ID these peppers? (update: ID is Hot Paper Lantern)

[Muse]

Here's the simple "Hot Sauce" I've been making for many years. I made (guessing) at least 10 quarts this year, mostly canned in pint canning jars.

X pounds of my vine ripened tomatoes, washed and chopped

X/10 pounds store bought organic jalapeno peppers, fairly finely chopped

Some salt (not a lot)

1/2 teaspoon citric acid per quart

Simmer a while

Can in steamed jars


After opening, store in refrigerator. Unless I'm using a lot, I go for the pint jars. It stays OK for a couple weeks refrigerated after opening.

It's sweet and hot.

 

[dank69]

It's that time of year again. Was able to buy 40 of these peppers from the local farmstand. 25c each.

Made a fresh batch using the same recipe as last year, except all 12 peppers were hot paper lanterns. I didn't have to buy regular habeneros.

I also bought 4 really nice ripe limes from the grocery store and used 2 tsp. of juice from those instead of the lemon juice. It came out even better this year because no habeneros.

Then I made a second batch to experiment with a lime version. Zested and juiced all 4 limes. Got about 2/3 cup of juice even after the 2 tsp. I used on the regular batch. 1/3 cup distilled vinegar and 1 cup apple cider vinegar. 1 tbsp. salt and 2 tbsp. sugar, and 12 peppers. Simmered for 15 minutes same as regular batch with 2/3 of the zest. After it cooled I added the last 1/3 zest and blended smooth. Lime version on left and regular on right:

 

[dank69]

I want to try fermenting enough peppers to make a half batch just so I can see for myself how it affects the flavor. Will have to see how that goes.

 

[BoomerD]

Update time!

First, the bad news. I couldn't get any of the seeds to germinate. Now, pepper seeds are apparently notoriously difficult to germinate, so I don't know if that is the reason, or the seeds weren't mature enough, or if these were bred specifically so their seeds won't germinate to keep people buying seeds from licensed distributors. I suspect it might be the latter.

I hope that's not the case with the Hatch chilis we bought this year. I saved some of the seeds to try to germinate.

 

[dank69]

I hope that's not the case with the Hatch chilis we bought this year. I saved some of the seeds to try to germinate.

Yeah I tried again with the seeds I saved from last year but couldn't get a single one to germinate.

 

[dank69]

I want to try fermenting enough peppers to make a half batch just so I can see for myself how it affects the flavor. Will have to see how that goes.

My peppers have finished their 2 week fermentation period in salted, unchlorinated water:


So time to make it into hot sauce and see what difference it makes. I only had 6 peppers left to ferment so enough for a half batch.

The recipe page I used for both the fermented and unfermented versions of these sauces said you can use the fermented peppers with or without the brine. I figure there is a lot of flavor in that brine plus the salt I'd need to add anyway, so I used the brine.

I removed the peppers and put the brine in a small saucepan and reduced it by 1/2 to 3/4. I then added distilled vinegar to the peppers to make 1 cup total and added that all to the saucepan along with 1/2 tsp. lime juice. Brought it to a boil and simmered for 15 minutes.

Ready to be blended:


Final sauce next to the unfermented version:


Fermenting 100% changes this sauce. All the original sweetness is gone. It tastes much more like Frank's or Tobasco now, but much hotter. It's not bad at all but I like the unfermented much better. If I didn't know any better I would swear the was sugar in the unfermented version.

I suppose the fermented version will be better for applications where you absolutely do not want to add any sweetness whatsoever. I doubt I'll go to the trouble of fermenting again as I just much prefer the unfermented.