Can You Make Fermented Hot Sauce from Frozen Peppers?

Are you planning on growing your hot peppers and making your hot sauce with them?

Have you picked way more peppers from your garden than you know what to do with them, so just froze the extra for later use?

If your pepper plants grow inconsistently, you might have to freeze the ones you have until you have enough to make hot sauce.

Perhaps you are finally ready to use them. You have a lot of frozen peppers, can you make a hot sauce out of them?

The short answer is yes, but you will need some fresh ingredients or starter liquid from another ferment to help the good bacteria grow and speed up the fermentation process.

Is It Possible To Ferment Frozen Peppers?

The extremely cold temperatures of your freezer will kill off most of the bacteria that conduct fermentation or slowed down their growth.

Because of this, the process may take a long time or it may not happen at all.

You can add in fresh peppers or another fresh vegetable to introduce the bacteria you need, depending on the flavor profile you want to achieve.

People add shredded carrots or garlic to their food.

If you have other jars that are fermentable, you can use some brine from them as a starter culture of bacteria that you can use to start the process.

Adding whey can speed up the process of fermentation. There are many strains of Lactobacillus that you need to carry out fermentative activities.

It rounds out the flavor of your hot sauce very nicely. If you want to make it sweeter, raw honey can promote the growth of the bacteria you need for fermentation.

When using frozen peppers, you might want to allow them a bit more time to ferment, since you are working with fewer bacteria.

Is It Possible To Make Hot Sauce From Frozen Peppers?

You can make a hot sauce out of frozen peppers if they can be fermented. If you want to get the best results, ferment fresh peppers instead of frozen peppers.

This is because fresh peppers will ferment more quickly, which will decrease the risk of contamination.

The texture of frozen peppers might be different, as they are more squishy and less crisp than fresh peppers.

If you prefer a chunkier hot sauce with more texture, then this is relevant. If you blend your hot sauce until it is smooth, this won’t matter.

A lot of the flavor and brightness of the peppers could have been lost if they had not been frozen.

It’s possible to make hot sauce from frozen peppers, and it should give you good results.

Conclusion

As you can see, you can make a hot sauce out of frozen peppers. The fermentation process will be very slow if you don’t use the tricks I mentioned above.

If you plan to freeze more peppers for hot sauce in the future, vacuum seal them or store them in a freezer bag with all air removed, it will help preserve freshness.