Saturday, September 17, 2011

Pickled peppers update

The two smaller jars developed some really funky smells and some nasty gray mold. I think some clostridium took hold in those, so I tossed them. I've read that if fermenting veggies get mold you can just scrap it off, but the smell was pretty rank so I didn't want to risk it.

The big jar has been chugging right along though, with no mold and just a pleasant tart aroma.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Half-a-peck of pickled peppers

Brewing has opened me up to the world of Lactic fermentation. My neighbor got a good deal on a bushel of cayenne peppers and gave me 3lbs. Here's the recipe I used:

3lbs cayenne peppers
6tbsp of salt
4tbsp sugar
8c H2O
8tsp minced garlic
2 large onions
3tbsp of Kimchi juice

I heated the water, sugar, and salt to thoroughly dissolve, then cooled. I sliced the peppers into rings, and put into jars with the garlice and sliced onion. I then filled the jars up with the liquid part, and added a tablespoon of liquid from kimchi to each jar, to kick off fermentation. This is probably not necessary, but I felt better doing it.

The next day they were bubbling away, and have been for about a week now.

In a few weeks, I plan on blending up the big batch and making hot sauce out of it, and keeping the small batches whole to use in place of pickled jalapenos.