My First Ferment: Hot Peppers

Hey again y’all, welcome to where I share my first ferment, hot peppers! I’m bringing you yet another first for me. This new skill was a lot of fun to experiment with. It was a simple process with a great end result. The hardest part was waiting the 3-4 weeks for the fermentation process.

Fermentation is a food preservation technique that uses a ratio of salt and water and creates healthy bacteria (probiotics) that are good for gut health. The most common ferments are vegetables. Kimchi, Sauerkraut, Kombucha, and Kefir are all examples of fermented foods.

Most pepper ferments only have to go for about a week, from what I’ve learned, but I chose to go longer in attempt to get a good strong-flavored ferment. It worked! In this hot pepper ferment, I used hot peppers like habaneros, sugar rush peach, and ghost peppers. My husband likes super-hot peppers, and I made this so I could turn it into hot sauce for him. I did also use about half the jar in Jalapenos as well, so that cut some of the extreme off the heat.

Some of the peppers I used came straight out of my garden too! I did have to buy the jalapenos to make up the volume because I didn’t have enough peppers of my own. Also, for my ferment I used a quart sized Mason jar and fermenting lids and “pickle pebbles” or glass weights. You can also use larger sized jars like half-gallons if you like. You will not be canning these jars, so it is safe to use a larger jar. My jars are also regular mouth, not wide mouth, so make sure you use the right size tops for your jars.

• First Day of Ferment (pictured right)

The Prep:

First, I washed all the peppers well with water, no soap. (I highly recommend wearing gloves when handling/cutting hot peppers, even jalapenos.) Going without will leave your hands burning for days! Ask me how I know lol. I made a batch of hot pepper jelly once the first time I found out. Once the peppers were washed, then I chopped them into a rough dice. I chose to leave the seeds be, you can remove them if you’re not wanting a super-hot heat. The more seeds you have, the hotter your peppers will be.

I chopped the garlic as well. I then added chopped peppers and garlic to my jar and packed them down tightly with the pounder/tamper. Then I made the brine. The brine consists of a certain amount of water and salt. In this recipe I used 1 TBSP of salt to 2 cups of water. (I included the videos I followed when doing this process so that you can try your first ferment as well! See the resources below for more info.)

• Last Day of Ferment Before Storing in the Refrigerator. (Pictured right)

Turning the Hot Pepper Ferment Into Hot Sauce:

Once the peppers were done fermenting, (again, I did them for 4 weeks.) I took off the fermentation lid and added a regular mason jar lid and left it slightly open. I then put them in the refrigerator. You don’t want to close it up tight even in the refrigerator because it will continue to ferment, just slower. You will still want to allow the gases to escape as needed. No need for your jar to explode! I chose to let my peppers remain in the fridge because I didn’t have time to make the hot sauce right away. I left the pickle pebble in the jar as well to keep the peppers submerged in the brine.