Cool chart MikeUSMC. I had never seen it, but I'm glad it confirms that what I do is fairly on par. I should try a pepper mash sometimes.

I use about 10 grams of koshering salt per pound of cabbage when I make sauerkraut. I did have it come out a bit on the salty side once or twice, I guess I could reduce my amount a bit.

I have a similar air lock, originally a bargain from Perfect Pickler, which has a pretty good website but now they package the airlock with other stuff and is much more expensive. I have had great luck with fermenting and following recipes that specify a brine. Make sure you are using a coarse salt and not table salt. If you go to website, there is a recipe for salsa base but they have changed it from the original recipe booklet I got. I contains peppers, onions and celery plus seasoning. Original recipe did not use the tube of chili pepper seasoning. Once fermented, this base makes an interesting addition to scrambled eggs. The brine is very important for safety's sake. I don't think I've ever had a mold develop. My favorite fermented vegetable is probably beets.

Make sure you are using a coarse salt and not table salt.

I don't think it necessarily has to be "coarse" salt; so long as it's non-iodized. I use pink and black sea salt all the time.

The brine is very important for safety's sake.

Very true. Salt plays a big role in keeping the "bad" bacteria (mold) and kahm yeast at bay. One way to get around using such a salty brine is to use powdered probiotics as a "starter" for your mash. I go overboard with the probiotics upfront so I'm able to just 'salt to taste,' and add quite a bit of sugar for the lactobacillus to eat right off the bat. That way, they're multiplying quickly and the 'bad' bacteria don't stand a chance.

This is how I've been making all of my fermented sauces for the past few years:

Gather all of your ingredients:

Blitz them in a food processor until they're at about a 1/4" chop, and transfer to a big mixing bowl. This is where I add all of my salt, spices, and sugars (white or brown sugar, agave nectar, honey, molasses, etc.):

Give everything a good stir and make sure everything in the bowl is coated and sticky. Here is where I add the "starter" (probiotics). I love these 1g single serve packets. I'll add anywhere from 3-5g per 1/2 gallon (I've found that the more probiotics you add, the lighter you can go on the salt. I typically use about 1&1/2 tsp of salt per 1/2 gallon of mash). Give the mash another really good mix to try to get the powder distributed throughout the mash:

Ladle everything into your sterilized jars, UP TO THE NECK of the jars. Headspace is important! The mash is going to rise and fall a little through the fermentation process. Too little headspace and it'll overflow. Too much headspace means more oxygen in the jar, and more of an opportunity for mold to grow:

Top the jars off with a few cabbage leaves for weight, to keep the mash submerged under the brine (white wine makes a great brine; try something fruity, like Moscato. White Zinfandel works well in a sauce with red pods too). Pour your brine over the mash until it's covered by almost an inch (cabbage does not have to be fully covered) :

Cap them off and fill your airlocks (vodka is more sanitary than tap water) :

Place them in a dark cabinet around 75-80*F (optimal). Obviously, you probably don't keep your house this warm, so you could put the jars on a seedling heat mat (like I do, above my range/microwave) :

You can let it ferment from anywhere between 2 weeks to 10 years, or more. Totally up to you! Make sure to constantly check the liquid level in your airlocks though! You don't want them drying out, letting oxygen in.

When you decide, "Enough's enough! I can't take the waiting anymore!" blend everything up and check your pH level. You're aiming for 4.0 or lower. If your pH is good, and you like the taste, boil and bottle! You could also boil it and let it "rest" in the fridge for a week or two, to let the flavors really meld together. If it needs tweaking, go for it. Just be mindful of your pH level if you're adding more ingredients (even water, if you want to thin the sauce out).

Once you're happy with your sauce, boil it again and bottle the sauce at 190*F using the "hot fill hold" method (Google it), and invert your woozy bottles to sterilize the caps directly after bottling. Or you could also BWB can it in jars.

Bottled and dressed to kill ;)

If you're uneasy about jumping into fermenting for the first time with your hard earned harvest of peppers you've slaved over all year, you could always do a test run with store bought peños, Habs, Bells, etc. and experiment.

