hot pepper
First Time Growing Aleppo Peppers
My first time growing Aleppo (Halaby) peppers. Good looking peppers on a 3ft plant with a dozen or so medium-sized peppers that are supposed to be medium heat.
Batch 22 Hot Sauce – Entry 3
Last week's heatwave got the peppers fermenting too fast, so we reduced the 3rd addition of fresh peppers from 16 to 12oz. Hopefully that will slow it down.
Making Batch 22 Fermented Hot Sauce
For Batch 22, I'm using Cayenne/Thai peppers from 2 year-old plants. I hope they add some interesting flavor notes to the 6-month long hot sauce fermentation.
Peppers are Pooped Out
It has come to my attention that my Central American "Culebra Negra" peppers are not at all happy about the cold weather. It's the end of November so we've had a couple of near-freezing nights with 34° to 37°F lows right before dawn, but nothing that I would consider a hard frost. The Hidden Lake Hot Cayenne/Thai hybrids are still flowering and fruiting quite a bit, but the Culebra Negras are a different story. Seems these poor plants, with their burned and shriveled leaves, have a lot less tolerance for the near frosty temps.
Hot Sauce Batch 20 – Entry 1
Batch 20 of my 6 month fermented hot sauce begins with 5oz of Hidden Lake Hot, a Cayenne/Thai cross, and 7oz of Culebra Negra, a Central American pepper I got from a friend.
Video: Hot Pepper Cadets Class of 2020
The candidates for this year's 20th anniversary batch of slow fermented hot sauce include a super-sized batch of my Thai/Cayenne cross and a Honduran pepper called "culebra negra" (black snake).
How to Make Awesome Hot Sauce
Fermented hot sauce is more complex and flavorful than a standard hot peppers and vinegar sauce. Better yet, it's not hard to make your own. Here's how.
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 11
The hot sauce has been quietly fermenting in a cool, dark area of the garage for several weeks now. It was before Christmas when I added the toasted oak staves and the last of the fresh peppers from the garden, so the bright red color is giving way to a duller brick red/orange. The peppers, which I added whole, are beginning to dissolve and fall apart, leaving a layer of pepper seeds at the bottom of the jar. A little white mold has accumulated at the top of the jar and there's a musty, tangy scent telling me that fermentation [keep reading...]
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 10
That's it. Oak is in the brew and the last of the peppers are picked and added for Batch 19 of the Hidden Lake hot sauce. 12 weeks of fresh fermentation. Now for 12 weeks of aging. See you in spring peppers. Merry Christmas everyone else!
End of the Line for Hot Peppers 2019
The summer ended with the rain in November. Then came the frost. Then came the rain again. These are officially the last peppers of Hidden Lake Hot Batch 19. At least they were easy to pick.