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I am not entirely sure, but blitzing is a post fermentation process where you blend the peppers with vinegar and xantham gum so they are ready to be mixed into a base for a sauce or added to a sauce? I have seen the term too but could some one clarify it a bit further?

The ph level below 4.6 would be considered pantry and shelf safe. Refrigerating sauces is a safer way to be sure, but if you get a sauce below that level you would be okay to put in a pantry for a year or so. A cool dark place preferably. My sauce rarely last long enough for me to know how long ita good for, or to obtain an average. By the time I bottle and give to family, friends, and myself I dont have to worry too much. Extra peppers I dry and make powder or I freeze for cooking and sauce making in the future during the off season.

There is two main ways to drop ph in a recipe. Acetic Acid (vinegar) or citric acid (lemon or lime juice). Combine both for a balanced flavor or use one or the other. I recommend vinegar mostly. Really helps with the consistency and flavor. Too much citric acid can make it hard to palate, but then again too much vinegar can do that too.

My advice is to refrigerate and invest in a nice ph meter instead of strips. Basing food safety on a colored strip which may be off due to the color of sauces is a little risky. You can find ph meters on Amazon for 10-20 bucks that work well or go big and get some fancy ones for more. I have never used a super fancy one.

Digital Ph Meter Tester 0.01 PH Accuracy Water Quality Tester with ATC 0-14 Measurement Range with Plastic Box for House Water,Hydroponics,Aquariums,Pool,6 pH Buffer Packets calibration(with battery) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DGKSPDJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_cnfxDbC22V4DZ

This is one I recommend.

I've been making hot sauces for several years now, and I think probably the best advice to use on top of everything already said here is to simply try making lots of different sauces. I started off making simple uncooked sauces for the first year or two, then shifted over to cooked sauces and found I liked those better in general. I made (and still make) vinegar forward sauces, less vinegary sauces, fruity sauces, tomato-based sauces, and many other experimental things that either work or don't work to my taste. The question you ask at the bottom of your post re: specifics is really a matter of personal taste. Try making different sauces and see what you like! I don't always want a fermented sauce, and sometimes what I'm eating calls for something less vinegary/more vinegary, or even fruity! You'll probably find that you want to have several different kinds around.

The hot sauce book mentioned in this thread is a good one (I own it and have used it for years), and there are a few others out there that are fun, too. The book, Fiery Ferments, helped me break into fermented sauces, and I've had some fun this summer using some of the recipes for inspiration in my own creations. I pay attention to recipes whenever I find them, either here or elsewhere, and I make note of interesting ingredients that I might want to try.

I also have found that it's helpful to write down the recipe I create when I'm making a sauce. I weigh and/or measure the volume of each thing I add, and then record that for future reference along with any other steps in my process (cook time, blending, etc.). Documenting my process has resulted in a couple of solid recipes that I devised on my own, and it's fun to make then year after year.

Bottom line: find yourself a mess of peppers and start making sauces!

>I was a little concerned that the gasses might have a hard time escaping, especially through my mango and peach "smash" -

Yeah, I wouldn't be worried at all. From my other fermenting experience, particularly the dry sauerkraut method where you literally don't add any water and just add salt and crush up the cabbage (or whatever you're putting in) by hand to draw the water IN the cabbage cells out of the cabbage cells (making its own brine), you don't need a ton of space, and you might not get a ton of space. It's all good; the bubbles will find their way out! (If you want to help that along, you can also shake/tap the jar gently to release the bubbles).

Speaking of sauerkraut method, I usually ferment this stuff in a crock, which doesn't have an air lock per se. It's just an unsecured ceramic lid on a ceramic crock. Although the lid kinda works like an airlock, it's definitely not as fancy (and probably cheaper). So airlocks in fermentation definitely aren't necessary (unless you're making beer and want to keep certain bacteria out if your beer isn't supposed to be a sour).

Glad I can help and all this stuff is kind of useful info!

Yeah! IMHO a good hot sauce balances heat and flavor. From the look of the box, you are getting a good mix of hot, flavorful peppers. Here is a very simple hot sauce recipe. While it doesn't say it, I would recommend you run it through a fine mesh strainer and then mix in a pinch of Xanthan gum (you can find individual packets for like $0.99 in the baking isle of your grocery store). You only need a pinch - a little Xanthan gum goes a long way.

Personally, I would avoid the extracts. They add heat without bringing anything else to the party. Of course, if heat is your endgame it will definitely get you there.

Just in case you are looking for some additional sauces, Da Bomb is really, really spicy. My personal favorite (balancing flavor and heat really well, IMO) is Zombie Apocalypse.

Hope this helps!

Purchased this book a while back and they have a section on types of hot sauces, typed up below:


Louisiana

With a razor-sharp heat, these sauces are simple bends of cayenne or tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt. The salt and chilli peppers are mashed and aged 1 - 3 years, then blended with vinegar. Occasionally xanthan gum or other thickeners are used. Popular Louisiana-style brands include Crystal, Frank's RedHot, Tabasco and Trappey's. Louisiana hot sauces have a relatively thin consistency, with the good ones being more flavorful than merely a spicy, salty vinegar. They needn't be refrigerated.

