Fermented Strawberry Habanero Hot Sauce
Early summer strawberries are one of my favorite items on the planet. I grew up spending my summers working on a local produce farm as field hand, where they would ship us out during strawberry harvest season to work on a farm an hour away that had about 600 acres, with long rows of strawberries.
You could pick and eat strawberries all day—I ate too many on my first day of picking, and quickly learned my lesson.
Be wary of active fermentation here with sweeter fruits, as the gas can build up in the jars fairly quickly during the first few days.
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Fermentation Time: 1 week, or longer if desired
Yield: About 1 quart
Instructions
12 steps1
Clean a 2-quart mason jar with hot soapy water, and set aside to completely dry.
2
Add the strawberries, onion, hot peppers, coriander seeds, and garlic cloves to the fermentation vessel.
3
In a separate jar, mix together the added water and Kosher salt until the salt has completely dissolved.
4
Pour the salt water brine over the strawberries and vegetables, and push the contents down to ensure they remain below the surface of the brine.
5
Cover the submerged contents with a glass or ceramic weight, and close the lid on the jar.
6
Allow the contents to ferment at room temperature for roughly one week, or until you are satisfied with the degree of fermentation and acidity.
7
Make sure to carefully open the jars at least once per day as they ferment, and make sure the contents remain submerged.
8
When you are ready to finalize and bottle your hot sauce, discard 1/3 of the liquid brine.
9
Stir together the white wine vinegar with the white granulated sugar until the sugar has dissolved, and add the sugar and vinegar mixture to your fermented hot sauce mixture with the remaining brine.
10
Blend the contents using an immersion blender or food processor, and taste the contents.
11
Add more salt, sugar, or vinegar, if desired. You can strain this hot sauce if you want.
12
Transfer the hot sauce into individual bottles, and store the bottles in the fridge to cool down.
