Most years, I make a label, stealing public domain art from José Guadalupe Posada. Known for his art based on Día de los Muertos style and imagery like this:
Calavera Oaxaqueña – Calavera (skeleton) from Oaxaca
This year I discovered these AI art generators – where you give it some prompt and the AI returns some images it creates based on that input. I decided to experiment with them for the label. My first run of exploration into them produced some pretty disturbing images.
The prompt for those was something like “Chile pepper skeleton”.
Tweaking the prompt a bit helped to generate some lighter, more fun images. I started with something like “In the style of Jose Guadalupe Posada, an outlaw running with a Chile pepper”. That produces 4 images and you can have it make variations of an image you like, and so on. The result was some pretty funny and boggling images of skeletons looking like they were having a good time. I added the text and a QR code to simplify the label – you can find the ingredients on the 2022 Hot Sauces post.
2022 has been an odd year. Many of the plants had full fruits, but wouldn’t go to ripe until very late in the season. Thus many of the sauces are made with all or some green (not fully ripened) peppers.
Death Spirals did well, as did the Ají Limón (Lemon Drop) plants.
Chilhuacles did pretty well, but had the same general issue with pushing ripeness through to full color. A few of them turned to the full rich brown color and looked great.
Ají Mango was a new variety – looked promising, produced a lot of fruit, but – you guessed it – couldn’t get to that beautiful mango orange color.
The Total Eclipse Space Chiles were definitely interesting, but the plants weren’t the most stable structure-wise.
Ají Benito was a nice little red gem, pretty productive.
Cochiti Pueblo pepper plants were really weak and low producing.
For next year, I think I’ll simplify and go with Ají Limón, Death Spiral (or similar), a Red one, and one or two more varieties.
In addition to the standard vinegar-based sauces, this year I experimented for the first time with Fermented Hot Sauces. Small batches, we’ll call them artisanal. In general, Ferments are in the short, stout bottles – Cooked sauces are in the square and traditional woozy bottles. “They” claim that the fermentation process makes the flavor more sophisticated or blended (makes sense since it sits for 2+ weeks), also some probiotic claims, likely minimal since the last step is to cook it to stop the fermentation process. They do achieve a shelf-stable pH without the need for vinegar, which opens up options for flavors.
The Labels ….? What’s the deal with them? Background on this post
Recipes below – look for batch number on bottle in format [year]_[batch]
2022_00 – FERMENT Beets Workin First fermentation!
First, the ferment: 4 Death Spiral 2 Lg Red Beets 1/2 Lg Yellow Onion 3 cloves Garlic 1 QT Distilled Water 3 Tbsp Sea Salt Cabbage Leaf
Fermented for 2 weeks
drained the brine blended the veggie mass (minus the cabbage) with 4C distilled water stovetop, boil, simmer for 20min whisk in 2Tsp xanthan gum bottle
PH – 3.4 5 alt size bottles Heat: 4/4
Ferment batches 1 & 2 (recipes above and below this picture)
2022_01 – FERMENT The Peach First, the ferment: 1 Death Spiral 40 Lemon Drop 1/2 Lg Yellow Onion 2 Peaches 1 Qt Water 3Tbsp Sea Salt Cabbage Leaf
Fermented for 2 weeks
Drain the brine Blend the veggie mass (minus the cabbage) Add 1C Watre Add 1C Apple Cider Vinegar stovetop, boil, simmer for 20min whisk in 2Tsp xanthan gum bottle
PH – 3.4 3.5 alt size bottles Heat 4/4
2022_02 – Vinegar Peachy Limón
60 Lemon Drop 8 Yellow Carrots 1 Lg White Onion 4 Cloves Garlic 4 Yellow Peaches 2 Tsp Salt 4C Water 4C White Vinegar
stovetop, boil, simmer for 20min whisk in 3 Tsp xanthan gum bottle
PH 3.38 8 Lg bottles 3 Sm Bottles Heat 3/4
2022_03–Vinegar Beets Workin
4 Large Red Beets 1 Lg Yellow Onion 2 Red Lesya Peppers 2 Red Death Spiral 3 Green Death Spiral 4C Water 2C White Vinegar 2C Apple Cider Vinegar
stovetop, boil, simmer for 20min whisk in 1 Tsp xanthan gum bottle
PH 2.9 9 Lg bottles Heat 4/4, 3/4
2022_04 – Vinegar The Standard 5 Green Death Spirals 234g Space Chile & Ahi Benito 2 White Onion 12 Orange Carrot 6 Clove Garlic 2 Tsp Salt 4C Water 4C Apple Cider Vinegar 4 Tsp Xanthan Gum
PH 3.44 7 Lg Bottles 4 Sm Bottles Heat
2022_05 Ferment Smokey Spaceman First, the Ferment
133g Chilhuacle Pepper 200g Total Eclipse Space Chile & Lemon Drop 207g Lesya Pepper (Green) 1 Yellow Onion 6 Clove Garlic 3.5% Sea Salt Brine Cabbage Leaf 10/3 – 10/21 Strain, add to blender add: 4 Green Death Spirals 41g Dried Morita Chiles 133g Red Beets 6C Water 4C BRine 2C White Vinegar 5tsp Xanthan Gum
12 alt size bottles pH 3.5 Heat: ?