Hawaii

"Chilli pepper water" is made with whole chillies, garlic, salt, water and sometimes Hawaiian ingredients such as ginger and lemongrass.

Central America and The Southwest

In Central America as well as the American Southwest, you'll often find sauces that are distinguished by the use of a particular chilli (chipotle, New Mexico red, habanero, or cascabel) and earthy ingredients ranging from tomatoes and pumpkin seeds. In New Mexico, most traditional dishes are served with red or green chilli sauce, which flavours meats, eggs, vegetables, breads and burritos. New Mexican-style chilli sauces also differ from many others in that vinegar is used sparingly or not at all. In southeastern Mexico, habanero sauces are as common as ketchup.

West Indies or Caribbean Style

A culinary melting pot, Caribbean cooking has been influenced by colonists from Europe, African slaves, and natives. One island may feature French cuisine, while the next island a half hour away by sail may be English, with Indian influences. Anything goes, but the flavours are always big and the fire hot from the habaneros or Scotch bonnet peppers. With chillies giving the sauces the top fruity notes, each island - indeed, each kitchen - has its own homemade concoction. Jamaican sauces, for example, often blend Scotch bonnets with jerk seasonings and tropical fruits like tamarind or papaya. Puerto Rican sauces float hot chillies and garlic, and maybe a few garden herbs, in vinegar for a pretty pique. As hot as the equatorial sun, island varieties include Susie's hot sauce from Antigua, Sauce Ti-Malice from Haiti, Baron hot sauce from St. Lucia, Pickapeppa from Jamaica, Bajan Pepper Sauce from Barbados, Bello Hot Pepper Sauce from Dominica, and Matouk's from Trinidad.

Asian

Thick and pasty, Chinese chilli sauces include chillies and often garlic and fermented soybeans, and they are used either as a dipping sauce or in stir-fries. Chilli red oil, a distinctive Sichuan flavouring, is made by pouring hot oil into a bowl of dried chillies. The finer the chilli is ground, the stronger the flavour. Ground chilli is commonly used in western China, while people in northern China cook with whole dried chillies. In Indonesia and Malaysia, thick, pungent sauces (called sambals) often feature ginger and garlic. In Thailand, many dipping sauces contain chilli peppers. Nam phrik is the generic term for a Thai chilli dip or condiment made with fish paste, garlic, chillies, and lime juice. Sriracha sauce is a sauce of chillies, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt that is found in Thailand and increasingly in the United States.

<br />
Hope you find this helpful! The book has a variety of recipes that covers each of the above styles, with some of the recipes being readily available [here.](https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/chili-pepper-recipes/hot-sauces/)

Sure, happy to

Ingredients:

• 2 cups distilled or filtered water
  
• 1.5 TBSP additive free salt
  
• 1 lb. red jalapenos (or other hot red peppers of choice), halved, seeds & stems removed
  
• 1 lb. Thai red chilies (or other hot red peppers of choice), stems removed (seeds optional)
  
• 16 oz. sweet cherries (4 oz. in the ferment; 12 oz. added at blending), frozen or fresh (note that if using fresh, 16 oz. is the net weight AFTER the seeds are removed, so you’ll likely need more like 2 or more lbs.)
  
• 2 tsp garlic powder (post-ferment) OR 6-8 cloves fresh garlic in ferment
  
• 1 TBSP sugar (post-ferment)
  
• Optional: splash of white vinegar (post-ferment)
  
  Directions:
  
  1.) Rinse and prepare the peppers as described above.
  
  2.) Add the cherries and Thai chilies to the jar, and garlic if using fresh, followed by the larger jalapeno pieces.
  
  

3. Prepare the salt brine either by combining the salt in warm water and allowing it to cool, or shake them together vigorously in a tightly sealed jar. Then slowly add the brine to the ferment vessel.
   
   4.) About an inch before the jar is filled to the shoulder, add the weight, and continue pouring brine until all produce is submerged. It is important to have some distance from the top, as the water level will continue to rise as the produce releases moisture.
   
   5.) Apply the airlock lid and ferment for desired length. Suggested: Minimum one month. The pictures shown feature a nearly 3-month ferment.
   
   After the ferment:
   
   1.) Strain the brine from the peppers.
   
   2.) Transfer the peppers to the blender, add 1/2 cup of the reserved brine, 12oz. thawed frozen cherries, sugar, and garlic powder (unless fresh cloves were used in ferment). Blend on high for a few minutes. If you prefer a thinner sauce, add additional brine, blend, continuing to add brine and blend until desired consistency is achieved.
   
   3.) You may now store the sauce raw in the refrigerator, or go on to cook and/or pasteurize it.
   
