GOLDEN HOUR FERMENTED HOT SAUCE
makes 700 ml · total 10d 15m · tested

Apple-pineapple-ghost fermented sauce. The bell pepper and fruit sugars
do most of the buffering against the ghost pepper, landing in a warm-
medium zone that builds slowly.

INGREDIENTS
  -- Mash --
      400 g   Golden Delicious apples (peeled & cored)
      200 g   canned pineapple (drained; reserve the juice)
      150 g   red bell pepper (seeded)
       60 g   yellow onion
       25 g   fresh ginger (peeled)
       15 g   garlic (about 4 cloves)
        2 g   dried ghost peppers (stems removed; ~2 pods)
       21 g   non-iodized salt (~2.5% of mash weight)
        2 g   ground turmeric (optional, for color)
  -- Finish --
       30 g   fresh lime juice (finish)
       20 g   honey (finish, to taste)

STEPS
  Prep & Mash
    1. Rehydrate the ghost: Snip dried ghost peppers open, shake out
       most seeds for a warmer/less sharp heat, and soak the pods in a
       splash of hot reserved pineapple juice.
    2. Weigh & salt the mash: Chop and combine apples, pineapple, red
       bell pepper, onion, ginger, garlic, the rehydrated ghost peppers,
       and optional turmeric. Add salt — that's ~2.5% of mash weight,
       your safe fermentation floor. Toss until the salt dissolves and
       the fruit weeps.
    3. Coarse blend: Pulse to a rough, spoonable mash — not a purée. You
       want texture and even salt distribution, not soup.
  Ferment
    1. Bag & seal: Load into your vacuum bag, spread thin, and seal on a
       gentle setting so you don't suck out the liquid. Leave room —
       fruit ferments are gassy.
    2. Ferment 7-10 days: Room temp, out of direct sun. The bag WILL
       balloon from CO2 — burp it (or use a valve bag) every day or two
       so it doesn't split. Start tasting at day 5; pull it when it's
       pleasantly tangy but still fruit-forward.
  Blend & Tune
    1. Blend smooth: Blend smooth, thinning with the reserved pineapple
       juice to your target viscosity.
    2. Finish: Finish with fresh lime juice for top-end brightness and
       honey to push it toward candy-sweet. Adjust salt last.

EQUIPMENT
  Food processor or blender, vacuum sealer, fermentation bags.

FOOD SAFETY
  Use 2.5% non-iodized salt by mash weight to maintain the safe
  fermentation floor. For shelf-stable gifting, simmer to 180°F first
  (this kills the culture but locks the flavor).
  Ferments: weigh the salt, keep everything under the brine, and throw
  out anything with fuzzy mold. For extra assurance, check that the
  finished sauce is pH 4.6 or below (4.0 is better). Keep it
  refrigerated. Heating alone does not make a sauce shelf-stable; only
  keep it at room temperature if the pH is 4.6 or below and it was hot-
  filled into clean bottles.

STORAGE
  Bottle and refrigerate — it keeps living and improving for weeks
  unless pasteurized.

LICENSE
  CC BY 4.0: share and adapt freely, credit longproof and link to
  https://longproof.duckdns.org/recipes/golden-hour-fermented-hot-sauce.txt
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/