Re: [gardeners] tomatos
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 07 Jul 1998 21:02:50
At 06:43 PM 7/7/98 -0500, you wrote:
snippety snip snip
> George are you fermenting peppers? I read a post by you a while back
>that made me think that. Howdo you do it? I pickled 6 pints of Jalapenos
>Monday.
> Gotta go make supper. Judy will be home from work in a little bit.
> Allen
>
Yup, made my first hot sauce last year with habaneros. Making it this year
with a mixture of chiles. Try to pick them dead ripe and whatever color
they are when ripe. Mine are a mix of reds and oranges at the moment. Crush
or chop the chiles and lay them down in a crock you can cover. Doesn't have
to be airtight, just covered to keep stuff from falling in and dying
instantly. Cover the crushed chiles with about 3 tablespoons to half cup of
pickling salt. Wide variation there depending on how much you put in the
crock the first time. I'm layering mine as they ripen and have a little
over 1/2 gallon down now. Let this mix sit for 6 months to 1 year. A clear
liquid will start coming out of it within 2 or 3 days. When you decide it's
done you whiz it all in a blender with about 50 percent or more of 5%
acidity vinegar. Tabasco sauce is made similarly but allowed to sit in
wooden barrels for 3 years if I remember right.
I bottle mine up in whatever bottles come to hand. I sterilize the bottles
and caps but don't worry to much about boiling water bathing the sauce.
Haven't found anything yet that can live in the stuff. Open the crock lid
right now and your eyes start watering. Great stuff for sinus congestion cure.
I'm sure glad it's you putting up all that food. Gardening and preserving
is a full time job for you isn't it? Of course we would have a bigger
garden if we had more land. Thank goodness we don't have more land. Miz
Anne would probably have me raising milk goats again. <VBG>
George