Lacto-Fermentation

[stearns]

Made a small batch of hot sauce last weekend, using 50% (110g) fire-roasted fermented hatch chiles and 50% fire-roasted fermented pueblo chiles, along with another ~75g of brine from the hatch chiles (didn't measure volume, just added to the processor that was already on the scale). Still no food mill, need to leave some kitchen gadgets on the registry, but I used the ol' spoon and sieve method to get pretty much all the liquid out of the pulp. The goal was to do a small batch, so when I ended with 7oz it was perfect, filled up and sealed a 5oz bottle to send out and another 2oz for me to try.

The sauce itself looks great, no noticeable separation and just enough little black specks from the charred pepper skin to give it a good aesthetic. I dried out the leftover pulp and ground it in my new mortar and pestle (kinda old but hadn't used yet), the ground pepper that came out smells heavenly, funky and spicy but heavy on the charred end since most of the charred pepper skin ended up not making it through the sieve into the sauce. Only produced about a tablespoon of dried powder, but I think a little will go a long way with this stuff. Thanks for the tip Bob!