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Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord
Ordering produce off eBay is one of the wildest things I've ever heard

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Comb Your Beard
Sep 28, 2007

Chillin' like a villian.

sadus posted:

Just got a bunch of scotch bonnets from eBay, way more than I can use soon. They are still a bit moist - what's the best way to preserve pure peppers? Pop them in a demudifier?

Depends on your goals for them. I would freeze them.

Dr_0ctag0n
Apr 25, 2015


The whole human race
sentenced
to
burn
You can always dehydrate them after they've been frozen too. No considerable loss of flavor or anything in my experience. They take up quite a bit of freezer real estate though.

Dehydrating them and then grinding them up into flakes can reduce a gallon sized Ziploc bag full of Habs down to like a single standard 1.5oz crushed red pepper container. I did all the processing outside to avoid fine hab powder getting all over the house.

sadus
Apr 5, 2004

Right on, I'll just freeze for now

Only turned to ebay because Amazon had horrible prices for anything but seeds, is there a reputable retailer online with "rare" hot peppers?

venus de lmao
Apr 30, 2007

Call me "pixeltits"

Can I do a lactoferment with peppers I froze last year?

Comb Your Beard
Sep 28, 2007

Chillin' like a villian.
Usually I make hot sauce with straight vinegar no lacto action. This year I think I will do a small test batch.

1. Weigh solids (peppers and garlic)
2. Chop to like a medium dice
3. Put in small jar
4. Add weighed advised percentage salt (kosher, not iodized), mix it in
5. Add a little bit of yogurt liquid from a yogurt brand I like
6. Rubber band coffee filter over it

Good recipe? Do I need to add a bit of distilled water too?

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002
I've been fermenting poo poo for awhile and have made eight or ten batches of lacto fermented peppers for sauce. Here's my method along with the crap I found to work the best.


Stuff:
  • 16oz wide-mouth mason jar
  • Fermentation weight (link)
  • Airlock (link)
  • Peppers
  • Garlic
  • Non-iodized salt (I use sea salt)

Do this:
  1. In a saucepan, combine 2 cups (16oz) water and 1/4 cup salt. Bring to a boil then remove from heat, cover and allow to cool while you prep peppers and garlic.
  2. Quarter or halve your peppers, remove pith and seeds
  3. Peel garlic, keeping cloves intact
  4. Rinse garlic and peppers briefly.
  5. Rinse your jar, airlock, and weight. You can wash with dish soap if you want, just make sure to rinse thoroughly.
  6. Place garlic cloves in bottom of jar, quartered peppers on top
  7. Fill remaining space in jar with your brine then place the weight on top
  8. Close jar with airlock
  9. Put it somewhere out of direct sunlight (I just leave mine on the counter)
  10. Ignore for 4+ weeks

FreelanceSocialist fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Sep 15, 2019

Flaggy
Jul 6, 2007

Grandpa Cthulu needs his napping chair



Grimey Drawer

FreelanceSocialist posted:

I've been fermenting poo poo for awhile and have made eight or ten batches of lacto fermented peppers for sauce. Here's my method along with the crap I found to work the best.


Stuff:
  • 16oz wide-mouth mason jar
  • Fermentation weight (link)
  • Airlock (link)
  • Peppers
  • Garlic
  • Non-iodized salt (I use sea salt)

Do this:
  1. In a saucepan, combine 2 cups (16oz) water and 1/2 cup salt. Bring to a boil then remove from heat, cover and allow to cool while you prep peppers and garlic.
  2. Quarter or halve your peppers, remove pith and seeds
  3. Peel garlic, keeping cloves intact
  4. Rinse garlic and peppers briefly.
  5. Rinse your jar, airlock, and weight. You can wash with dish soap if you want, just make sure to rinse thoroughly.
  6. Place garlic cloves in bottom of jar, quartered peppers on top
  7. Fill remaining space in jar with your brine then place the weight on top
  8. Close jar with airlock
  9. Put it somewhere out of direct sunlight (I just leave mine on the counter)
  10. Ignore for 4+ weeks

Welp, I know what I am doing this weekend. Thanks for this! I have an overabundance of reapers this year.

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002
You can pretty much use whatever you want. I did one batch with chunks of pineapple instead of garlic, for instance.

wormil
Sep 12, 2002

Hulk will smoke you!

Bertrand Hustle posted:

Can I do a lactoferment with peppers I froze last year?

Yes. Should probably add some fresh ingredients for insurance. Lactobacillus can survive freezing but most of them will die.

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002
Picked up a bottle of Spicy Shark's Megalodon carolina reaper hotsauce. It has a nice dark cherry flavor with a bit of ginger and some other spices. It has plenty of heat to it, but it doesn't hit you up-front so you actually have a chance to enjoy the other flavors. In my opinion, the heat is just a bit below other reaper-based sauces. What I really like is that the heat peaks and fades relatively quickly. It's also thin and flows easily, which I definitely prefer over some of the ultra-hot stuff that has a paste-like consistency. Tonight I threw together some spring rolls and wontons (poorly) and I was able to toss the wontons in the sauce but still be able to taste the filling of the springrolls. If you come across this stuff and are comfortable with this level of heat, I think it's well worth the $8 or $9 for a bottle.

