[CH] Fermented chile sauces
Cameron Begg (begg.4@osu.edu)
Thu, 17 Sep 1998 13:33:23 -0500
Hi C-H's,
I have just got off the phone after talking to somedody who has spent many
years in the food industry making such things as hot sauces. He is going to
supply me with the names and addresses of companies which sell pepper
extracts of various kinds. I will of course share anything useful with the
list.
There is very little to fermenting peppers except for one important piece
of information. The salt content must not be less than 14% of the weight of
the peppers. He suggested a range of 15-20% would be appropriate. Other
than that, the peppers are simply mashed up with the salt and allowed to
ferment. This process is accomplished by salt tolerant yeasts occuring
naturally on the surface of the peppers. (So don't wash them off!) The
usual wine making equipment should work fine.
My source has tried this successfully with bell peppers and long pods of
the Anaheim or New Mex type with very interesting results.
Hope this got to you in time for the N. hemisphere harvest.
Experiment on C-H's!
Regards, Cameron.