[CH] When is fermented sauce done?
George Nelson (70431.3065@compuserve.com)
Tue, 1 Feb 2000 21:41:48 -0500
Kristofer Blennow asked when a fermented sauce would be done so he could
avoid heat processing and still not have to worry about bottles blowing up.
In general, fermentations start slow, gather speed and then attenuate as
the organisms consume most of the fermentables. It is easy to tell with a
kim-chee or with a beer because of the rapid evolution of gas during the
third or fourth day. By the fifth or sixth day the slowing down is
obvious, though in the case of beer, the gas-formation potential is still
rather large.
Pepper fermentations follow the same course, but they are a lot slower and
it is much harder to tell when they have reached an attenuation point. It
may take several weeks to get there. The one thing about them is that they
are slow enough, I imagine by the end of several weeks, the gas formation
potential would not be enough to blow up a bottle. It might spurt a bit
upon opening if bottled a week too soon.
George