RE: [gardeners] Hot stuff - read with care

Jane Burdekin (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 26 Jul 2000 15:44:27 -0600

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