FreelanceSocialist fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Aug 21, 2019

Ape Has Killed Ape
Sep 15, 2005

I've never made hot sauce before, but currently I have a large surplus of Datil peppers on my hands. Has anyone here made a hot sauce with these before? I'm thinking pineapple, but I'm open to recommendation.

I also have some poblanos, jalapenos, cayenne, and some sweet peppers in various states of ripeness. And about a gallon of frozen habaneros that I've been working through from last year.

venus de lmao
Apr 30, 2007

Call me "pixeltits"

wormil posted:

Yes. Should probably add some fresh ingredients for insurance. Lactobacillus can survive freezing but most of them will die.

It's getting close to harvest time, so I might use this year's peppers as well.

briefcasefullof
Sep 25, 2004
[This Space for Rent]

Ape Has Killed Ape posted:

I've never made hot sauce before, but currently I have a large surplus of Datil peppers on my hands. Has anyone here made a hot sauce with these before? I'm thinking pineapple, but I'm open to recommendation.

I also have some poblanos, jalapenos, cayenne, and some sweet peppers in various states of ripeness. And about a gallon of frozen habaneros that I've been working through from last year.

Firehouse Subs' Captain Sorenwhatsits hot sauce is made from datil peppers, I think.

Dr_0ctag0n
Apr 25, 2015


The whole human race
sentenced
to
burn
There was a hot sauce called "datil do it" that I had years ago that was one of my favorites and it definitely had a sweeter flavor than most, pineapple would probably be good. They apparently still have that brand but I remember it being trashy vinegar sauce now.


This is the good stuff:




This is the trash crap that's sold in like tjmaxx or whatever:

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

FreelanceSocialist posted:

I've been fermenting poo poo for awhile and have made eight or ten batches of lacto fermented peppers for sauce. Here's my method along with the crap I found to work the best.


Stuff:
  • 16oz wide-mouth mason jar
  • Fermentation weight (link)
  • Airlock (link)
  • Peppers
  • Garlic
  • Non-iodized salt (I use sea salt)

Do this:
  1. In a saucepan, combine 2 cups (16oz) water and 1/2 cup salt. Bring to a boil then remove from heat, cover and allow to cool while you prep peppers and garlic.
  2. Quarter or halve your peppers, remove pith and seeds
  3. Peel garlic, keeping cloves intact
  4. Rinse garlic and peppers briefly.
  5. Rinse your jar, airlock, and weight. You can wash with dish soap if you want, just make sure to rinse thoroughly.
  6. Place garlic cloves in bottom of jar, quartered peppers on top
  7. Fill remaining space in jar with your brine then place the weight on top
  8. Close jar with airlock
  9. Put it somewhere out of direct sunlight (I just leave mine on the counter)
  10. Ignore for 4+ weeks

I spent an hour today doing this with some red savinas I've grown this summer:






When I went to wash the cutting board I'd used for the peppers, the spray from the faucet created a cloud of pepper spray, and my girlfriend had to flee the kitchen, and I spent 15 minutes coughing while cleaning up. Next time I'm doing that outside.

uber_stoat
Jan 21, 2001



Pillbug

a foolish pianist posted:


When I went to wash the cutting board I'd used for the peppers, the spray from the faucet created a cloud of pepper spray, and my girlfriend had to flee the kitchen, and I spent 15 minutes coughing while cleaning up. Next time I'm doing that outside.

that's a rite of passage and a lesson you won't forget.

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002
Put dish soap on it and scrub it before hitting it with water. Seems to help, at least with the suicidally hot stuff.

Also, if you notice that the brine gets cloudy and you have sort of "wisps" of white stuff in the jar, don't worry - its harmless. It will affect the flavor though, so I recommend dumping everything into a strainer and rinsing under cold water then preparing fresh brine and repacking. I'd say that one in five of my ferments end up needing a rinse and repack.

FreelanceSocialist fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Sep 9, 2019

Pioneer42
Jun 8, 2010


Another visit to the garden. At some point I crossed a line. I'm not even sure what to do with these anymore beyond dry them and add to the stores.

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002
Ship them all to me.

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord
Just ship like, a ziplock bag full, to me

Flash Gordon Ramsay
Sep 28, 2004

Grimey Drawer

COOL CORN posted:

Just ship like, a ziplock bag full, to me

Speaking of which, coworker gave me a zip loc of what she says are tobasco peppers. Ideas?

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002
Yep, those are Tabasco peppers. I'm not a fan of making sauce with them, but I'd probably de-stem and dry, then maybe grind/blend to a decent size and use to add some heat to dishes.

FreelanceSocialist fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Sep 11, 2019

Gwaihir
Dec 8, 2009
Hair Elf

Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:

Speaking of which, coworker gave me a zip loc of what she says are tobasco peppers. Ideas?



Looks perfectly sized to just make a bottle of pepper vinegar.

Pioneer42 posted:



Another visit to the garden. At some point I crossed a line. I'm not even sure what to do with these anymore beyond dry them and add to the stores.


