George, What exactly are you making? Is it a tabasco like sauce? Sounds great, do you have a more detailed recipe or is this all of it? How do you know when they are ready to process. Sounds like something I would like to make.. Jane zone 5 (cloudy today Colorado) -----Original Message----- From: George Shirley [mailto:gshirley@lightwire.net] Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2000 3:30 PM To: Gardeners List Subject: [gardeners] Hot stuff - read with care Just got through running about a gallon of fermented hot chiles through the food mill. Got a nice slurry of liquid and pulp, no seeds or skins. Added about 30% by volume of white vinegar to it and have sitting aside to mellow for a week prior to bottling. While I was at it I ran about 6 quarts of frozen chiles through the food processor and salted the chopped chiles down in the 1.5 gallon crock (ex-cookie jar). Nothing bothered me until I started washing up, coughing, sneezing, etc began. Forgot to put on my air-purifying respirator. Don't have to worry about clogged sinuses anymore. The chiles that were run through the food mill had only been fermenting for a little over a month. Usually I let them ferment for a year but this batch was ready to put up and then some. I've been washing and drying the fresh, ripe, chiles and then putting them in a bag in the freezer until I get enough to process at once. Evidently the freezing breaks down the cell walls well enough that the fermentation process is speeded up. I like it better this way as I don't lose a batch to mold anymore. Chop it, salt it, and store the crock in the fridge. Works good for me as I don't have access to a salt mine as does Tabasco. Oh well, time to start freezing chiles again for another batch. George