Hope this helped :)

-Mike

I'm sure I left something out of that post ^ (I type with one finger, and that took me like 45 minutes, haha), so if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to TRY to answer them :)

Mike, somewhere the table salt vs coarse salt was explained and in addition to non-iodized issue, the different salts measure differently. Here's a pretty good explanation http://www.fermentationrecipes.com/using-measuring-salt-fermentations/1014

basically, there is less salt per volume with coarse grained salt. Another link said sea salts are preferred because they have more minerals and less sodium chloride. I'll have to double check the coarse salt I have on hand now that I've run out of what came with the airlock. I think it was a dark colored sea salt.

"basically, there is less salt per volume with coarse grained salt."

Correct. That's why (if going by a recipe) you should always go by the WEIGHT of the salt vs. the VOLUME. 1 tablespoon of 'fine' salt will be much more than 1 tablespoon of coarse salt.

Good breakdown of you technique MIke! I don't use starter probiotics, but will use fermented garlic if I happen to have a freshly made batch, to get a similar jump start.

Gotta love kitchen scales, especially for measuring tricky stuff like fermenting salt as well as for being more precise when baking bread.

Its been sitting in a mason jar in my fridge for 3 days with a napkin over the top and the band closed. I took it out last night and mixed in a tablespoon of kosher salt.

Im fine with making a small batch to learn how to do it correctly for a larger batch. The only thing I don't want to do is invest in another tool like the ones you use over the lid. How can I do it with only a mason jar?

It's a little tricky. My Perfect Pickler Kit came with a stainless steel cup about the size of a shot glass that is used to keep the vegetables under the brine. The air lock is handy because it lets gas escape but doesn't not allow contaminants in. I've also filled a small jar with water to insert into a wide mouth mason jar to hold the veggies down and then draped a cloth napkin over the top. You should ferment on your counter top to start off. Cold slows things down. I may leave something out for a week and then refrigerate it after it's pretty well fermented.

I left in the fridge because I wasn't sure what I was doing. In the fridge I could slow everything down and buy myself a few days to see what people say. I added some more salt and filled my jar to the top with peppers and water.

Be brave. If you don't see any spoilage when you leave something to ferment on the counter and you've used the proper amount of salt and water, you should be fine. There's a lot of recipes on the internet. I've got some shishito peppers that I'm probably going to ferment as if they were pepperoncini. The flavor of something fermented is different from something pickled with vinegar and, remember, probiotic is good for you.

I've never fermented hot sauce, but I do like to ferment chile sauce and use it like extra hot salsa. My method is fairly safe:

• Blend a number of quarts of peppers (it doesn't matter if they're old, because we're going to cook them before fermenting; you can add some filtered water if you need to)

• Add a cup of distilled white vinegar per quart (for flavor, because I like vinegar, and because it makes it even less risky; I personally like the combination of lactic acid and acetic acid together, since I like powerful tastes; I've done most of my ferments without vinegar, but upon trying it with vinegar, I really liked it)

• Add over a tablespoonful of pickling/canning salt per quart (up to 2 tablespoonfuls)

• Add some cardemom

• Cook on high heat until everything that will die is clearly dead

• Cool it (covered) until it is safe enough to put in the jar (I prefer half-gallon jars) without breaking it

• Put the lid on the jar, and let it cool until it doesn't hurt to hold it

• Crush up three chewable Naturalist brand L. acidophilus tablets (with B. lactis) per quart, or something like that (whey from yogurt might work, but I haven't tried it)

• Stir the probiotics in. (You do need some kind of probiotic starter, since we cooked the sauce.)

• Use a jar lid without an airlock, but with a tight seal—and release the pressure when needed. I prefer this to using a silicone airlock, like Fermilids, which I've used for all my other lacto-ferments (so far), since you can potentially carbonate your sauce. You need pressure to get carbonation, and you probably won't get much pressure with an airlock. Just don't get too much pressure or the jar might explode.

• Don't stop fermenting it the first time you taste it. Wait at least an extra day. Stir it every time you open the jar to taste it (if you're just releasing pressure, you probably don't need to stir it)

I didn't crush up the probiotics the first time when I made it (my second batch is fermenting now), but it was ready in about 8 days, and I hardly ever had to burp the jar. With the probiotics crushed up, it's fermenting a lot faster, by the look of the CO2 build-up after a day or two; I'm hoping it carbonates this time. I'm not sure when it'll be ready, but I imagine less than 8 days.

