Q. On commercially available hot pepper sauces, the first ingredient usually is “Aged Hot Peppers”. What does that mean?
Most pepper sauce companies use aged peppers as the first ingredient in their product. The peppers are fermented similar to how pickles and sauerkraut are. The reason for this is fairly simple. Back in the old days when we were an agrarian society – meaning we were mostly farmers - it was how vegetables were preserved to extend their life after a bountiful harvest.
Fermented or aged hot peppers are no different. The process is a little bit different than canning pickles or making sauerkraut, but the concept is the same. We use salt and the water found naturally in peppers to create a good bacteria to preserve them. The length of fermentation time varies from months to years. For the datil pepper hot sauce pictured to the right above, I used the aged peppers (picture to the left) after about 6 months. The McIlhenny Company ages their tabasco peppers in wooden casks from the Jack Daniels Company for over three years! That’s how they achieve the unique Tabasco brand hot sauce flavor.
The finished fermented hot pepper product is called mash (like the corn mash used to make moonshine). Then we use this mash with vinegar and other spices/vegetables to create a sauce that can be used as a condiment. Tabasco, Frank’s, Cholula, and most other major hot sauce manufacturers use the same or similar process.
At FoodProductLaunch.com, on our private label hot sauces and in our jams and chutneys, and for our customers, we use commercially available pepper mash from a well respected vendor – the Louisiana Pepper Exchange. They strive to make the most consistent pepper mashes in terms of flavor, texture and availability.
Please contact us to go through the Research & Development Process to go From Your Kitchen to the Marketplace.
TJ Gallivan
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I have learned something here today! My preservation method is much simpler. I just soak my scotch bonnet peppers in hot vinegar along with my spices, herbs and vegetables. They're good to go within a few days, but obviously, they get better with age.
ReplyDeleteMy preservation method is nothing as sophisticated as this! I just soak my scotch bonnet peppers in hot vinegar along with my spices, herbs and vegetables and they are ready to go in a few days time. Of course, they do get better with age.
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