Sauspiria

When a coworker presented me with a boat load of hot peppers, it only made sense to try a fermented hot sauce.  And with this being so close to Halloween, naming it after a horror movie seemed fitting.  So I present to you, SAUSPIRIA!!

Named after the gory 1977 Italian horror movie classic 'Suspiria', what Sauspiria lacks in gore it makes up for in heat!  This hot sauce is a really simple mix of cayenne peppers fermented whole with garlic in a bath of salt water for 14 days, and then thrown into a blender to make a sauce.

Not Pictured:  Salt, Water, and Fear In My Eyes

 Checking on it after just a week, it already smelled like a hot sauce which, not knowing what I was doing, was very exciting.  During the second week the jar started to cloud up from the fermentation giving me the confidence that it would be done after 2 weeks.  Typically you taste the vegetables to make sure they are fermented to your liking, but these were hot peppers, and I value my taste buds.

After that, the entire contents of the jar (green stems of the peppers included because, why not) went into the blender and were blended until smooth.  When I took the top off the blender to pour it into its bottle, the fumes went directly into my eyes and confirmed my initial thoughts that this wasn't going to be mild.  And mild it is not.

Unfiltered and apologetically hot, Sauspiria came out pretty good for my first shot at a sauce.  And with more peppers on the way, I'll be trying a lot more!