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Preserving (rec.food.preserving) Devoted to the discussion of recipes, equipment, and techniques of food preservation. Techniques that should be discussed in this forum include canning, freezing, dehydration, pickling, smoking, salting, and distilling. |
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Making Haberno peppers milder via fermentation in Saurkraut
This is only the second time I've made saurkraut. I use a couple of
Glad-ware disposable containers to hold the shredded cabbage/salt/sugar mixture, one for the cabbage and one placed on top and filled with water to weigh it down. Some air might find its way in through the edges, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything. I let it ferment in my 50-60 degree farenheight stairwell for about a week and then eat it over the next week. By the middle of the eating week it seems to be about as sour as it's gonna get, but is still crunchy. The first time I made saurkraut, I had never even eaten saurkraut before and didn't know if I would like it. I found that I love it. On a hot dog, or in a grilled ham and cheese sandwich or just on it's own. I'd shun cole-slaw for saurkraut any day. Anyway, this post is supposed to be about peppers, so here goes: Haberno peppers are damn hot. When I first ate one, as a kid, it was on a dare. Holy crap! It was frikken HOT. I couldn't imagine what possible use they might have. What dish would not be positively ruined by these peppers in any quantity you could see without a microscope? They were selling these things in cartons at the store, when one pepper was strong enough or multiple meals. People must just eat these things to show off their manliness, I thought. That was, till years later when my father in law put a few in a pot of spaghetti sauce and bell peppers. The Habernos made the whole pot of peppers and sauce hot, and tasted great. Also, he introduced me to eating habernos raw with spaghetti and meatballs, - a bite of meatball with a bite of pepper. That was still very hot, but the meatball cooled things off and made it a treat. My latest Haberno pepper discovery is that when cut into quarter inch wide pepper 'rings' and fermented in saurkraut, they become suprisingly mild. I used about 4-5 peppers to one whole cabbage. I cut the peppers into such large pieces thinking that if they were too hot, they might not ruin the whole batch of saurkraut if they could be easily avoided. In fact, the whole batch, cabbage and peppers ended up at the same heat level. Ordinarily, this would mean a ruined dish. No other dish I know of can withstand that pepper to mild food ratio. But although the peppers themselves are no hotter than the cabbage, the saurkraut is at a pleasantly hot but not painful level at all. It's still yummy on a hot dog, and can even be eaten on it's own without a milk chaser. It's spicy but not crazy-spicy at all. I was amazed. I wonder if it's the acid? Maybe pickling would have the same effect? Or maybe it's something about the fermentation process... I don't know. But I do know that there's no reason to be afraid of using lots of hot peppers in saurkraut. I think I am going to try doubling the pepper/cabbage ratio next time. I was actually aiming for something much hotter than I ended up with, though it was still good. |
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The Joneses wrote:
> Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I'm still a little chicken to > try sauerkraut.My kimchee wouldn't ferment, but did get a bit sour. Was > nice but not great. you might want to purchase a jar of kim chee/i and use a tablespoon or two of the liquid as a 'starter.' it doesn't seem to be the same lactobacilli that works on salt-fermented dills. also, what kind of red pepper are you using? many recipes i've seen call for cayenne, but that's not it, and gives a harsh taste to the pickle. it's more like a hot paprika. b/ |
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