Smoky Blueberry Habanero Hot Sauce
This is an amazing hot sauce. Nice and fruity, smoky and spicy with some good acidity.
This is an amazing hot sauce. Nice and fruity, smoky and spicy with some good acidity.
Ingredients:
15 habaneros
10 oz fresh blueberries
Fine sea salt - done by weight, see procedure below
Filtered or bottled spring water - done by weight, see procedure below
Tools needed:
Sharp knife
Cutting board
Colander
Rubber gloves
1 qt mason jar
Fermentation weight
Wire whisk
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pH meter (this is the one I like)
Perforated sheet pan
Digital scale
Blender
Mesh strainer
Glass pie dish of baking dish
Smoker (I use my offset smoker with lump charcoal as the heat source and oak/applewood chips for smoke flavor
Mixing bowl
How to make it:
I recommend wearing rubber gloves when handling hot peppers as the capsaicin can burn your skin and eyes.
Wash your peppers and blueberries under cold running water and let air dry on clean kitchen towel. Pull stems off the peppers.
Once the peppers are dry, cut in half and inspect the inside of the peppers. It should be free of mold and signs of going bad. The placenta and seeds should be whitish in color. Discard any peppers that are in question. The blueberries should be free of mold and signs of going bad.
Place mason jar on scale and tare the scale. Add the peppers and blueberries to the jar and fill the jar to the bottom of the neck of the jar with the filtered water. It is important that the ingredients are fully submerged underneath the water level. This is to prevent mold growth. Record that weight and pour the water from the jar into a small bowl.
Use the following calculation to figure out the salt amount needed for making the brine.
In this example, I will use a weight of 870 g. That is the peppers, blueberries and the water.
870 x .025 = 21.75 - This is the amount of salt needed in grams for the brine. If your scale won't read decimal points, round to the nearest whole number. In this example, I will round to 22 g salt.
Place a small bowl or ramekin on the scale and tare the scale. Add the calculated amount of salt. Add the weighed salt to the water that was in the jar with the peppers and blueberries. Mix the salt in with the water with a wire whisk until fully dissolved.
Pour the newly made brine back to the jar that has the peppers and blueberriess. Again, make sure the ingredients are fully submerged. Add the fermentation weight. Loosely fit a lid or airlock on to the jar to keep contaminants out of the jar.
Keep your fermentation projects at 68-75 degrees F for best results.
Place the jar onto a glass dish and set in a place in your house that is a good temperature range that is away from direct sunlight. Typically I keep my ferments in an ambient temperature range of 68 to 75 degrees F. The glass dish is to catch any overspill that may occur. I like to loosely cover the jar opening with a lid or place a coffee filter over it. Sometimes I use an empty glass baby food jar as a weight that can stick out of the jar mouth opening. When that occurs, I use the coffee filter method using the lid ring to hold it in place. This will keep any contaminants for fruit flies from getting into the ferment. After about 3-4 days, you will see signs of fermentation. This will look like tiny air bubbles collecting on the outside of the peppers and blueberries and some “lazy carbonation” as I like to call it after the first week. Great signs the fermentation process is doing what it need to do. The air bubbles are co2 being released by the good bacteria (lactobacillus is the interest here) as they consume the natural sugars in the peppers and blueberries. Lactic acid is being created as well. This is what preserves the food and what gives fermented foods that distinguishable taste.
Let ferment for 2 weeks to 3 months. Lately I like to go with a 1 month fermentation period as I found the flavors are developed nicely at this point. For a stronger, more funky ferment, go longer. When the fomentation period is done, I recommend you check the pH of the brine to ensure the fermentation was successful.
After the fermentation period is done, remove the weight and strain the solids from the brine. Make sure to save the brine for blending purposes later. For it to be safe to keep moving forward and make the sauce, it needs to be below 4.6 pH. My fermented peppers normally are in a range of 3.6-3.8 pH, which is safe to make a sauce with.
Warm up your smoker to 175-200 F.
Place the peppers and blueberries on a perforated sheet pan.
Place the pan on the smoker farthest away from the fire box if you’re using an offset smoker. I like to use XL lump charcoal as the heat source and apple wood chips and oak for the smokey flavor. The ingredients will take around 1-1/2 to 2 hours to soften enough to blend. I check the softness of the ingredients after an hour to see where they are at. It is important to have the ingredients softened and not dried out. Personally I like to hit the ingredients with heavy smoke at first during the first 30 minutes and go with more clean smoke to finish them off.
Once the ingredients are softened, add to a blender with the brine. Use more brine for a thinner sauce and less for a thicker sauce. Blend on high for about 1 minute to break down the ingredients smooth.
Optionally I like to strain the sauce through a mesh strainer. Save the pulp to dry out in a low temperature oven around 190 degrees and ground with some salt for a delicious homemade smokey blueberry habanero seasoned salt!
I like to check the pH once more after the sauce is made to see where it sits. Remember, if it is below 4.6 it is good to store and use as desired. Your can add a splash of vinegar to lower the pH more. if you want. This will change the flavor profile of the sauce slightly depending on how much you add.
Store in a mason jar or hot sauce bottles. This sauce will keep for months when kept in the refrigerator.
Enjoy on eggs, tacos, chicken wings…really wherever you like to use hot sauce!
Enjoy.
Logan.
