The peppers you need for this fermented hot sauce
- Red Habaneros: I get these at a local Latin American grocery store. If you can only find orange habaneros, those will work perfectly, but red provides the best color. As always, organic is best.
- Red Pepper: I like red bell pepper the best in terms of flavor and color in this fermented hot sauce, but you can use any color bell pepper you like. Red, orange and yellow are best, and try to use home-grown or organic produce for best results. If you use green pepper, the sauce may turn brown.
- Dried Guajillo Chili Peppers: Any dried chili pepper will work in this recipe, but I like Guajillo chili peppers best. I also get my dried chili peppers from the local Latin American supermarket. I think they add the perfect balance of flavor and heat.
If you want a smoky flavor, you can use dried chipotle chiles instead of Guajillo. If you like a super hot sauce, you can also add some red pepper for more habanero in the recipe!
My secret ingredient for naturally emulsified hot sauce
This hot sauce is naturally thick and emulsified, with no cooking, added ingredients or emulsifiers required. I have a secret ingredient for this perfect, smooth, fermented hot sauce texture: it’s pumpkin! (or any winter squash, including pumpkin). When lactic acid bacteria ferment the starch in winter squash, they naturally convert it into emulsifying compounds called exopolysaccharides. So when we blend our hot sauce after fermentation, there is no watery separation in the bottle!
Roasting ingredients before fermentation
I absolutely love roasting ingredients to incorporate into fermentation. For this recipe we roast just two ingredients: winter squash and garlic. The remaining ingredients are raw and still contain all the wild microbes we need to initiate fermentation.
Fermented hot sauce timeline
Here is the timeline for fermenting hot sauce at a moderate room temperature (about 76° F). Cooler temperatures will slow things down, and warmer temperatures will speed up this timeline.
- 24 – 72 hours: The entire contents of the jar must be submerged under the brine.
- 72 hours – 9 days: After 72 hours you should see a lot of bubbles. This is when you burp the jar (open the lid and make sure everything is covered by the brine; clean the lid if necessary). This is phase two of vegetable fermentation. Leukonostoc bacteria begin to thrive and produce lots of carbon dioxide. Gram-negative organisms die. During this time you may notice a sour odor and color changes.
- 9 – 14 days: The bubbles in the brine will decrease as the ferment leaves phase two and enters phase three. The brine will be very cloudy and develop a pleasant sour odor. The peppers and pumpkins will also change color from vibrant to more muted colors. Lactobacillus species are most numerous during this period.
- 14 – 28 days: Lactobacillus comprise most or all of the microbial population. They produce large amounts of lactic acid, which makes the yeast mixture smell even more pleasantly sour. This is when the pepper, pumpkin and garlic mixture is well preserved. Wait until the peppers stop bubbling and then continue mixing and straining the sauce.
Bottling and using all parts
Because you strain the sauce, you will have some pepper pulp left over. Please not throw it away! Place it in a mason jar and save it for cooking. It is fantastic in soups, stews, casseroles and special windows.
Essentially, this recipe gives you two sauces: garlic-sriracha hot sauce and a garlic-pepper paste. yay!
How long does fermented hot sauce last?
Should I keep it in the refrigerator?
Why do you cook some fermented hot sauces but not this one?
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Preparation:
30 minutes -
Total time:
504 hours 30 minutes
- This 1x recipe works best with a 32-ounce jar for the fermentation and a 16-ounce bottle for the sauce. Wash your fermentation equipment, including the jar, weight and lid.
- Peel and cut the pumpkin and peel and crush the garlic cloves.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 450°F
- Dry roast the pumpkin and garlic for about 20 minutes (NO OIL) until lightly browned and crispy on some edges.
- Wash all peppers and cut/chop them into pieces. (Wear gloves if you are sensitive to peppers).
- Place your kitchen scale on the counter. Turn it on and set it to weigh in grams. Place a mixing bowl on your kitchen scale and tare/zero the scale.
- Add everything except the salt and water to a bowl and measure the indicated amount.
- Remove the bowl from your scale and set it aside. Place your empty, clean glass jar on the scale and tare/zero the scale. Make sure your scale is still set to grams and add the indicated amount of salt and filtered water to your mason jar.
- Stir until all the salt has dissolved.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the mason jar with the salt water. You need to mash the peppers in the jar with a tamper or wooden spoon to pack them in, as you do that the brine will come to the top.
- Place your fermentation weight into the jar, making sure to submerge all the pepper pieces and weigh them completely in the liquid. (it may be helpful to use an outer cabbage leaf or lettuce leaf to tuck everything in before placing the fermentation weight on top).
- Close the lid on the jar and ferment at room temperature for at least 21 days. I suggest fermenting until the bubbles stop.
- After fermentation, add everything to a blender. Mix on high until smooth.
- Place a colander over a large jug or pot and strain the sauce. You can mash the pulp in the colander with a spoon to get all the juices out. (Don’t forget to save the pulp! Place it in a jar to use in cooking.)
- Use a funnel to bottle the sauce. Store in the refrigerator. Use within a year for best flavor. (If you want to give this sauce as a gift, it can sit out of the refrigerator for a while).
Comments
- Add some paprika for more habanero if you like super spicy hot sauce!
- I used pumpkin, but any winter squash will work fine.
- The quantities of garlic and pumpkin are the pre-roasted weight.
- You can also use other peppers in this recipe, as long as the total pepper weight is 280 grams. Peppers above 500,000 Scoville units contain an extremely high concentration of capsaicin. At those levels, capsaicin is bactericidal and can prevent natural fermentation. Choose your peppers accordingly
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