pricey around here....but when I used to visit the unit that she was with, at an event, I made sure to knock back about a half dozen! Heck, they were free!
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
One of the most unique and interesting pickled egg recipes I ever tasted was during my Rev War re-enacting period!
They were called "18th Century black eggs" ! Not really sure if this was a true 18th Century recipe but the lady that made them claimed it was It was made with a mix of 2/3 Balsamic vinegar a 1/3 red wine vinegar ......The darn things were black to the core of the yolk!
It tasted like it had the usual pickle egg spices but the balsamic vinegar was what really made the taste.
I never made the recipe myself because Balsamic Vinegar is pricey around here....but when I used to visit the unit that she was with, at an event, I made sure to knock back about a half dozen! Heck, they were free!
Love Balsamic vinegar and price be damned. We get the 25 year old stuff that is getting syrupy.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
I totally over estimated the yields on the Scotch bonnets I grew for my Restaurant friends! They probably only need 1/3 of my yield They are starting to ripen quickly.
Have any of you played with doing things with them? I'm actually afraid to taste them....they are way out of my Scoville Scale limit.

I spent the morning Pickling a lot of my "Sinahuisa" Peppers. I'm really happy with the flavor of these.....similar to Serrano but many times more flavor! I pickeled so a few weeks ago and they are so tasty on a sandwich I did a whole bunch, Green as well a Red ( hotter)
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I love scotch bonnets, probably the best hot sauce I have ever had.


I pickle eggs in sweet pickle juice, then toss the yolks [dogs] and eat just the whites.

if you wanna make an outstanding macaroni [or chicken or Tuna] salad.
use the sweet pickled eggs and some pickled onions [use a couple of TBS of the same sweet pickle juice mixed in] OMG! good.
the onions also make the best onion rings, and is the bomb in 4 pickle tartar sauce.
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Here's an up date on the "hot peppers" I bought at a local Amish roadside vegetable stand. I charred them all on the gas grill and dropped them in a paper bag until cool enough to handle. I put on Nitrile gloves just in case. Good thing I did. I refrigerated the peeled peppers over night then split and seeded them the next day and dropped them in a food processor. I added red onion, garlic, dried cumin, then squeezed in lime juice, and some salt. I didn't have any cilantro or I woulda thrown some in. I buzzed the food processor until the ingredients looked like finely ground salsa, which is what I think I made?

These peppers were a heaping quart container of jalapenos, some yellow banana pepper looking thing, some smaller bright red and orange peppers that looked like small jalapenos. When I tasted the resulting salsa it was pretty darned hot for my taste. I didn't have any chips on hand so I tasted it off a spoon. My wife would had watched, (endured), my efforts walked up and asked me if I thought she could eat it. I said, "No, too hot." She took a match head size drop on the spoon, two seconds later she spit it into the sink and said, "Too hot for me."

Lately when I get street tacos from our local traveling Mexican food truck I ask for "hot sauce" when I order mine. The truck typically serves a small container of Pico de Gallo on the side with orders to the average Norwegian/Irish customers here in SW, WI. The server goes in back and brings me a small plastic cup with a reddish/greenish salsa about half filling it, smiles at me and says, "Hot, spicy!" I asked if it was made with Habaneros and he smiles and says, "No other hot peppers." Well whatever it is it tastes just like what I just made and is just about the same heat level. I have been dumping the left overs in a little 1/4 pint jar and saving it as I use about a 1/2 teaspoon on a taco.

Now I had about a pint and a quarter of this salsa and I wonder what I'm gonna do with it. I filled up the 1/4 pint jar for myself, gave a quarter pint jar to my remodeling contractor who expressed and interest and took the rest with me to my buddy's house Monday evening where I would be staying for a guided fishing trip. My buddy Jimmy is a notorious hot sauce eater, and he is nuts. I watched him turn grey and lose the ability to hear for close to 20 minutes when he tried Carolina Reaper chicken wings up at D' Spot in Minneapolis. He can gack down hot spicy sauces with a smile that would hospitalize me. Must be his Milwaukee Polish gringo heritage. So he has a bag of chips ready when I walked in the door. I dip a chip and eat it and I am about maxed out, my eye lids started to moisten immediately. Jimmy scoops up about a tablespoon on a big chip, scarfs it down and declares, Mmmmm, tangy!" I ate about 4 chips and salsa and had a Hamm's. Jimmy polished off about a fourth of the jar and I said he could keep it but Sue wants her blue Ball jar back.