Holy poo poo that looks so good! I already have way way too much frozen chili pepper paste stashed in the freezer for chili and stuff but that picture just makes me instantly want moreeeeee.

Gwaihir fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Sep 11, 2019

Doom Rooster
Sep 3, 2008

Pillbug

Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:

Speaking of which, coworker gave me a zip loc of what she says are tobasco peppers. Ideas?



Make a hot sauce out of tabasco peppers that doesn't taste like poo poo.

Flaggy
Jul 6, 2007

Grandpa Cthulu needs his napping chair



Grimey Drawer

Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:

Speaking of which, coworker gave me a zip loc of what she says are tobasco peppers. Ideas?



Ferment them, make good sauce.

Flash Gordon Ramsay
Sep 28, 2004

Grimey Drawer
I'm intrigued by fermenting them. Do I just make a mash, add salt (what percentage?) and wait?

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002
Quarter and remove seeds/pith. Ferment. Then mash. My process is a few posts back.

Flash Gordon Ramsay
Sep 28, 2004

Grimey Drawer

FreelanceSocialist posted:

Quarter and remove seeds/pith. Ferment. Then mash. My process is a few posts back.

Awesome. Just ordered the stuff, thanks.

Out of curiosity, why remove seeds and not just use whole peppers? And why not mash first?

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002
Mashing is going to introduce additional bacteria, yeast from the environment. You don't want that. Also, you can't rinse and repack in fresh brine to get rid of the kahm yeast. In general, I've found that chopping and fermenting yields a better product than mashing and fermenting and gives me more control over flavor. I remove seeds and pith mostly because I do not want either in my finished product. Avoids any off-flavors, textures, and having to use a food mill. You can leave both, if you like.

ulmont
Sep 15, 2010

IF I EVER MISS VOTING IN AN ELECTION (EVEN AMERICAN IDOL) ,OR HAVE UNPAID PARKING TICKETS, PLEASE TAKE AWAY MY FRANCHISE

FreelanceSocialist posted:

I remove seeds and pith mostly because I do not want either in my finished product. Avoids any off-flavors, textures, and having to use a food mill. You can leave both, if you like.

I leave both to get the maximum heat out of my jalapeños, but I am admittedly expecting to blend at the end.

Flaggy
Jul 6, 2007

Grandpa Cthulu needs his napping chair



Grimey Drawer

FreelanceSocialist posted:

Quarter and remove seeds/pith. Ferment. Then mash. My process is a few posts back.


Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:

Awesome. Just ordered the stuff, thanks.

Out of curiosity, why remove seeds and not just use whole peppers? And why not mash first?

I just finished this on my own from his post, worked like a charm.

uber_stoat
Jan 21, 2001



Pillbug

Pioneer42 posted:



Another visit to the garden. At some point I crossed a line. I'm not even sure what to do with these anymore beyond dry them and add to the stores.

that's beautiful. I had a harvest like that like two years ago. I think there are still some in the freezer.

Pioneer42
Jun 8, 2010
Thank you for the compliments. I should have mentioned that the harvest is Carolina Reaper, 7-Pot Brown, Habanero, Peruvian White Habanero, and Tabasco. Except for the oranges the seeds came from PuckerButt. The 7-Pots have traditionally been my favorite, but this year I have really enjoyed the Peruvians. Like a Habanero, good balance of flavor and heat, in a convenient-sized package.

I like to make mango/peach sauce from the Habaneros, and usually dehydrate the rest. At the end of season I pick all my green Tabascos and use for vinegar.

I, too, think I will give the fermenting recipe a try. When prepping the ingredients, should I do anything to the pods beyond giving them a good rinse in water after bringing them in to reduce contamination?

Also, I have never tried freezing. Any tips on how to store/freeze/thaw?

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002

Pioneer42 posted:

I, too, think I will give the fermenting recipe a try. When prepping the ingredients, should I do anything to the pods beyond giving them a good rinse in water after bringing them in to reduce contamination?

Nope, just rinse. Lactobacillus is really good at out-competing the bad stuff. If, during the ferment, you see milky white stuff, that's yeast. It's harmless but because it can change the flavor over time, I usually dump out and rinse the peppers and repack the jar with fresh brine.

mariooncrack
Dec 27, 2008
What do you do when you're done fermenting the peppers? Throw them in a food processor or blender?

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002

mariooncrack posted:

What do you do when you're done fermenting the peppers? Throw them in a food processor or blender?

Yup.

Democratic Pirate
Feb 17, 2010

It’s mid-September, when should I plan on planting peppers? I’m wanting to get all my household projects lined out for the next couple months.

Flaggy
Jul 6, 2007

Grandpa Cthulu needs his napping chair



Grimey Drawer

Democratic Pirate posted:

It’s mid-September, when should I plan on planting peppers? I’m wanting to get all my household projects lined out for the next couple months.

Where do you live? What Zone? Google your town/extension office or just google zone and you can tell. Extension offices usually have great resources for local areas.

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mariooncrack
Dec 27, 2008
I picked up 3 ghost peppers at work. I want to make a sauce with these. Any recommendations for other peppers or ingredients to add to these?

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