It'll ferment a lot more slowly than eight days in cooler temperatures.

Anyway, the result of the first batch was a lot of flavor. It's excellent on eggs, fried potatoes, burritos, etc.

I didn't have any issues with mold or kahm yeast.

Oh, one caution. If you actually do manage to carbonate your sauce, be sure to loosen the lid very slowly (it might erupt, which could be particularly disastrous with a chile sauce or hot sauce). I'm fermenting some cantaloupe, right now (to make vinegar afterward); it erupted quite a lot the first time I burped it. It was definitely carbonated. Hot sauce and chile sauce should be more difficult to carbonate than cantaloupe, though, especially if you use salt as you should, IMO.

I added kosher salt and water to fil to that in my mix. I closed the band over a paper towel, to avoid needing to burp it. So far it tastes great and I think its working. I don't see anything spoiling, mold forming and it doesn't taste sour at all.

Hmm. I guess I never really answered the question you asked in your opening post:

"Can someone explain how this is safe and if I am missing understanding a step in the process?"

There are different ways to ferment stuff. However, with lacto-fermentation (which is what will get lactic acid and LABs, vitamins and nutrients in your sauce, hopefully without much else), usually people try to avoid oxygen getting to their ferments, as much as possible. People normally recommend using an airlock, but some people burp the jars, using lids without airlocks. LABs can thrive in anaerobic conditions with a fair bit of salt (sodium chloride), while many other organisms prefer or need oxygen and less to no salt. Not all lacto-fermentation uses salt (yogurt is an example here), but the process can be a lot different without it. The more salt you add, the slower the ferment will likely be, but the safer it will likely be (don't add more than a couple tablespoonfuls of fine salt, and even that can be too much, depending; 1.5 tablespoonfuls ferments much faster). Be sure to use pure salt (just sodium chloride; no anti-caking agents or iodine), or it may interfere with the ferment. Pickling/canning salt is pretty inexpensive in stores (but much more expensive online). People don't usually add vinegar to a lacto-ferment, but you can if you want to. LABs can still live in it. Things that are lacto-fermented include, but are not limited to sauerkraut, kimchi, some knds of pickles, etc. LABs are naturally on freshly picked produce, and if you're doing raw ferments, as most people probably do, the fresher the produce the better (don't use old, raw produce). You can add a starter to make it faster. You'll probably need a starter if you cook it first.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind, after I explain the next two items, that I don't drink alcohol, but I am trying to make vinegar, and it helps to know about alcoholic ferments if you want to make vinegar from scratch. It's also helpful to know so you can know how to avoid alcoholic ferments.

Another way to ferment will create significant amounts of alcohol, and is similar, but it requires no salt, and whatever you're fermenting should be sugary. Microbes will turn the sugars into alcohol. Yeasts like sugar, and they're good at making alcohol from it. At least some yeasts can make lactic acid, too, I believe. Yeasts don't require an anaerobic environment, but an anaerobic environment is probably going to be more successful for this kind of ferment, to avoid spoilage organisms and other issues.

After making alcohol, you can do pretty much what you're doing with your hot sauce (except without salt) to turn the alcohol into vinegar. Alcohol needs oxygen for acetic acid bacteria to change it into vinegar. People might cover it with something that breathes to keep flies out, but I think fruit flies are normal and shouldn't hurt the vinegar. Acetic acid bacteria can be in the air naturally, but people like to add mother of vinegar (essentially acetic acid bacteria) to make the vinegar-making process faster. I've read that you can make vinegar without turning it into alcohol separately, but it's more likely to work if you turn it into alcohol first.

When making vinegar, it's normal to see vinegar eels (which are harmless nematodes that I've read eat acetic acid bacteria, apples and probably other stuff). You don't need to take them out after it's done, but I understand if you want to. Making vinegar can take a while, potentially. After the vinegar has finished fermenting, you might want to strain or cook it. You may also want to freeze it to separate the water and vinegar from each other.

Another way to ferment is often done with beans, grains, and such. People will soak them, and periodically rinse them, without giving them a strictly anaerobic or salty environment (this is why they have to rinse them*). They typically only ferment legumes/grains in this fashion, and only for up to a few days. Then they cook them. Some people might not realize that this is fermentation. They may just be softening their beans.

