(Salty) Mango Reaper

Fermented Ingredients (48 weeks):
• Carolina Reapers 110g
• Garlic 15g
• Brine 1 cups

Fresh Ingredients:
• Yellow Onion 237g
• Yellow Bell Peppers 175g
• Chesnok Red Garlic 28g
• Mangoes 257g
• White Vinegar 1.5 cups
• Water 1/2 cups
• Salt 1/2 tsp (I did tbs, don't do that)
• Xanthan Gum 1/8 tbsp

Saute the bells and the onion until charred and caramelized, add the garlic until golden. Throw everything into the blender except the xanthan and blend on high for 5 minutes. Simmer for 20 minutes, cool and reblend with the xanthan on low for 90 seconds. Bottle, refrigerate. Yields about 30oz, pH 3.4

This is maybe the oldest jar in my cupboard and for sure one of my first ferments. I was wondering if I over salted the brine, but after reviewing other recipes I think I made a mistake up by adding salt measured by a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon. That might explain why it's so fucking salty. Not inedible but not fit to sell or give away. I'm eating it with unseasoned food which is surprisingly working out great

Notes:
• Not many tasting notes since the salt over powers literally everything else
• Deeper color than what I was going for. This was a recreation of a sauce I made a month or two before I launched the blog that I remember being a bit pale (hence the bell) but this came out completely orange leaning towards red
• I think this recipe used way more peppers than the original also, given the jar ratios. It's also possible I used yellow reapers instead of red ones
• I think I threw in the mango raw instead of searing it, but who knows if that made any difference
• Definitely going to make a batch 3 in the near future
• I was in a hurry to make this and next time I want to take some time and add some nuance to it. It's a really basic recipe and I think I can craft something that adds more to my staple formula

Bourbon Peach

Fermented Ingredients (40 days):
• Habaneros 62g
• Carrots 55g
• Garlic 41g
• Yellow Onions 157g

Fresh Ingredients:
• Sweet Onions 197g (one medium)
• Red Bell Pepper 174g (one medium)
• White Peaches 673g (3 large peaches)
• Garlic 25g (5 cloves)
• Sugar Rush 25g (one pod frozen)
• Red Scorpions 15g (5 frozen)
• Brown Sugar 1/2 Cups
• Water 1/2 Cups
• Bourbon (Evan Williams) 1.5oz
• White Vinegar 1 Cup
• Apple Cider Vinegar 1/4 Cups
• Salt 1/2 tbsp
• Xanthan Gum 1/4 tsp 

Saute the fresh onions and bell peppers in olive oil until slightly charred, add the garlic and cook until golden. Remove the pit and skin from the peaches. Add everything but the xanthan into a blender and blend on high for five minutes. Light simmer for 20 mins, then let it cool before adding back to the blender with the xanthan gum. Blend on low for 90 seconds, bottle and refrigerate. Yield ~50oz

Number one thing here to note is this was supposed to be a smoked sauce. I put the habs, carrots, onions, and garlic on a propane barbeque for 90 minutes on indirect heat with some wood chips on the burner to add some smoke. I fucked up and let the wood chips soak for an hour instead of 20 minutes so it was hard to get the smoke even going. Nothing really stuck and I'd have no idea that was a concept I was aiming for, next time I need to use a real smoker or maybe use some oil to coat the veggies to soak up some smoke. All the bacteria got killed off probably on the grill so to get this to ferment I had to use the backslop method of adding some live brine into the jar from an already active ferment. It took three or four days to get going, and the jars were over stuffed. The products became much softer after being cooked so I was able to pack the fuck out the jars, which made it difficult for the brine to fully envelop everything. 

Notes:
• I wanted to use normal peaches but winco only had ripe whites
• On top of smoking ideas this should have been three jars, not two. This thing is over packed 
• I wanted to add a bite and also use up some of my scorpion pods. I added the sugar rush because it was the last one and I wanted to shut that book. I was on the fence about making this more spicy and it worked out great
• I initially had 400g peaches (2) and decided to add the third post initial blend. The sugar on these come through but not so much the flavor
• I was going to make this with Southern Comfort but that sucks and got a real bourbon instead
• Maybe add an apple or two next batch?
• Color's pretty dark, to lighten that I'd use a yellow bell
• For a yield this big a second ounce of bourbon might help
• This is one of my first sugar additions and it worked out fine!
• I pretty much wrote this recipe drunk and I'm honestly impressed

Frank A 'Lemon' Bitch

Fresh Ingredients:
• Yellow Reapers 148g (22 pods)
• Garlic 35g
• Salt 1/2 tbsp
• White Vinegar 2.5c
• Lemons 1
• Xanthan Gum 1/4 tsp

Throw everything straight into the blender except xanthan, juice the lemon and add some of the zest. Blend on high 5 minutes and simmer lightly for 20 mins, skimming the gunk off the top. Cool, then blend on low for 90 seconds with the xanthan gum. Bottle, refrigerate

Fresh pepper Frank sauce. Pricey shipment and honestly these pods are a bit on the weak side. I wanted to make a lemon version after seeing the color on the last batch

Notes:
• Bigger yield on this of about 20oz instead of the 16ish I usually get on these. I think it has something to do with the water content of the peppers, all the frozen stuff I used before is a bit more dry
• As noted above the heat is pretty low on this. I used ~4 less pods because I didn't want to blow through my box in one batch, but it should be hotter
• The lemon comes though fine but it feels a bit unbalanced. I'm glad to try it but the lime works better 
• Overall a little disappointing. Still pretty good but short of what I pictured