Cameron Begg listed a whole bunch of Candida yeast species as possibilities for what could be the organism(s) responsible for chile pepper mash. I looked them up in _Food_and_Beverage_Mycology_ (AVI 1978, L. Beuchat) which I borrowed from a colleague. One point made in the book was: "[Candida] is the depository for a large heterogeneous group of yeasts which lacks any important criterion for classification except for the production of pseudomycelia." This is unfortunate since once in awhile the classification gives clues to metabolites or substrates (e.g. "Saccharomyces"). With no clue about this from the classification, the type of acid produced in pepper mashes remains unknown. I was able to find references in the book to habitats of some of the species on his list, though this is not the result of an exhaustive search of the index. Candida albicans - pathogenic Candida catenulata - isolated from frankfurters Candida guilliermondii - fresh shrimp, chlortetracyclene-treated poultry Candida intermedia - eviscerated poultry Candida kefyr - potential for use to produce protein from whey Candida krusei - eviscerated poultry Candida lipolytica - fresh fish, mutant tested for citric acid production from palm oil Candida parapsilosis - fresh shrimp, chlortetracyclene-treated poultry Candida utilis - protein from whey, protein and vitamins from sulfite waste liquor Candida vini - Film former, metabolizes lactic acid, lives in lower salt concentration, could be responsible for flavor development in fermented poi Candida zeylanoides - frankfurters, fresh fish There are few clues in the listing above to what is going on. Obviously, I looked hard at the chapter on meats (it was in a nice table), but the chapters on fruits and on vegetables gave few clues either. Mark Ellis gave the good advice to plate samples of the mash (I would add one should do so at different stages) and try to get identifications that way. His point is well-taken about the futility of attempting identification in view of the huge numbers of "bugs" in the world, but it would be neat to see what they are. Regarding the point about a lactic fermentation being more efficient. It maybe would not be faster, but it would give more direct use of the substrate to produce acid since it would occur in a single step. As for the resulting flavor, lactic acid is mellower than acetic acid. Of course, the other metabolites in addition the the acid determine the flavor produced. If the organism is not "clean" and produces a lot of "stinky stuff" it is worthless for this type of fermentation. My vote remains for lactic acid as the one produced. Ion chromatography of the liquor could settle the question. Another value of extreme conditions (lots of salt) is that my impression of chiles is they have little available substrate (sugar, whatever) to get a fermentation going rapidly enough to exclude other organisms. Wine musts are around 25% sugar and beer worts range from 10 to 20% or more fermentables which gives the saccharomyces a good start towards their desirable dominance. Oh, before I forget, the book mentioned one Candida surprisingly missing from Mr. Begg's list: Candida scottii =;-) George Nelson 70431.3065@compuserve.com