hot-sauce-recipe.md

Equipment:

• LARGE MOUTH mason jars. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YNGK6XJ
  • You want large mouth just so that they fit the fermentation weights. You can get smaller jars if you want.
• Gas relief valves. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LWS63OF is what I have, but you can get whatever.
  • This is so that you don't have to baby sit the jars and 'burp' them daily (otherwise they'll explode).
• Fermentation weights. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076V66FZ4
  • These make like so much easier. They just sit on top of everything in the jar, preventing anything from floating to the top, which you want to do because if they are exposed to air they can get moldy and ruin your whole ferment.
• Hot sauce bottles. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ832R6B?th=1
  • Or anything you want to put the hot sauce in. These are the typical hot sauce bottles.
• pH tester. I just got cheap strips. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0811PYS6T
  • You want to make sure that but the end of the ferment the pH is under 3.9 for safety.
• Rubber gloves. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JGPVMBB
  • My hands burned for literally many days after my first batch. Lesson learned.

Ingredients

• You can use whatever you want. I like my hot sauce spicy and have mostly been disappointed with peppers milder than fresnos.
• It's nice to add something to make it sweet. People use blueberries, mango, peach, parsnips, carrots, etc. The first sauce I made used only carrots and parsnips for sweetness and it tasted great.
• Garlic and onions are always nice.
• I like to use a tiny bit of Xanthan Gum (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N8GTV8J) to thicken an stabilize the sauce when I filter out the pulp.
• I go for 2/3 to 3/4 spicy peppers.

Process:

1. Sanitize your mason jars and other equipment. I just throw them in a pot of boiling water for 20 minutes and them dry them on a rack.
2. Cut up your peppers and other fruits/vegetables. You don't want to go too small, since that will make it easier for pieces to float up past the weight in the jar. You just want to make it small enough to fit, and to make it so that they pieces don't trap any air bubbles.
3. Tare the scale with the jar on it, shove all your vegetables or whatever you want in there. I typically go about 3/4 peppers, but you can do whatever you want. Note this measurement. I personally note the amount of each ingredient so that I can reproduce if the sauce was really good.
4. Fill the jar to about 1/2" from the top with non-chlorinated water. Note this total.
5. Pour the water back out into a mixing container. Add salt to go for about 3% salinity based on the TOTAL weight of water + ingredients, so if you have 800g of vegetables and 800g of water, you'll add 3*16g = 48g of salt.
6. Add the fermentation weight, the gas relief valve, and close. Place in a larger container to protect your floors just in case it sprays, and store in a mostly dark place for as long as you need. I usually do exactly two weeks.
   • Warmer temperature will make it ferment faster.
   • I just put it in my pantry, so the temperature is usually between 68-72 and it works fine.
   • You can basically keep fermenting, but it can end up getting sour.
7. After it's done fermenting, check the pH and ensure that it's under 3.9.
8. Check for mold. If you see white stuff floating on the top or stuck to the fermentation weight, that's OK. That's dead yeast and bacteria. I usually try to remove it with a spoon and paper towel.
9. Drain, but save, most of the brine. This brine should be tangy and spicy.
10. Blend the vegetables and brine together. You might want to keep it chunky, or you might want to blend it a lot and filter out the pulp. It's up to you.
11. Add more brine, salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar, sugar, honey, or whatever you want to taste. The brine itself is spicy so you can add more of it to get better yield.
12. [Optional]: Filter it through a fine mesh sieve. I find the pulp itself is also very good, so I save both.
13. [Optional]: Add a tiny amount of Xanthan gum to thicken and stabilize. I add between 1/8 and 1/4tsp for every 500mL.
14. Sanitize the containers you're storing the hot sauce in.
15. Bottle, label, and enjoy!