Re: [CH] Pepper mash / ferment

Kristofer Blennow (kristofer@blennow.se)
Wed, 19 Jan 2000 19:32:56 +0100

On 19 Jan 00, Luke Van Santen wrote:

> Can you guys post the procedure / method / ingredients etc for your
> mash? Someone from another list is asking for it and I evidently lost
> my copy from when it was posted the first time. 

This might not be the "traditional" way, but my general idea is to 
lower the pH with natural lactic acid fermentation instead of 
vinegar, because lactic acid has a much smoother taste. You have to 
get down below pH 4 to make it safe. 

You should then not have any vinegar in the recipe, since this will 
inhibit the fermentation in the beginning. There might of course be 
some bacterica that will work anyway, but this is nothing I have been 
able to find out about (just as the exploding bottle thing is a 
mystery). The fermentation will start with bubbling after a few days 
from the CO2 produced by heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria 
(LAB), such as Leuconostoc Mesenteroides. The bubbling will help you 
to see that the process is okay. Then after a few more days the 
bubbling will stop, but the fermentation will continue from 
homofermentative LAB (Lactobacillus Plantarum etc), and the pH will 
drop more and more. After only a few weeks you will have some very 
good acidity.

I would suggest that you use a starter culture, since you can't count 
on peppers having enough lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Peppers do 
however contain a lot of harmful bacteria, so without a starter you 
can get some unhealthy results.

A good and easy starter is Korean KimChi. There are many complex 
recipes, a typical SIMPLE one would be:

2 kg   Chinese cabbage
50 g   Fresh ginger
50 g   Fresh oriental white radish
50 g   Leek
3 Small cloves of garlic
A few peppers or pepper powder
Pickling salt (pure NaCl) and fresh water

The cabbage is soaked in 10% salt brine for 6 hours, then rinsed
thoroughly, drained, cut to pieces and mixed with the other
ingredients, then left to ferment. When the bubbling is peaking some 
of the kimchi can be taken out and used as starter. Check that the 
taste is acid.

For the pepper mash use about 2-3% salt by weight. This is important 
to select the right bacteria. A problem can be that the peppers are 
too low in carbohydrates. The LAB ferments only carbs, so if there is 
to little, you will not get any acid. One can try to add sugar or 
other vegetables that are rich in carbs.

Looking forward to your progress reports,
Good luck
Kristofer



____________________________________________________

Kristofer Blennow   Non Sive Sive, Sed Et Et
Physical location: [close to] Stockholm, Sweden
WWW location:       http://www.blennow.se/