*I've lacto-fermented beans in a salty, anaerobic environment without rinsing them, for a couple weeks or so, and it does work. I'm sure they taste much different this way: they taste like smoked fish to me, and quite strange, but they were safe to eat (and I noticed some cool health benefits). Most people probably wouldn't prefer the taste or smell.

People ferment grains for livestock, for healthier animals, but I'm not 100% sure of the process.

Even just letting bread rise is a form of fermentation (as long as yeast or bacteria are rising it).

Some people do open air ferments similar to lacto-fermentation. I'm calling covering with a paper towel or cloth an open-air ferment; I don't know that this is standard terminology. Whatever the case, it's not anaerobic. This typically only lasts a few days at the most (unless you're making vinegar). It would assuredly have a wide variety of microbes in it. Whether it's safe or not is a matter of debate, so far, but some people say it's great and some people err on the side of caution. I probably wouldn't do it without knowing and trying safer methods first to get a better idea of what fermented food tastes like, and of how the science behind them looks. I imagine a greater salt content would help. Open-air ferments will ferment more quickly.

Some people ferment flour in water (with or without sugar) in a somewhat aerobic fashion to create a sourdough starter, to rise bread.

What you're doing sounds like a hybrid between the open-air method I mentioned and the quicker way to make vinegar without turning it into alcohol first (except there may not be enough sugar in the peppers for much vinegar to be produced). I'm not really sure what kind of microbes are brewing, but I did something like that once with blended up, salted cantaloupe with extra sugar added to see if it would make salty vinegar. It did become acidic enough to bubble somewhat if I added baking soda, but it got lots of kahm yeast, eventually. I didn't feel good about it after a while (it didn't seem to be getting acidic enough); so, I threw it out. I never tasted it. It never got vinegar eels. It did produce a lot of some kind of gas as it fermented that smelled dangerous (kind of like chlorine and something else), though (although sniffing the contents did seem to clear my sinuses and my head, and did seem to me to have a positive microbial influence, if you believe that; maybe that was the kahm yeast). I made sure to stir it often, to prevent mold. Stirring does help to prevent mold. I did something similar first, without stirring and without adding extra sugar, and it smelled like vinegar after a few days, but it molded.

I've probably missed several methods of fermentation in my list above, but I hope that helps. I'm glad what you're making tastes good. That's usually a good sign. Fermentation should make the food more acidic (sour), however, but IMO not all lactic acid ferments get very sour. The worry some may have is that it might attract too many yeasts, which might not be beneficial to the health if you consume too many, but some people might not care. I don't claim to know what's best for people there, but caution might be advisable, especially if you're on anti-biotics or something (which may give yeasts a clear advantage over LABs). You could probably cook it afterward to make it safer if you're concerned. My concern is that adding salt wasn't in the original recipe (and you're still using the same recipe besides that). Salt should in theory only make things safer, however, but it could maybe disrupt a lesser-known fermentation process that the recipe maker intended.

You're probably somewhat safer fermenting hot peppers than you are many things.

If health/safety is your primary concern, I'd go with the salty, anaerobic LAB (lactic acid bacteria) ferments, since those are very common and well-established. But if you're feeling adventurous, there are lots of other things to try.

I meant to mention earlier that in lactic acid ferments, the LABs produce carbon dioxide as they ferment. Carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen; so, as it builds up, it pushes oxygen out of the jar (hence the need for an airlock or burping your jar). When there's only carbon dioxide by the top layer of your ferment, it shouldn't mold.

Fermentation is usually done at a cool room temperature. Yogurt, however, requires much warmer temperatures for a faster fermentation, but I believe the process is more controlled, to prevent dangerous microbes from proliferating. Warmer temperatures fit to ferment yogurt may cause dangerous microbes to flourish (as well as the good ones); so, you have to be careful and really know your stuff there. I've never heard of anyone fermenting anything but yogurt and maybe the starter for salt rising bread at those temperatures. Salt rising bread starter actually does at least sometimes contain dangerous microbes, but I believe cooking the bread kills them (and there are no known deaths from salt rising bread, from what I read about it).