Three weeks of a beautifully behaved ferment, smelled great the whole way, blended it up last night and it is bitter. Not hot-bitter, properly bitter, the kind that sits at the back of your throat.
Mash was green jalapenos with the stems still on, a whole head of garlic and some coriander stems. No mould, nothing fuzzy, it smelled sour and good. Is the batch finished or is there a way back?
Fruit is the fix and it works better than sugar. Mango, pineapple, peach, or roasted carrot or roasted red pepper if you want it savoury. It rounds bitterness off rather than covering it.
Add a little, blend, taste, repeat, and stop before you have made chutney. A splash of vinegar or lime afterwards lifts the whole thing and helps it keep, and a small pinch of salt suppresses bitterness more than people expect.
Also just give it a fortnight in the fridge. Mildly bitter sauces often mellow on their own.
One cause nobody has mentioned and it is worth checking your notes for: kahm yeast. That flat white film that forms on top. It is not dangerous in itself, but left to grow for weeks it puts musty bitter flavours into the top layer of the mash.
So keep everything under the brine and skim it early rather than deciding it is harmless and ignoring it. Separate point: bitterness alone is a flavour fault. Fuzzy mould, or pink or black or colourful growth, or a rotten smell rather than a sour one, is the other conversation.
@stems_went_in · 2w ago · 3 replies
You have listed four causes in one sentence and the batch is almost certainly salvageable. Green jalapenos carry a grassy bitter edge that fermenting does not remove and sometimes emphasises. The stems definitely contribute. A whole head of garlic over three weeks turns harsh. Coriander stems go bitter on a long ferment.
So nothing has gone wrong, it is the recipe. Which is good news, because flavour is fixable and spoilage is not.
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@green_jalapenos · 2w ago
Which of those four would you drop first if I make it again?
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@stems_went_in · 2w ago
Stems, every time, they cost you nothing to remove. Then use ripe red peppers or at least a mix rather than all green. Garlic and coriander stems in smaller amounts are fine; it is the quantity over three weeks that does it.
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