Ferment batches 3 & 4 Recipes above and below this picture
PH – 3.36 7 Large Bottles 9 Small Bottles Heat x/x
Death Spirals
2022_11. Vinegar The Fives 1 Very Large Onion 5 Clove Garlic 5 Red Mini Sweet Peppers 5 Carrots 5 Ají Mango 5 Ají Benito 5 Death Spirals 8C Water 4C White Vinegar 5 Tsp Xanthan Gum
PH – 3.33 7 Large Bottles 10.5 Small Bottles Heat x/x
Passion Fruit going into the Green Ají Mango Chile ferment
2022_12. Ferment Green Mango Passion 476g Yellow Onion 44g Clove Garlic 340g Green Mango Chiles 51g Passion Fruit 100g Lesya Pepper, Green 1 Green Death Spiral 3.5% Brine
10/29-1/31 Ferment ran for about 2 weeks, Let sit for a while longer to see how flavors are
Strain, Blend ***Split off some of the mash blended with some brine and water ***Handed this off for dehydration – results pending Add: 2C Brine 4C Water 3Tsp Xanthan Gum Boil, simmer 30m
PH – 3.5% x Large Bottles x Small Bottles
Ají Mango chiles
2022_13 Ferment F-Standard
Ferment: 266g Yellow Onion 30g Clove Garlic 50g Space Chile 88g Red Ají Beinto 18g Death Spirals 211g Carrots 3.5% Brine
10/29-11/18 3 weeks
3.5C Brine 3C Apple Cider Vinegar 3C Water 4Tsp Xanthan Gum
PH – 3.03 5.5 Large Bottles 1 Small Bottles 5 Tiny Bottles Heat x/x
2022_14 Ferment Wild Greens
Ferment: 260g Cochiti Pueblo NM Chile 212g Chilhuacle 197g Green Ají Beinto 2 Medium Green Tomatoes 3.5% Brine
10/29-11/12 2 weeks
2.5C Brine 6.5C Water 4Tsp Xanthan Gum
PH – 5 Alt (Boston) Bottles 6 Small Bottles 1 Large Bottle Heat x/x
” Cochiti Pueblo” NM Green Chiles
2022_15. Vinegar RubyLacha**************Batch rejected – not up to standards
320g Red Beet 27g Garlic 302g Yellow Onion 737g green Ají Limón chiles 5C Beet Water 2C Water 6C Apple Cider Vinegar
10/230-xxx weeks ***This ferment is going strong over 2 months out. Still producing steady offgassing (2/5/23)
PH – x Small Bottles x Large Bottle Heat x/x
Ají Benito
2022_17 Vinegar The Standard, Hot
446g Orange/Yellow Beets 2Lg Sweet Yellow Onions 5Lg Garlic Cloves 41g Carrots 37g Death Spirals 4C Water 6C Apple Cider Vinegar 4Tsp Xanthan Gum
PH – 3.5 x Small Bottles x Large Bottle Heat x/x
Ají Limón chiles (aka Lemon Drop)
2022_18 Ferment The Devil’s Ferment So named due to a ridiculous number of Death Spirals Heat is pretty intense for me, but manageable Ferment flavor is a nice balance to the Death Spiral intensity 305g Red Onion 55g Garlic 134g Death Spirals 1Lg cross-section of Cabbage 21g cabbage leaves 3.5% Brine
10/30-2/2/2023 Ferment ran for about 2 weeks, let sit for a long time to see if it would mellow the heat
Strain, Add: 7C water 3C White Vinegar 2tsp Xanthan Gum
Boil, simmer for 30min
PH – 3.11
5 Small Bottles 4 Large Bottles 1 Alt Bottle 6 Mini Bottles
Chilhuacle chiles (when fully mature they should have a cool looking chocolate color – used in Mole sauces)Shishito PeppersDeath Spirals
