Peppers, bacteria and time

Fermented hot sauce has become an annual ritual for me.

Last year’s batch, right after bottling. Because most of the batch was sold at a church bazaar, the name is a playful reference to a quote from John Wesley, the father of Methodism.

I did a post on fermented hot sauce two years ago, when I first got started. But I’ve learned a little more since then, and changed some of my practices. So when a Facebook friend asked me how I make hot sauce, I didn’t just want to link her to that old post. And it’s been long enough that I thought I could get away with a new story on the topic.

Lactofermentation was used for centuries as a way of preserving vegetables. When you put vegetables into the right concentration of salt water, the salt inhibits the bad bacteria that would cause the food to rot, while still allowing lactobacillus to do its work. The lactobacillus produces lactic acid, which gives the vegetables a pleasantly tangy flavor and helps to preserve them. This is how pickles, sauerkraut and other such foods were originally made.

At some point, after vinegar became more widely available, it was discovered that you could pickle foods by soaking them in vinegar, a much quicker and simpler process. And that’s a good thing — I never turn down a pickle, by any method. But there’s something to be said for the complex, funky flavors that are created by fermentation.

Traditionally, veggies were fermented in a crock with a loose-fitting lid. That’s because…