Lacto Fermented Hot Sauce

Equipment Needed:

• Clean Quart Jars (quantity dependent on batch size) 
• Fermenting Lids 
• Fermenting Weights
• Kitchen Scale
• Knife & Cutting Board
• Gloves (trust me on this!)
• Food Processor or Blender
• Fine Mesh Strainer 
• Cheese Cloth (Optional)

Ingredients:

• Hot Peppers (Cayenne, Habanero, Hot Lemon, Scotch Bonnet, etc.) 
• Filtered/ Unchlorinated Water
• Non-Iodized Salt
• Garlic, Shallot, Carrot, Ginger, and/or Sweet Peppers, etc. (Optional)
• Xanthan Gum (Optional)

​Instructions:

1. While wearing gloves, cut peppers and any optional additions into 1/2 inch pieces.
2. Layer veggies in clean jars, packing them down as much as possible as you go. Leave two inches of headspace.
3. Make a 5% salt water brine. To do this, weigh your filtered/ unchlorinated water. Then add 5% of that weight in salt. Stir until dissolved.  Example: 1 pint of water (2 cups) is equal to 16 ounces, so you would add 0.8 ounces of salt (about 1 1/2 Tbsp.). 
4. Place your fermenting weight in your jar of veggies and press down. 
5. Pour your salt water brine in the jars until weight is fully submerged, leaving at least 1 inch of headspace. Your veggies will release CO2 during fermentation. If you do not leave enough headspace, your brine will have nowhere to go, except out of your fermenting lid (aka spicy mess).
6. Spoon out any floating veggies to prevent future mold growth.
7. Place your fermenting lids on according to manufacturers guidance. 
8. Place your jars in a location out of direct sunlight. Fermenting veggies do best anywhere from 65 and 72°F. 
9. Leave your jars undisturbed anywhere from 10-30 days. For the first week or two, the jars will be actively bubbling (CO2!) and preserving the contents.  Flavor continues to develop up to the 30 days.​

Making your Hot Sauce: 
When your veggies have finished fermenting, it is time to process and bottle your hot sauce! 

1. Open your jars and use a spoon to remove any Kham yeast that may have developed during fermentation. This is a non-toxic reaction that  sometimes takes place due to wild yeast living on vegetables. Warmer temperatures and opening jars during the fermentation process can increase the likelihood of this yeast developing.
2. Using a fine mesh strainer, strain your veggies and reserve the brine.
3. Add peppers, 1/4 cup of brine and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar to a blender. Blend and add additional liquids as needed.
4. For a sriracha  style sauce, a short spin in the food processor will suffice. For a tabasco style sauce, a high powered blender will work much better. Blend for 1-2 minutes.
5. We don't have a great blender, so at this point I usually strain the blended veggies with cheese cloth and then add them back into the blender. I add 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum and give it a short spin. This will thicken your hot sauce and keep it from separating in the bottle,  without changing the flavor.
6. Pour your hot sauce into bottles or another clean container and refrigerate. Sauce can be kept for up to 18 months in the refrigerator.

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Notes from Author:
We have quickly learned how easy and rewarding fermenting can be. At its heart, fermenting food is a preservation process, but the flavor and health benefits you receive is a real treat!
You may have noticed this recipe doesn't contain exact ingredient amounts, that is because we wanted to outline the basic process!  You can develop your own hot sauce blends with your own heat tolerance in mind or with what peppers and veggies  are in season near you. 
We personally love to use cayenne peppers, garlic, shallots, and carrots in our hot sauce.  Cayenne peppers have just the right amount of heat for what we are looking for in a hot sauce. Falling anywhere from 30,000-50,000 SHUs, cayenne peppers are the the perfect medium heat for a hot sauce to enjoy on nearly anything. Anything from eggs, meats, on cream cheese bagels, and in soups, the  possibilities are endless. We hope you enjoy watching this recipe come to life! 

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