Dorset Naga Chilli fermenting step by step?

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Dorset Naga Chilli fermenting step by step?

Postby Rodreguez on Mon Oct 24, 2016 6:44 pm

Hello chums! Great forum!

Sorry in advance for extremely long post. Hope I can hold your attention!

I've spent what seems like forever trying to work out the exact procedure to suit me for fermenting my Dorset Nagas for a Bengali style pickle I'm working on but I can't seem to get a solid and simple approach. I've just stumbled across this awesome place and so I've got my fingers crossed that someone super kind and in-the-know might give me a bit of guidance?

I guess the best thing would be for me to write down what I think I know so far and how I intend to go about it and include the bits I'm not sure about?

Ok so to start, here's one of the fermenting vessels I have home made out of cocktail jars and an airlock. Keeping the experiements small scale for now:

jars.jpg
jars.jpg (24.5 KiB) Viewed 2471 times


Probably important to note that at this stage I'm just looking for a fermented chilli mash to go in my Indian style pickle (a bit like Mr Naga) rather than a fermented hot sauce BUT if anyone knows for example that certain spices might lend themselves well to being added at this stage I'd love to know! Otherwise I'm kind of intending to just fermenting the nagas alone.

Ok so: I have 5KG of juicy red nagas in my brand new freezer and from what I have gathered so far this is hopefully a decent working method, however there are some things I'm not sure about, so if anyone can help I'd be super grateful. I'm not sure what I can offer in return, maybe a really good BIR style curry recipe from scratch?

Ok so I gather I need a 5% Brine solution which seems simple enough, and then a starter culture of some sort as at least this stage I don't want to wait months to see initial results. I've read stuff about soaking the culture in celery juice but I'm conerned about keeping the naga flavour as pure as possible so I'm hoping it should be ok to put it in the brine solution?

The culture I have is a wine yeast sachet I found in the local Lakeland store. (I heard wine yeast is ok for chillis) It says the sachet does up to 25L, and it's only a couple of tablespoons or so, so I'm guessing just a pinch for a 3L jug of brine (6 x 500ml jars).

So, I guess I just puree the chillis (thinking I'd like to keep the seeds), add them to the jars, about 2/3 full? Then add the brine/starter culture solution enough to cover. I've also read that a cabbage leaf stops the solid stuff rising too high - again, not sure about the smell/flavour and I gather you can get fermenting weights (or even just a pebble?)

Then I guess it's just a case of closing the jar, putting some water (or vodka?) in the top of the airlock and wait for 3 weeks or so, shaking every couple of days? I gather it's important to keep the jar sealed throughout the process? Not sure if I leave the red cap on top of the airlock?

Another thing - I have a small jar of Chilli Wizards (I think) chilli mash - I'm not sure if it's even fermented but I did read that previously fermented mash can be used as a starter? Not sure if this is a good idea for me or not?

So there you have it. I've read mixed articles about how to go about it, so I guess I'm looking for either confirmation that I've got it right, or corrections or pointers to better ideas? I realise it's a long post full of questions so MASSIVE than ks to anyone who can help.

Rod
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Re: Dorset Naga Chilli fermenting step by step?

Postby Christopher Weeks on Tue Oct 25, 2016 7:36 am

I suggest fermenting the chiles whole instead of chopped. They are much easier to keep under the brine that way and you can remove them from the brine. If you puree first, they just mix and float and evade the cabbage leave you mentioned. And if you're keeping the produce under brine, you don't have to shake or stir, which is good since you're planning to use the waterlock.

I'm interested to hear how your wine yeast works out. I wouldn't expect it to be a good fit, but I've never tried, so who knows!? If you want to use a starter beyond what's on the chiles , I'd suggest a bit of cabbage, ginger, and garlic.
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Re: Dorset Naga Chilli fermenting step by step?

Postby Rodreguez on Tue Oct 25, 2016 10:52 am

Christopher Weeks wrote:I suggest fermenting the chiles whole instead of chopped. They are much easier to keep under the brine that way and you can remove them from the brine. If you puree first, they just mix and float and evade the cabbage leave you mentioned. And if you're keeping the produce under brine, you don't have to shake or stir, which is good since you're planning to use the waterlock.

I'm interested to hear how your wine yeast works out. I wouldn't expect it to be a good fit, but I've never tried, so who knows!? If you want to use a starter beyond what's on the chiles , I'd suggest a bit of cabbage, ginger, and garlic.


Hey thankyou so much for the reply. I'm guessing from what you're saying that I've got the right idea aside from the two points you mention, so thankyou!

ps: Interesting about the cabbage ginger and garlic though. Any idea how much for roughly 500ml of chillis and brine?

Perhaps I'll try it with peppers whole then. I did read that there is an advantage in pureeing first but I can't quite remember what it was. Maybe it speeds up the fermenting process? I don't want problems keeping it all down though, so yeah, maybe I'll do them whole for now.

Since I wrote this I actually ordered the "Dr Mercola Kinetic Starter Culture ". I have no idea if it's any good. Sachets come in 2g servings. No idea how much to add? Is there a gram per chilli ratio?

Thanks again for the reply. Seems to confirm I've got it mostly right. Almost ready to give this a shot now...

Rod
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Re: Dorset Naga Chilli fermenting step by step?

Postby Christopher Weeks on Tue Oct 25, 2016 11:56 am

I don't know anything about starters. Vegetables are generally covered in the bacteria that we want to harness, so they're superfluous unless you're doing some very specific culture. I guess just read the instructions that comes with. If you go with using produce, just a little is fine. The cabbage leaf you were thinking about using on top would be enough. A teaspoon of grated, unpeeled ginger. Just enough to get the organisms living on the surface of those plants.

I'd be interested to know the advantage of fermenting them as a puree. It might be fine for you under a waterlock, but I always got huge, gloopy yeast blooms on top when I tried anything like that.
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Re: Dorset Naga Chilli fermenting step by step?

Postby jdinid on Thu Oct 27, 2016 6:09 pm

Would you be willing to expound a little on how you plan on using your "ferment of death"? I grew chocolate bhut jalokias this year and I've been very sparing in my use of them. I can't imagine a ferment made entirely of nagas! But I do still have a over a quart of ghost peppers, so...
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Re: Dorset Naga Chilli fermenting step by step?

Postby Rodreguez on Wed Nov 16, 2016 12:58 pm

jdinid wrote:Would you be willing to expound a little on how you plan on using your "ferment of death"? I grew chocolate bhut jalokias this year and I've been very sparing in my use of them. I can't imagine a ferment made entirely of nagas! But I do still have a over a quart of ghost peppers, so...


Oh hi
Sorry only just saw this. I'll be using it for a Naga pickle. Similar to something like Mr Naga.
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