Jimmy had an appointment in Milwaukee and while in the neighborhood stopped at his favorite old Mexican grocery store and brought me back a about two quarts of the most beautifully uniform red jalapenos I have ever seen. He handed them to me and said, "Here, take these home and smoke them and make some chipotle." So now I gotta figger out how to chipotilize these peppers and soon.
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Okay, fresh from 3 hours in the smoker over hickory because I have no pecan wood, and into the dehydrator.IMG_4100.jpg
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
L Ross what are the ones above
Smoked red ripe jalapenos? They are in the dehydrator now. I want dried chipotles to make chipotle chili powder and chipotles in adobo sauce. Then I'm gonna toast anchos, pasillas, and guajillos and grind them and blend up different chili powders. I put dried ground anchos on a fried egg this morning and though mild it was delicious.
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
IMG_4105.jpg Smoke the jalapenos to make Chipoltes, 3 hours. Seed then toast and grind a bunch of Anchos and a Guajillo Pepper into chili powder. That took at least another hour. Then 1/2 cup of chili powder into a blender with tomatoes, garlic, Mexican oregano, cinnamon, allspice, cumin, salt, vinegar, piloncillo, and boiling water. Simmer in a cast iron pan with avocado oil for 20 minutes after it comes to a boil. Pour over Chipotle peppers in jars. Save the left over Adobo sauce. Also have some nice fresh chili powders left over. Ancho and Chipotle. More important, now I know how to do it.
 
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JWFilips

Well-Known Member
This season I grew a very interesting pepper from the Brazilian Rain forest...it is from the genus Capsicum bacattum...first time I dabbled with that one! It is called "Rain Forest".... Anyway it looks similar to the Scotch Bonnets but as a much lower heat level, but it is a sprawling plant!
A week or so ago I decided to grind some up and may a simple and quick pepper sauce ( Peppers Vinegar and salt) After a few days in the refridge I tasted it and wow!...It was very good! I did not use the seeds and white skin innards so It came in at about 10,000 SU.

I have been using it in an aioli sauce, also in place of sriracha in sriracha mayo & also mixing it in hummus!

So this morning, since I have so many of them that are ripe , I decided to grind them up and do a Fermented sauce! I think their flavor warrants experimenting with a 8 week fermented sauce. Although all the peppers I grew this year were interesting, these I felt were strangely different in a good way!
When I was researching them on the net I found an interesting site that said these peppers may have saved the "Rain Forests"!
Apparently global demand for them is starting to increase and the rain forest is necessary for the massive production of them...so there is a switch from burning to growing
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
they have that same fruity undertone the scotch bonnets have but you definitely get to enjoy it before any heat tries ruining it.
after the dry and mixing them with some dehydrated raspberries [3 to1] they have become a quick favorite of mine, even the wife will tolerate the mix in a chili. [and she thinks red bell peppers are hot]
when it's sprinkled on top of biscuits and white sausage gravy I look forward to the next time we have them, even while I'm still eating the ones in front of me.
 

Nazgul

New Member
I do an 8 Pepper Hot Sauce. Jalapeños, habaneros, cubbanelles, Tabasco, cayenne, sweet pepper, Banana pepper and one other. Fermented, blended, cooked , strained and canned. the family loves it.

Don
 

david s

Well-Known Member
I'm originally from a place so far south it gets more southern the farther north you go. I also spent a couple of years of high school in Wisconsin. Any way pickled eggs were on the menu. There somewhat scarce in Montana but I've always liked them and have made more than a few but it's been a while. So when L ROSS posted his wife's Pickled Brussel Sprout recipe I tried it with boiled eggs. They turned out well. Then I began doing some exploration on the internet and found one I hope works out well. The recipe's called "Bloody Mary Pickled Eggs. I'm not much for tomatoed juice and about the only thing I ever cared for it in was Bloody Maries. In a week or so I should find out if they work or I failed.
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
I'm originally from a place so far south it gets more southern the farther north you go. I also spent a couple of years of high school in Wisconsin. Any way pickled eggs were on the menu. There somewhat scarce in Montana but I've always liked them and have made more than a few but it's been a while. So when L ROSS posted his wife's Pickled Brussel Sprout recipe I tried it with boiled eggs. They turned out well. Then I began doing some exploration on the internet and found one I hope works out well. The recipe's called "Bloody Mary Pickled Eggs. I'm not much for tomatoed juice and about the only thing I ever cared for it in was Bloody Maries. In a week or so I should find out if they work or I failed.
Yup yup, she uses the same recipe for eggs, green beans, fiddle heads, asparagus, etc. Her latest batch of eggs should be about ready. Yours look great. I'm gonna look up those Bloody Mary Eggs.
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Sorry, I didn't see your question until today.

