Pepper haul from garden

[campfindit2]

Long time lurker here, mostly smoking related browsing. Then I stumbled into the pepper section. You guys peaked my interest in homemade hot sauces.
My fermentation lids arrived Friday and I picked through the garden today. Kind lost track of what I grew but I think there are Aji Pineapple/Big Jims/Poblano/Cherry/Naga Smokey Rainbow/Serrano/???. Started from seed 2 yrs. ago stayed in 3" pots last year, never put in a garden. This year they made it into the earth. The bulk of the peppers are Poblano and big Jim's on the mild side of chilis. My initial though is divide it all up evenly. Being my first attempt I'll take any and all advice you guys an galls can offer.

 

[DRKsmoking]

WOW what a colourful haul of peppers.

That is great, I will let the experts chime in here . I just see a lot of fun pickles and sauces here

David

 

[Schwarzwald Metzger]

That's awesome man. How big is the garden?

 

[JLeonard]

Wow! nice haul. Keep us updated on the fermenting.

Jim

 

[indaswamp]

paging jcam222 !!!

 

[Fueling Around]

Fermenting is a travel.
Also think drying

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

You have a nice selection of peppers there. I will definitely get back into it next year.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Wow! Some great looking peppers.

 

[jcam222]

Beautiful haul of peppers! I'd just advise to combine them by color first. Mixing green with the reds / oranges yields pretty ugly sauce. You might take those gorgeous yellow pineapples and mix them with some store bought yellow bells. The Naga can be used in moderation with any of the reds / oranges to kick them up. I just went out and picked a nice haul of red habanero, chocolate habanero, lots of ghost and scorpion and a few white Zan coyote today. Nose is on fire as one ghost broke when picked and I itched my nose lol.

 

[campfindit2]

I see what you're saying on the colors, if all mixed I'm guessing brown would be the final color. Not the prettiest. Yellow/Red/Green/Orange will look outstanding. Thanks for the input. I like the idea of adding yellow bells and orange bells also. I have some orange/purple/yellow carrots growing also thinking to add to the ferment along with garlic. If going for a mild table sauce would say 1 clove and 1/4 cup of carrots be about right for a Qt. jar?

My garden is about 15'x30" the whole 30' back was hot peppers. I'm not sure if it's OK to mention were I purchased my seeds, but they sent close to double what they advertised and threw in 3 varieties I never ordered. I'll be placing another order with them this winter. I had great luck starting them indoors. I purchased a heater mat for under the trays, need to add another. This is to keep the soil at 70-80 degrees until they sprout. Then just a southern facing window will do the rest.

P.S. never pick your nose while picking ha ha

 

[jcam222]

Damn right lol my nose still burns. I'd recommend keeping the green peppers together in their own sauce. The red yellow orange and chocolatey can be mixed.

 

[Steve H]

Those little peppers next to the cherry peppers are pretty darn warm if memory serves. My mom had a plant in the house of these. And a couple in a big pot of chili gave a decent heat level.

 

[campfindit2]

Jeff reading through your old ferments I have a question. Are you only fermenting the pure peppers? I was intending to ferment with garlic in the jar maybe some carrot slices.

 

[Steve H]

Jeff reading through your old ferments I have a question. Are you only fermenting the pure peppers? I was intending to ferment with garlic in the jar maybe some carrot slices.

I ferment with garlic. I've heard of people adding carrots to the ferment as well. I've also added mango to my habanero ferments.

 

[jcam222]

Jeff reading through your old ferments I have a question. Are you only fermenting the pure peppers? I was intending to ferment with garlic in the jar maybe some carrot slices.

Some do as Steve H said. Mostly I ferment just peppers and add my flavors post ferment. I did recently add dill seed and mustard seed to one and loved it. I may do a few with garlic in the ferment this winter. Carrots can add sweetness I imagine. For fruits most folks will add fruit post ferment if they are looking for the actual fruit flavor.

 

[campfindit2]

Well I'm off. Just waiting for the dishwasher to finish sanitizing. Thanks again for all the info. No feet dragging anymore. I figure if I have to toss a batch, lessons will be learned. The uncut Poblano, Cherries and Naga wont fit this batch. Hmm might order more lids. In the mean time I'll store in freezer. If I don't ferment them I can always run them through the freeze dryer.

 

[campfindit2]

Jared up some 1/2 pints. The heat is very mellow. They are salty though. I re-read the 3.5% salt ratio. I weighed the pepper and water, if I'm understanding this better, should only have weighed the water for the brine solution. Honestly a lot of hot sauces on the market are just as salty. A final run through the garden got packed into a mason. (in the background). I reused the brine from the 1st batch. Please let me know if this was a bad idea. Kinda thinking now that it's bound to be on the salty side again.

 

[jcam222]

Jared up some 1/2 pints. The heat is very mellow. They are salty though. I re-read the 3.5% salt ratio. I weighed the pepper and water, if I'm understanding this better, should only have weighed the water for the brine solution. Honestly a lot of hot sauces on the market are just as salty. A final run through the garden got packed into a mason. (in the background). I reused the brine from the 1st batch. Please let me know if this was a bad idea. Kinda thinking now that it's bound to be on the salty side again.

None of my ferments are salty after 3 weeks or more. I actually end up adding a little salt in many of mine. Really no need to weigh water or peppers. Chart below is perfect for the salt / water ratio. Did you check PH on your finished ferments? If our salt was too high it could have prevented proper fermentation. Lastly reusing only the brine for a new ferment is not a good idea in my opinion.

 

[campfindit2]

Ordered up a PH meter and a Vitmix. I'll have it for the present ferment that's brewing. Thanks for the input.

 

[jcam222]

Ordered up a PH meter and a Vitmix. I'll have it for the present ferment that's brewing. Thanks for the input.

I meant to post a brine chart and didn't. Here it is.