Homemade hot sauce help?

poster

I recently fermented a jar of jalapenos with some garlic for 2 weeks at an attempt to make some homemade hot sauce. I blended it all up to a puree. Although it smelt good,i found it lacking heat and flavour. Has anyone attempted their own and been successful? I ended up simmering on the stove and adding a few fresh peppers and even a touch of vinegar. Its ok and i will use it, but not what i was hoping for. Should i have gone to a hotter pepper to start? Or am i missing a critical part here? To me it tasted a bit bitter and just lacking

Hans61

 Don’t know how to fix bitter, next time maybe taste your ingredients prior to adding them to the mix.

Theophan

If it was bitter, but not sour at all, I'd guess it didn't ferment much at all, and maybe something interfered with it.  I'm no expert, but things as subtle as using regular (iodized) table salt can poison a fermentation.  Or maybe the temperature wasn't right, or oxygen (air) got into it?  I just think that the presence of lactic acid is one of the main products of the kind of fermentation veggies produce (sauerkraut being perhaps the most famous example), and if it wasn't tart at all, then there can't have been much fermentation.  If it wasn't obviously spoiled (rotten) then maybe it just needed more time?

Dunno.  If bitter was the main flavor, and not sourness, then I think it can't have fermented very much, for whatever reason.

And I'm NOT an expert, but I'm quite sure that the chilies Tabasco, Crystal, etc., are made from are much hotter than jalapeños, so if you want a green-tasting but fairly mild sauce, jalapeños are your friend, but if you want a hotter sauce, maybe a hotter chili.

unoriginalusername

You need a few hotter peppers to go with your base, I normally do one habenaro for every two jalapeños and if I want a really hot use with caution paste would add a ghost or scorpion into the mix.

ive started smoking all my peppers to dry them, then I rehydrate for making sauces or chili which seems to up the heat level for even the basic peppers like jalapeños 

Richard Fl

When I pick my fresh red devil or hot cayenne peppers, I place in a glass container with apple cider vinegar for 3-6 weeks- usually long enough for the entire crop to bloom and  ripen usually get up to a pound of fresh  peppers. stems have been cut off before vinegar bath, add some  fresh ground black pepper/garlic fresh or powder, sometimes some fish sauce depending on my needs and mood.  Mix all with a stick blender and leave in a glass jar until needed, sometimes 6 months or later.  Use a plastic or glass top as the  metal tops will corrode over time.

As for your present problem you might add some cayenne powder to taste,

poster

Thanks for the tips, i think next time ill throw in a few habenaros. Do you think grocery store peppers will ferment as well as home grown? I know some vegetables need to be super fresh. Also i will cut them up in smaller pcs to get them moving faster as well as discard the seeds and white pith. Im thinking maybe this is where the bitter taste came from

unoriginalusername

poster said:

Thanks for the tips, i think next time ill throw in a few habenaros. Do you think grocery store peppers will ferment as well as home grown? I know some vegetables need to be super fresh. Also i will cut them up in smaller pcs to get them moving faster as well as discard the seeds and white pith. Im thinking maybe this is where the bitter taste came from

Not sure, I often use the entire pod so I am thinking your PH levels are off vs. the seeds causing a bitter flavor 

fishlessman

ive done two attempts, the first never fermented,did it with cabbage, did not cloud up and bubble, my best guess is that it was too cold to ferment. second attempt i did it on the fridge top were its much warmer in the house, that one clouded up, bubbled, cleared and worked out well. the big difference with the two was the second one smelled like an old pickle barrel. mine is extremely hot, hoping it milds some with age. thai peppers and cayenne. onion, garlic and ajicito peppers.

poster

looks good! what's that your using to weigh everything down? That's another one of my issues. I was going to cut some stainless plate at work and try that.

I had bubbles and definitely some sour taste, but I had it in the basement which is usually 16Cish, maybe i'll move the next batch upstairs to pick up the pace 

Theophan

16°C?  <shiver>  Maybe that's the main reason your ferment didn't have a lot of fermented flavor: it was too cold to ferment very vigorously.  I'm sure that'd be fine, but maybe would just take longer to reach the level of lactic acid production that would give it that tangy flavor.

fishlessman

poster said:

looks good! what's that your using to weigh everything down? That's another one of my issues. I was going to cut some stainless plate at work and try that.

I had bubbles and definitely some sour taste, but I had it in the basement which is usually 16Cish, maybe i'll move the next batch upstairs to pick up the pace 

its a spring loaded plate with a fermentation lock on top. poor design on the fermentation lock as it needs constant filling but its probably not needed for this anyways.  my first failed attempt was probably 55 to 60 degrees f, similar to yours. never fermented. second time was 75 degrees and it worked out well. did it on the fridge top were its warmer than the room temp during the weekdays at camp, weekends though it got too hot there so i had to move it to the counter