I did indeed get a little mold at the top. Water settled out of the pepper mass and went to the bottom of the jar. I did not notice any bubbling nor any aroma of fermentation. So I am not sure what is going on with them. I may scrape the mold and a good measure of pepper mass out and then put a glass weight designed to fit that jar to submerge the peppers and keep them anaerobic. It will depend on the smell that comes out when I pop the top of the jar.

View attachment 22898

We have had dozens and dozens and dozens of habaneros ripen, so I stemmed a bunch, de-seeded them and put them in my food dehydrator until they were brittle dry. I then pulverized the peppers in a mortar and pestle until they were a fine dust. That powder is some kind of hot. I dip my fork in the powder in the morning, catching just a trace of it on the tines and sprinkle that on my eggs. Let me assure you, it will light you up.

View attachment 22899






View attachment 22900

And then the wife and I just took the over flow of peppers and put them in pure vinegar to pickle them. My wife just bit into one after I took this photo and she said they were quite hot. We both love habaneros, but this year we just had too many.

View attachment 22901

But now the tortuous hot season is upon Houston, and the peppers are not thriving. I usually build a screened sunshade frame over my garden this time of year, but I didn't have the desire to do it this year.

My wife's little Cajun Belle pepper plants are still doing OK, and are still flowering. That long red pepper plant that made the crushed red pepper flakes is in a portable fabric planter stuffed up next to the fence for shade. It has a few peppers on it and lots of blooms. So we will continue to have a few peppers each week to enjoy.
Hey Harold, what happened with the fermented pepper sauce? I'm looking at seed catalogs and planning for the next growing season.
 

hporter

Active Member
Well, some one must have yelled "Squirrel" and pointed over my shoulder, because I completely forgot about putting the weight in the jar.

I picked it up and opened it last night. as before, there was still a bunch of water at the bottom of the jar and a small amount of mold on the top. So I carefully scooped the mold out, washing the spoon between passes. Then I took about an inch more below the level of the mold, again washing the spoon in hot water and soap before putting it back in the jar.

The first thing I noted after removing the lid to the jar was the incredible aroma. It had a wonderful, intense fruity aroma. So last night before bed, I tasted a small amount on the tip of a teaspoon. It had a very intense and temporarily overpowering sense of heat, with a huge salt hit on the tongue. But for me, as with all hot things, I soon began to crave more. But I thought better of it, as I was about to go to bed.

For the most part, I wanted to report back this morning whether I got food poisoning or not. Ha ha. Seeing that mold on the top of the jar triggered a self preservation instinct to throw it out. But the wonderful smell made me want to try and preserve it.

So after getting rid of the mold, I dumped the rest of the jar out into a mesh sieve to get the water in the bottom out. I then put it into a clean jar and put it in the fridge and made a label to stick on the jar to remind me when I had started it.

Habanero Pepper Puree.JPG

As you can see, because of the mold and scooping out the top most contents, I have much less product now. But then again, the heat is so intense, I am not sure you would use much of it at a time. I am still not sure about how safe it is to eat, but I will monitor it from time to time as I use it on my food. Like most people who have had food poisoning, I will never forget the experience....

I think when I try this again, I will definitely put the glass weights on the top of the Habaneros from the start. So much water separated from this batch that it would have kept the peppers submerged safely in an anaerobic state. You would probably still get a little mold at the top, but that happens with a lot of fermenting projects anyway.

So far, our winter in Houston has been mild enough that my sole remaining pepper plant, a Serrano pepper, is still alive and has fruit on it. I am hoping we don't get another freeze like last year. In my experience, the peppers that survive winter and into the next season always produce the best crops.

And I also wanted to report that the whole Habanero's that we put in gallon freezer ziplocks and put in the freezer have been preserved wonderfully. My wife puts 4 or 5 in each batch of soup she makes each week. She just drops them in the soup pot whole and whirls them in the blender with the other ingredients. It is amazing to me how much larger our homegrown Habaneros are than what the local food stores have. They are tiny in comparison.