Anybody tried Sriracha sauce?

[KittyJ]

Love Sriracha, but also always prefer things I can make at home to things purchased in a bottle. A little google research tells me that the process is to puree the red jalapeno peppers and garlic with sugar and salt then ferment this for a week or so. BUT, once it's fermented they strain it, add vinegar and boil it before use.

Surely it's possible to skip the boiling step and just use the fermented sauce? And frankly, I think I'd also prefer to skip straining it, too, as I like a little chunkiness. When you get right down to it, I'd probably also prefer to skip the sugar. How about just peppers, garlic and salt?

Whaddya think?

[Tibor]

Yes. Just peppers, garlic and salt. Makes great hot sauce.
The way I successfully did it ,is to cut up the peppers (I did 1 1/2 lbs. of yellow Wenks ) into rings, along with a bulb of garlic sliced up . I made a brine of 2TBS salt per quart of water (3.6% brine),enough to cover it all ,and lightly weighted it down to keep it all submerged. I covered it with a cloth and left it on the counter to ferment for 5 weeks. Then I drained but kept the brine, put the peppers and garlic and a little brine into the blender and blended it somewhat course, not pureed. Add more brine back if you want it thin. I ended up chopping fresh tomatoes and added it to the blender and pulsed it in to try to lower the heat. It didn't really help with that but made it look kind of like salsa. It's been wonderful.
I would not puree the peppers up front and then ferment. That could be problematic.
The remainder of the brine is pretty hot and tasty.You could cut up some carrots(or whatever) and throw it into the brine and ferment that for 10 days or so. Have fun !!

[Christopher Weeks]

My process is like Tibor's except I only halve the peppers for fermentation, I've never added tomato, and I only blend it just enough to make a chunky paste. (I use a hand-crank processor to avoid liquifying it.) Chiles, garlic and brine.

[KittyJ]

Thanks to both of you for the info -- I love how I can find answers to all my fermentation questions here, although this is the first time I've needed to actually post a question. Mostly, I can find what I need to know just by browsing the various board topics.

I will try this, for sure, and will follow the suggestions re blending after the fact rather than ahead of time. I'll let you know what happens!

[Tibor]

Since my last post, I was thinking that since I still had the hot brine left over from my pepper ferment, maybe I should liquefy some of it up and put it in a hot sauce bottle .So I put some of my chunky sauce in the blender and added enough brine to liquefy for easy use from the bottle and voila ! Another consistency for other uses.

[KittyJ]

My ferment smells wonderful -- like good, hot peppers, but I can't tell if it's really fermenting. This is the first ferment I've tried that I didn't inoculate with a Bubbies brine or some such. Pure wild fermentation. It looks fine, smells good, but no sign of bubbles or anything else. It's been about 2 weeks now.

I vaguely remember reading in Sandor's latest book, which I don't have, that it's ok to not have bubbles, but I have to admit that it's making me wonder if there's something I did wrong, or something I need to do.

But whatever -- if this stuff ends up tasting as good as it smells, I'll be a happy fermenter!

Thanks.

[Christopher Weeks]

My vegetable ferments often don't bubble much. But there's definitely action going on.

[KittyJ]

Thanks. I think the hardest part of this is going to be waiting for another 3 weeks to finish and taste this stuff. The crock is in my bed/sitting area and the smell keeps me hungry all the time! I have a roommate situation, so I keep my ferments out of common areas.

I'll trust in the power of wild fermentation -- and Christopher!

[KittyJ]

DSCN5243 (1).jpg (30.25 KiB) Viewed 3344 times

Woke up this morning to a film on top of the previously clear brine in my pepper fermentation. Tried to get it off with a spoon and it broke apart kind of like a hardened wax. It was pure white out of the pepper-dyed brine. I got much of it out, but not all. Could this be yeast? Or something else?

Thanks.

[KittyJ]

OK, y'all. A quick Google search has identified this stuff as Kahm yeast. Whew! At least it's harmless. I've skimmed it away again this morning -- much more of it, very webby looking. Maybe harmless, but potentially ruining the taste of the finished product.

Info I found says to add a salty brine to the top, or even straight salt. And maybe I should move it to a cooler spot (this room ranges from 65-72).

Suggestions welcome!