Fermented VS Non Fermented Hot Sauce…Which One Better?

Both are amazing sauces delicious in their own way. Is one better……?

This post is more of comparing two ways of making hot sauces and not going too deep on how the lacto fermentation process works. I will explain this process on a very basic level. For a more in depth instructional post, check this out.

The base ingredients are the same between the two hot sauces. There are differences in how much vinegar and salt is being used, I kept the rest of the ingredients the same to see how different techniques affect the flavor profile and sauce color.

The results are interesting and this was a fun experiment to have!

Fresh blueberries are amazing in flavor when they are in season.

Ingredients for the fermented sauce:

15 habaneros

10 oz fresh blueberries

1 tsp anise seeds

1/8 c peach cider vinegar

Filtered water - done by weight, see procedure below

Fine sea salt - done by weight, see procedure below

Ingredients for the non fermented sauce

15 habaneros

10 oz fresh blueberries

1 tsp anise seeds

1/2 c peach cider vinegar

1/4 c water plus a few tbsp more for adjusting sauce consistency while blending if desired

Pinch kosher salt

Pinch freshly cracked black pepper

Tools needed:

Digital kitchen scale

2 pint mason jar

Fermentation weight

Jar lid or lid with an airlock

Cutting board

Sharp knife

2 small mixing bowls

Wire whisk

Mesh strainer

Rubber spatula

Small sauce pot

Blender

Rubber gloves

How to make it:

Anise adds great flavor to the sauce and amplifies the natural flavor of the blueberries.

It’s amazing the color difference between the fermented sauce and non fermented sauce.

Let’s go over the fermented sauce first.

Wash and dry the peppers and berries, let air dry. Pull stems off the peppers. Cut the peppers into quarters looking inside the pepper as you cut them to make sure there’s no bad spots.

Place empty mason jar on the scale, set to grams and tare the scale.

Add the peppers and blueberries. Fill the jar with filtered water to the bottom of the neck. It is important that the ingredients stay submerged. Record that weight and multiply it by 2.5 %. This will be the amount of salt you need to make the brine.

For example if the ingredients plus water equal 900 g, then multiply it by .025 and you will get 22.5 grams.

900 x .025 = 22.5

In this case, I round to 23 (nearest whole number if not 22.5) as my scale won’t read decimals.

Carefully pour some of the water out from the jar into a small mixing bowl. Place a small dish on the scale, tare it and add the salt. Add the salt to the water and mix with whisk to dissolve.

Pour the newly made brine back into the jar with the peppers and berries.

Place a fermentation weight on the ingredients to keep them submerged. This is very important as you don’t want any ingredients to touch the air. Air contact will most likely motivate mold growth as this is going to ferment for 1-1/2 months.

Loosely cover jar opening with a lid or cheesecloth secured with mason jar lid ring. You can also use a lid with an airlock if you have one.

Lacto fermentation is fascinating how it works, plus all naturally occurring. If you don’t have an airlock lid, you can use a coffee filter secured with a mason jar lid ring.

Let this ferment at room temperature away from direct sunlight. I have a spot in my pantry that is dedicated to fermentation. A good temperature range for fermenting is 68-75 degrees f. If it is too hot, it may spoil before fermenting. If it is too cold it will be slow or not start at all Ferment for 1-1/2 months. After a couple of days, you should see signs of fermentation. This will look like tiny bubbles starting to collect on the outsides of the berries and peppers. This is a great sign that the fermentation process is under way.

Once the fermentation process is done, check the pH of the brine if you are able to. You’re looking for a pH of less than 4.6 to be considered safe to keep moving forward.

Add all the ingredients from the jar to a small stock pot and place on medium high heat. Placing a lid over the pot will help keep the spicy fumes under control. Bring to a boil and lower heat to medium low for a low simmer for 15-20 minutes. This will soften the ingredients as wall as halt the fermentation process. I found that the flavor profile changes if you don’t stop the fermentation. Cooking the ingredients will kill off the good bacteria as well. When I ferment peppers, it is typically for sauce making and not for getting the probiotics.

Once the ingredients are soft, kill the heat and let sit for an additional 10 minutes.

Add the solids to a blender and about half the amount of liquid. Adding only half the liquid will help you get your desired sauce consistency. You can easily add more, but taking away liquid from a sauce that got too thin is more difficult. Blend for about 1 minute to fully blend the sauce smooth. Add more liquid to reach your desired consistency. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer if you want to have a smooth sauce. Mix in the vinegar starting with a tbsp at a time until your desired amount of vinegar is reached. This shouldn’t need any salt added since it was blended with the brine. The vinegar will add a nice flavor to the sauce and lower the pH slightly.

Cool sauce to room temperature and store the sauce in bottles or jars. The sauce should stay good for many months when stored in the refrigerator.

I love the deep color of this sauce made from fresh ingredients.

Now, let’s make the sauce made with fresh ingredients.

Remove the stems from the peppers and cut in half. Seed removal is optional. I typically strain my sauces and therefore don’t remove the seeds.

Place the halved peppers, blueberries, anise seeds, water and vinegar to a small stock pot. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper. Place a lid on the pot and turn the heat on to medium high heat to bring the liquid up to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low / medium low to keep at a slow simmer. Continue to simmer for about 20-25 minutes to soften the ingredients. Once the ingredients are softened, turn off the heat and let sit for about 10 minutes.

Place the ingredients in a blender with enough liquid to cover the ingredient by half. I typically leave some of the cooking liquid in the pot and add to the sauce as it blends to get the right consistency. Blend the ingredients on high speed for about 30 seconds or until smooth. Strain through a mesh strainer if desired for a smoother sauce.

Cool sauce to room temperature and give it a taste. Add more salt and/or pepper if needed. There is enough acidity from the amount of vinegar that I added to the sauce that it brought the sauce pH down to around 3.8. This is a great thing since it will help the sauce stay good for many months when kept in the refrigerator. Of course, adding more vinegar will lower the pH if that is what you want. Keep in mind that adding more vinegar will give the sauce a more acidic, vinegar forward flavor.

The results of making 2 sauces with the same main ingredients was very interesting. I found that the fermented sauce had a more rounded, deep flavor with a good amount of spice and acidity. The sauce made from fresh ingredients was very tasty as well. I found it to be more sweet on the front end the very first few seconds after you taste it. That is from the ingredients being cooked down with the vinegar and that the natural sugars weren't consumed from the lactic acid bacteria. I found that the flavor of this sauce tapered off quicker than the fermented sauce which makes sense in a way. Lacto fermenting the peppers and berries gives them a beautiful deep flavor that really can’t be replicated any other way.

Both sauces are amazing and good in their own ways. I’d argue that one isn’t better than the other, but good in different ways.

Make the sauces for yourself and find what one you like best.

Enjoy!

Logan