Fermented hot sauce calculator
A pepper mash for hot sauce: chopped chilies salted at 2.5% of their weight, fermented one to four weeks, then blended with vinegar.
Fermented hot sauce starts as a salted pepper mash: chopped chilies and 2 to 3% of their weight in salt, packed under their own liquid for a week or more while lactic bacteria sour them. The vinegar, sugar and oil come afterwards, in the blender. The only number to get right first is the salt.
How it works
The mash
Chili Pepper Madness’s pepper mash: a pound of stemmed, roughly chopped chilies, 454 g, with 11 g of salt, 2.5% by weight; 9 g for 2%, 14 g for 3%. Serious Eats’ Fresno sauce is the same idea with 600 g of peppers, a third of them charred first, 60 ml of water, three spoons of tamari and 10 g of salt pulsed to a coarse mash. Pack it into a wide jar, press out the air, cover the surface with plastic film and a weight, and fit an airlock lid.
The ferment
Somewhere dark between 13 and 24 °C. Gas within a day or two is the good sign; the mash climbs the jar. Serious Eats starts tasting on day seven and stops when it is pleasantly sour, like sauerkraut; the whole ferment runs one to four weeks. Above 21 °C the mash is more likely to grow mould, so keep it cool.
Finishing
Serious Eats blends the Fresno mash with 120 ml of white vinegar, 10 g of sugar and 5 g more salt, streams in 120 ml of roasted garlic oil, checks the pH is about 3.4 and adds vinegar until it is, then strains and bottles. Its chipotle sauce is the brine version: 55 g of dried chiles, 45 g of garlic and cumin in 720 ml of water with 30 g of salt for 10 to 28 days. Both keep in the fridge, one to three months.
Sources & methodology
Every percentage in this calculator traces to the published sources below — nothing is invented. Where respected sources disagree, the default sits inside the documented range.
- Chili Pepper Madness — How to Ferment Chili Peppers (Pepper Mash) — The anchor for the salt: a pound (454 g) of stemmed, chopped chilies with 11 g of salt, “2.5% by weight of the chilies; use 9 g for 2%, 14 g for 3%”; the brine alternative 28–54 g in a quart of water.
- Serious Eats — How to Make Fermented Hot Sauce, Tim Chin — The band and the method: a sweet spot between 2% and 4% for peppers, about 5% for a sauce meant to keep a year or two, 13–24 °C, airlock lids, mould likelier above 21 °C.
- Serious Eats — Fermented Hot Sauce With Fresno Chiles, Garlic, and Tamari, Tim Chin — The weighed mash: 600 g of Fresno peppers, a third of them charred, 60 ml of water, three spoons of tamari, 10 g of salt; 7 days and more, then vinegar, sugar, garlic oil and a check that the pH is about 3.4.
- Serious Eats — Chipotle Fermented Hot Sauce With Garlic and Cumin, Tim Chin — The brine version: 55 g of dried chipotles, 45 g of garlic and 5 g of cumin in 720 ml of water with 30 g of salt, 10–28 days at 13–24 °C.
- René Redzepi & David Zilber, “The Noma Guide to Fermentation” — lacto-fermented pickles (p. 62) (read via Ethan Chlebowski) — The floor: 2% salt of the weight of everything in the jar, “you can go above 2% but do not go below”.
FAQ
How much salt?
Serious Eats puts the sweet spot for peppers between 2% and 4% of the mash, Chili Pepper Madness between 2% and 3%, and the Noma Guide never goes below 2% of anything it ferments. Lower is faster and suits a cool room; higher is slower, safer in a warm one and crisper. For a sauce meant to sit a year or two, Serious Eats quotes Mara Jane King at around 5%.
Can I add garlic or fruit?
Yes, and Serious Eats recommends it: garlic carries its own lactic bacteria, and carrot, citrus or berries bring sugar that feeds the ferment. Weigh them with the peppers so the salt stays a share of the whole mash.
Mash or brine?
A mash needs no water and gives a thicker, more concentrated sauce. A brine works for dried chiles and whole peppers: Chili Pepper Madness uses 28 to 54 g of salt in a quart of water over a pound of peppers, 3 to 6% of the water.
Is it safe?
Salt, submersion and acidity do the work. Serious Eats measures the finished sauce at pH 3.4 and thins with vinegar until it gets there. Its fermentation guides say the same about the surface as for any pickle: a whitish film is yeast and can be skimmed, fuzzy mould means the batch goes out.
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