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.

You should process the jars unless you want to keep them in the fridge and eat them within a few months. All foods stored on the shelf need to be processed. Here is a link on canning peppers. You can use jalapenos in this recipe. It only takes 10 min. to process the jars.Headspace is 1/2 inch. Here is a link that might be useful: Canning hot peppers.

Maybe I'm slow witted, I don't know... but I read this thread and I just cannot get the exact answer I'm looking for... Under the following process, can I safely bottle without heat treating or cooking the sauce using sterilized bottles? 1) Pepper mash fermented with salt and enough saltwater to cover and air lock lid 2) Mash put through food mill and vinegar added 3) Bulk refrigerator aged for 2-3 months. 4) Bottling COLD/never cooked sauce/no heat applied even at closing/shrink seal bottles. Please no "knee-jerk" reactions, I have test batches that are 1-2 years old now bottled and shelf-kept. Sauce definitely needs shaking (no xanthan gum) but the flavor is awesome.

Sorry I took days to get back to this. I had to go away for a few days and my personal life was at a stand still. Kay, that is exactly what I intend to do gram for gram...but I just wanted to ask if anyone already had some experience and for my very first round just keep things simple so that I get the ropes of the fermenting procedure itself.....thank you though! Dave, You know, when I was thinking how it could be possible that the calyxes if left on make a big perceptible difference in flavor to the sauce I thought it might be some special bacteria that reside in this tissue that produce some chemical(s) during fermentation that imparts the difference in flavor. I didn't this it would spoil the pepper mix. The calyx region is actually known to cause spoilage?? This recipe is an adaptation from the published and very popular Sriracha book, for all that its worth. A did read in a few places that you are suppose to use about 2% of the weight of the produce in salt. In the recipe I am using there is 1-1/2 lbs of peppers (675gms) to 2 tsp sea salt. I weighed this and it was 13 gms for me which is about 2%. There is no added water. Is that what you know to be correct? Today I read to add 3.3%. Well...maybe next time? And they say to ferment for 4-7 days, stirring once or twice a day, keeping loosely covered. They do say to stop the fermentation and move on to adding vinegar when you like the taste. That is vague for me! When am I supposed to stop? When it tastes 'right' or when fermentation is over? And how do I really know when fermentation is over? People say allow to ferment 1 week, 4 weeks.....you know all about that. Well things seem to be going OK. The fermentation did start on day 2, bubbling nicely, flavor changing very nicely. No mold or off flavors what so ever. This is day 6. I am letting it go on because I really don't know when I am supposed to stop. The fermentation (bubble production) is much slower now. I asked about this in a separate post also. Thank you so much. K.