Wood Fired Habanero Hot Sauce Lacto Fermented For MAXIMUM Flavor!

The lacto fermented process adds a nice layer of flavor to the sauce on top of being fire roasted. 

Ingredients:

25 habaneros (I used red habanero, red serrano, cayenne and tabasco in the video)

5 cloves garlic

***The following is done by weight, procedure below

Fine sea salt

Bottled spring water or filtered water

Tools needed:

Sharp knife

Cutting board

Rubber gloves

Digital kitchen scale that reads grams

Mason jar

Fermentation weight

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Mason jar lid with air lock or vent made for fermentation. (link has the one I like mad for wide mouth mason jars)

Mixing bowl

FIne mesh strainer

Wire whisk

Small stock pot with lid

Blender

How to make it:

Habaneros are incredibly hot. They sit around range from 100,000 to 400,000 SHU on average. That being said, you need to handle with extreme care. Wearing rubber gloves while handling the peppers is very much recommended.

Lightly wash and air dry the peppers..

Wash jar and fermentation weight with hot soapy water and let air dry.

Remove the stem from habaneros and cut in half. Seed and placenta removal is optional. Remove the outer paper layer from the garlic.

There are a few different ways to lacto ferment peppers for making hot sauces. I prefer to use the Noma Guide To Fermentation method. This book is a great resource for leaning fermentation and I highly recommend it. Grab a copy here.

Place mason jar on kitchen scale, set to grams and tare (zero) the scale.

Add the habaneros and garlic to the jar. Fill the jar to the bottom of the neck of the jar with filtered water. Leave enough room so that when the fermentation weight is placed in the jar, there won’t be any overspill.

Record that weight and multiply it by 2.5 %.

For example: If your ingredients plus water weigh 730 g and is multiplied be 2.5 %, it equals 18.25. This is the amount of salt you will need to make the brine in grams.

Carefully pour the water from the jar into a mixing bowl holding back the ingredient.

Place a small dish onto the scale, tare it and add the 18.25 g of salt. If your scale doesn’t read decimal points, round to the nearest whole number. In this case, round down to 18 g.

Add the salt to the water and whisk to dissolve. Add the salty water solution back to the jar with the ingredients and place in your fermentation weight. It is very important to make sure that the ingredients stay submerged beneath the brine level. If any ingredient is allowed to be exposed to the air, mold will most likely form and my recommendation is you will need to start over.

Place the jar onto a glass pie dish or pyrex dish and place on counter top away from direct sunlight. I have a spot in my pantry that is specifically just for fermentation projects that stays consistent temperature between 68-75 degrees F day and night. Lacto fermentation works the best when it is exposed to that temperature range with no large fluctuations.

I let this ferment for 3 months. I have found that if you ferment for 2 weeks to 1 month, the results will be great as well. You will see fermentation signs after about day 4. This will look like tiny bubbles I call lazy carbonation that collects on the outside of the ingredients and float to the top. It may form a yeast on the surface level of the brine which is completely normal. This is called kahm yeast and some people generalize the yeast with calling it pellicle. Completely safe and normal. I skim it off before making the sauce and leave it during the fermentation period.

The flames give the peppers a nice flavor. 

When the fermentation period is done, check the pH of the brine. It should be around 3.5-3.7 pH if the fermentation was succesful. Strain the ingredients reserving the brine for blending later on. Place the peppers and garlic on the perforated pan. Fire up the charcoal grill with lump charcoal or briquettes. Once the charcoal is warmed up and ashed over, place a split of wood on the charcoal and let it burn until the flames are burning clean. When ready, place the pan with the ingredients directly over the flames so that the flames kiss the peppers and garlic. The flames will char and color the ingredients. When everything is evenly charred, move the pan over to indirect heat and close the lid to the grill and let cook for about 10 minutes to soften them.

Simmering this outside helps with the fumes.  The fumes can irritate your eyes and throat.  

When the ingredients are softened, place the ingredients in a stock pot with the brine. Place the stock pot over the heat of the coals. Bring the liquid up to a boil and move the pot around to an area that will keep it at a simmer for about 10 minutes. I recommend placing a lid over the stock pot to keep the fumes at bay. The fumes are strong and will irritate your eyes and throat. Once the ingredients are softened, remove the pot from the heat

Blend to a smooth consistency adding brine to adjust consistency.  Straining the sauce is optional.  

Let cool slightly and place ingredients with the vinegar in a blender. If desired, use a little less brine while blending to see how the consistency is when the sauce is fully blended. Blend on high for 45 second to 1 minute to blend the sauce to a smooth consistency. You can add more brine to adjust consistency. Sauce thickness is a personal preference and you can add as much brine as desired.

I like a smooth sauce, therefor I strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer catching the sauce in a bowl.

Cool sauce and pour into a mason jar or hot sauce bottles.

With that low of a pH, the sauce will stay good in the refrigerator for many months. I have had a sauce in my refrigerator pushing 1-1/2 years and it was still good before I was able to use it all up.

Delicious, spicy hot sauce that will not disappoint with the heat!

Enjoy,

Logan