   Raw sauce: This method preserves the probiotic bacteria in your ferment. If you can test the pH and confirm it is 3.2 or below, there will be no issues. If the pH is above this level, it is possible the added sugar and cherries can restart the ferment, which can create excessive pressure in the storage container. It is not suitable for mailing or room temperature storage. If you are close to 3.2, you may add vinegar until the correct pH is achieved. If not, refrigerator storage is an acceptable method, but the container should be monitored and the cap periodically loosened to release potential pressure build-up.
   
   Cooked sauce: Transfer the sauce to a medium saucepan, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, simmering covered for around 20 minutes. You may then opt to blend the sauce further in the blender for several minutes while hot, which will create a very smooth, easily flowing sauce. You can add a splash of vinegar for flavor and to further reduce pH as well. To transfer to 5 oz. woozy bottles, use a bottling funnel.

I used to use my food mill &/or Ninja stick blender, but I got this inexpensive blender on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00HSI1Y6G/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new and its been great. I'd love a vitamix, but I dont have the room or the wish to spend the $$.

By lactose, do you mean lactose sugar? Lactose sugar doesn't contain any live cultures (I mean there may be some dormant wild yeast/bacteria in there), so that's just going to add more food for whatever eventually takes hold of your ferment - wild yeast, Lactobacillus on the peppers, etc.

If you mean pitching Lactobacillus cultures, yes that would work and probably help a bit. Something like this would work well (it's what I use for kettle-souring beers), but a healthy ferment consists of several species of Lactobacillus, and you may get less than optimal results relying on a single strain. Some good literature on this available here, but doesn't appear to be full-text :(

Another solid option would be to pitch a little bit of brine from a previous ferment, especially kraut brine which will have a nice mix of all the good Lactobacillus spp.

Liquid whey should work too, but I've never tried it myself.

Try these weights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CXJ92CG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Make sure you buy wide mouth weights and wide mouth ball jars... I found ball jars delievered WAY cheaper through target and walmart vs amazon.

Try these lids: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07921Y1CY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 These worked great as well.

I stuffed my 32oz jars way too full, and each jar yielded 2.5 5oz hot sauce bottles. Next time I will use 64oz jars...

And yes, also suggest getting a small digital scale to make sure your brines are right... that way you can be sure it stays shelf stable and edible for a lot longer.

Hey, thank you. I use star-san for everything (https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/star-san). A little bottle lasts forever for hot sauce purposes. It's a product used heavily for bottling in the home brewing industry. You can throw the glass, plastics, whatever in it and it's much quicker and easier than being heat processed.

These are the shrink caps I used, they were pretty good: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TG0XZF2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use a small mesh strainer basket that I set over a small pot and push all my sauce/mash through. My results have been so spot-on with a store-bought quality I'm kind of blown away.


I bought these for general purpose straining and they have been perfect! I even use them for rinsing rise and other things like that. They work great for more than just sauce!

>calibartions

lol.

Mine came with calibration solution mix like in this video. I would recommend weighing your water vs. using volume. 1 gram per mL.

They also sell solution.

Find the instructions for your pH meter and read them, there should be calibration instructions.

1. make sure stuff is weighted and under brine
   
   
2. remove as many floaters as possible, sometimes not possible but the less the better
   
   
3. get some good airlocks where you can suck out the oxygen. these help me to almost never get mold. .

I blend it in a food processor first but then I pass it through one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001I7FP54/

It does a PERFECT job.

If it's too thin afterwards (rarely the case) I'll put it back in a sauce pan and reduce it.

You need some sort of an airlock lid. There is a bunch of them out there. Basically as the ferment gases, it pushes the air out on it's own. Here is the one I use

Easy Fermenter Wide Mouth Lid Kit: Simplified Fermenting in Jars Not Crock Pots! Make Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Pickles Or Any Fermented Probiotic Foods. 3 Lids, Extractor Pump & Recipe eBook - Mold Free https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01DJVVORE/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_tfnGDbWQYR98Q

The ones I got off amazon are medium toast. I can’t get over how good the ferment is smelling! Going to try dark toast next time.

I got these—


North Mountain Supply French Oak Cubes (Medium Toast, 4 Ounce) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PL2MLTG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_-bdZDbH988KSZ

Easy Fermenter Wide Mouth Lid Kit: Simplified Fermenting In Jars Not Crock Pots! Make Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Pickles Or Any Fermented Probiotic Foods. 3 Lids(jars not incld), Extractor Pump & Recipes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DJVVORE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7SiMDb515T96A

Has anyone fermented with something like this?

​

https://smile.amazon.com/Easy-Fermenter-Wide-Mouth-Lid/dp/B01DJVVORE/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=ferment&qid=1570111451&s=home-garden&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFESzVOTjE2UEwwMU0mZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA2MDYzNTIyOFZTOUhYUUlNVjlIJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA1MTU0OTQxRk84WUNFSTlRWkk4JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Assuming you're asking about the lids. I bought a set of the Easy Fermenter Lids from Nourished Essentials.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DJVVORE

Just ordered them on Amazon! Just regular Mason jars. These are the lids: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07921Y1CY?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title