Tabasco: the Original Mcilheny Method (1800s)

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Tabasco: the Original Mcilheny Method (1800s) Ingredients

Peppers	White wine vinegar
Kosher salt

Instructions for Tabasco: the Original Mcilheny Method (1800s)

Carey Starzinger was kind enough to respond to my request for his Tabasco recipe within an hour of my requesting it! Thanks, Carey. And away we go. I have included how I do it as well as the original McilHenny method. This should be a big hit. I have had the fermentation start very early in the aging stage, but I have also had a delay of up to 6 months before it started. I assume it is due to temperature differences. I just set it on a shelf with the fermentation lock on and checked it every once in a while. Hope you and all the members enjoy it. I know that I certainly do and it is worth the effort even though it may take a year or more. Carey Grind peppers. Add 1/2 cup kosher salt per gallon of ground peppers and allow to age 1 month in glass or crockery jars. Add white wine vinegar to taste and bottle in cologne bottles. Age before using to blend the flavors together. Try to find somebody to buy it. Get famous. Nowadays they do it the same, except that the salted mash goes directly into oak barrels. The mash is packed down and the top sealed with oak planks into which holes have been drilled. Avery Island (trivia: the "island"`is really a natural salt dome; originally all salt used in production came from natural salt digs in the area. ), where some of the peppers are grown, is the production site. The barrels are topped with a thick layer of salt and allowed to ferment. The salt layer serves as a permeable barrier that allows gases to escape but allows no bacteria, fruit flies, etc. access to the mash. McIlhenny allows them to age three years in these oak barrels. After aging, the mash is pulled, checked for quality and, if OK, it is blended with white wine vinegar (they dont say how much) and aged some weeks more (nother secret!). Finally, the product is pulled, strained and the liquid bottled. They already have buyers and the stuff *is* famous. The US version has potassium sorbate added to inhibit fermentation. Same method except the peppers are aged not fermented. Adapting this to your home: Note: as you must pull the liquid from the peppers, they must be fresh, fleshy and of the right state of ripeness. At Avery Island they still use the original "critique baton rouge", a red stick tinted to the exact color of the peppers to be harvested. Peppers not matching the "critique" are rejected. Old or overdried peppers are the key to failure. One trick for garden peppers is picking them as they are just at the right stage (Ive been doing this with habanero peppers for weeks), then popping them into freezer bags until you have enough to make a batch of sauce. The ratio of mash to salt seems to be about the same as for sauerkraut. Grind peppers, seeds and all, in a medium to fine grind (compare To KitchenAid cutters). Mix with Kosher salt and put into gallon jug. Add enough sterile water so the whole puree is pourable. Place a fermentation lock (available from homebrew/wine making shops) on the jug. Use a campden tablet (from same source as above) in the lock. Liquid will form. Allow to ferment until the mash stabilizes (stops fermenting). It may be 3-5 months before obvious fermentation begins. It is a very slow ferment. It will last a couple of months. Place the whole thing in a larger, sterile crock and add sterile white wine vinegar to taste. Allow to meld another week or so. Run the mash through a chinoise, fine strainer, or, last resort, throw it all into a bowl lined with cheesecloth, fold the cheesecloth up into a ball (like making cottage cheese) and twist & squeeze until the juice is extracted. Adjust for taste with salt. Bottle the juice and keep in fridge. You might want to heat the sauce to pasteurize it, or not. I use potassium sorbate (available from the same homebrew/wine making shop) in the concentration for wine. If there is a question as to whether the material has fermented, if the liquid that forms on top (with the pepper slurry settled out) is very red, then fermentation has occurred. Otherwise the liquid on top will be very pale and almost colorless. (i.e. not red) Variables: Age of peppers. Variety. Water content. Consistency of ripeness. Hope this helps. Win or lose, its a lot of fun. The key is : Keep all your stuff clean and sanitized! Enjoy the effort! Amaze and astound your friends with *your own* hot pepper sauce. If it doesnt beat Tabasco, sweat it not. It took him a couple of years to perfect it. Posted to CHILE-HEADS DIGEST by Suzanne on Aug 22, 1998, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

Main Ingredient: Cuisine: Uncategorized

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