Hi Conor, the mango can certainly speed up the fermentation. I like to add mango (or other fruits) at the end of the fermentation, when processing the sauce. This ensure the sweetness and flavour of the fruits are still there.

I started my first chilli sauce ferment around a week ago using the vacuum seal technique.

I used 2 Dorset Naga, 11 sweet peppers, 2 large garlic and 1 mango with 2% salt.
The total weight was just over 500g with a volume of ingredients about 1/3 of the space in the bag I used.

Over the last two days the ferment has gone crazy and I have had to de-gas at least 4 times, so much so that I am losing space to reseal in the original bag and have had to leave it open and reseal it inside another vacuum bag to allow room for expansion.

Is this normal? Could the mango be the cause due to the sugars?
Other than getting a bigger bag is there anything I should do differently?

Thanks in advance and stay spicy!

Hi Wayne. You could try blending in some bell peppers into it. Will maintain the flavour while reducing the heat.

Hi Alex, you can use frozen chillies, but I would recommend adding about 50% fresh chillies too. While freezing doesn’t kill the lactobacillus bacteria, it does slow it down and makes it less “viable”. You need a strong start to your fermentation to ensure the lactobacillus becomes the dominant culture as soon as possible.

Hi. You don’t want to be opening up your fermentation at all while it is fermenting….you risk introducing pathogens, and also oxygen which will just exacerbate the Kahm yeast issue. Scrape it at the end instead.

With regard to your other question. As long as your pH is below 4.6 (personally I suggest targeting below 4 in case you haven’t calibrated perfectly), there is no need to add vinegar…that is a choice in terms of flavours/sauce type. Heat pasteurising your sauce is a good idea if you aren’t 100% confident that your fermentation happened quickly enough in the beginning. Heat pasteurising is also a recommendation if you haven’t fermented for long enough and/or have added other ingredients after fermenting.

My last growing season had a low yield of chillies. I pretty much ate what I produced, raw on meals. From the previous season I froze a few bags of freshly picked chillies (I imagine 2 litres). I made a mash ferment (with some of the naturally defrosted chillies) which failed. I thought maybe the freezing had killed my lactobacillus, but it could also be that I made other errors. I am now scared to waste the rest. Is it possible to use frozen chillies? Should I add a bought culture and if so which? Should I add fresh chillies to frozen and if so at what ratio?

Thanks so much for your videos and freely-given advice.

There is more to it than just the pH. Ideally, if you are going to be selling to the public, you want to get your sauce tested. But if do everything else correctly, and the pH is at a safe level, you will get at least a year shelf life.

If the pH is right, how long will a bottle of sauce last on a shelf?

Thanks

Phil