gagger, you could be right. I plan to spoon as much of the salt that I can off. It's mostly very crusty and easy to see! I have tasted the liquid at the edges, and it's YES! VERY SALTY! Underneath, there is no salt, so I'm hoping it will equal out. I will definitely update this thread when it happens, but it sure is fun to watch the ferment. I'm thinking 2 or 3 weeks, and then hit it with vinegar and bottle. If it is too salty, lucky me, I've got a bunch of frozen jalapenos in the freezer, so I may have to ferment those without salt, and add them to the salty batch. I could probably kick up the ferment with a little sugar and some wine yeast. Tobasco ferments in oak for 3 years! I don't think I could do that! Waaay too long. I even have an oak barrel, but that is for wine! Most of the joy of doing this is anticipating the flavors that happen, and sharing it with family and friends, with them knowing they can't BUY this stuff! They have to come for a visit to get a taste!! My family likes heat! We are California natives, and have lived close to Mexico forever, so we do like it Spicy HOT!! tracydr, So you added vinegar after 10 days, right? Good luck with your canning! I prefer freezing, fermenting, brining, stuff like that. I fear the lid of the pressure cooker flying off and hitting me! LOL!! Nice to see you post, so i know the garlic in your ferment did not kill you! The sour dough starter gave me a lot of comfort with fermenting. half flour/half water, the bubbles come, and over the years, it just gets better! I don't have a dog or a cat or a fish. Just my Yeasties! And I only have to feed them now and then! Suzi

I've posted several times in the past about fermenting hot peppers, and IMHO, the result is considerably better than the sauces made with vinegar. I'm getting ready to ferment two batches, one with peppers that have turned red - these I've picked and frozen as they turn red - and one batch with green ones. I've grown several varieties of hot peppers - jalapenos, Chili Noir, several of my own inadvertent (eh-hem) 'hybrids' from saved seed. What I'll do is follow the salt ratio for sauerkraut - 3 tablespoons for 5 lbs peppers. So weigh the peppers, drag the food processor outside and chop up them up, then put the result in a 3 gallon crock with the appropriate amount of salt along with some whey or kefir powder, then weigh it all down with plastic bags filled with water, set the crocks in a cool place, put them in a saucer so any spillage won't eat the floor, and then wait 3 - 5 weeks, checking occasionally. That result will be run through a food mill to remove skins and seeds, and then I'll see what I've got. I may add vinegars to cut it, may add fruit juice, who knows. That result can say in the fridge for months. I generally leave a quart or two in the fridge and can the rest. There is a fizzy complexity of flavor thats just hard to describe, but it leaves tobasco sauce in the dust. Looking at the above-mentioned Canadian site, they have a completely different method, but I don't see why it wouldn't work out just fine for smaller batches of peppers.

Michele, I always include peppers in a roasted veggie sauce, and I roast them with the tomatoes, onions, garlic and so forth. I stem, seed, and peel the peppers and combine with the other veggies in a blender until reasonably smooth. I'm sure your sauce will be awesome however you choose to add the peppers! Kathryn

- 12 jalapeno peppers - 8 tablespoons red wine vinegar - 1 whole lime - 1 tablespoon sugar -1/2 tbs. salt -1/2 tbs. onion powder -1/2 tbs. garlic powder Cut hot pepper in half and remove seeds. Drop in boiling water for 30 seconds to blanche. Squeeze juice from lime and combine hot peppers with all other ingredients in blender and chop. Then put on high speed to blend all ingredients together. Store in an old hot pepper sauce bottle or ketsup bottle and store in fridge. It's simple to make and 100% natural. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The only solids in this recipe' is just peppers and made with straight vinegar (plus sugar). It does not matter if the peppers are whole or pureed. The over all density is the same. So I think , it can be safely canned in BWB, since acidity is way up (and pH way down) . I normally just cook in vinegar ,simmer it, blend it and bottle it. If you are too concerned just keep the in refrigerator. The biggest concern in canning is LOW acidity (pH 4.2 or lower) . with these ingredients, the pH should be well under 3. To give you just an idea: A SOLUTION WITH 3 PARTS WATER AND ONE PART VINEGAR HAS A pH OF UNDER 2.8