Same here. I love the earthy rich fragrance of the spooned dark red (garlic?) pepper sauce in jars on the table in restaurants. I could sniff it all day , but can’t really appreciate too much of the flavor. I wonder if you can use ~red bell peppers with a lesser amount of chili peppers ️ to warm it up, would you get a similar flavor profile? And would it preserve correctly?

These are wonderful ideas, also in the comments. I love, love getting into diy fermented aspect in everyday foods, and delectable. On the shelf, there is limited option, and they’re not always yummy. I’m probably going to make some for gifts, too!

Those additions sound delicious! I love playing with different flavors for homemade hot sauce.

I don’t add olive oil on top of the fermenting chiles for the simple reason that all that oil in hot sauce isn’t very palatable. However, when I have a growth of kahm yeast on top of a ferment, I actually scrape it off rather than mix it in. To prevent the yeast from forming, you can try to tamp the chiles down more (to expel more liquid) or add a weight on top of the chiles to keep them submerged. A 4-ounce jelly jar fits neatly inside a 32-ounce widemouth mason jar and works great for this.