The Hot Sauce

I have long been interested in Lacto-Fermentation, which is the art of preserving vegetables in a brine utilizing the Lactobacillus Acidophilus bacteria. If you are familiar with sauerkraut, kimchi, or hot sauces, chances are that you have eaten a lot of products preserved in this fasion.

The bug exists naturally in the human gut, month, and vagina. It also exists on practically all of the produce you bring home from the grocery store. It is the most widely recognized pro-biotic entity and it occurs naturally in the environment. The art of lacto-fermentation requires little more that managing the temperature of the foodstuff and removing as much oxygen as possible during fermentation.

I have a couple of hot sauce recipes I have been refining over the years while also fermenting the aforementioned products and a few others. Here in New Mexico it is not legal to sell home made food except for baked confections. While I would argue that lacto-fermentation is every bit as safe as home baking, the law is clear. In order to manufacture the stuff for sale we would need to build or rent a facility that meets a long list of food safety standards. This is not our primary business and we could scarcely afford to do it as a passion project.

On a lark, we labeled some bottles IMPLS Launch and gave them out to friends to celebrate our first year in business. I then began hot-water canning them so that I could ship some through the mail. We can give them away. We just can't sell them. If you are a customer and/or special friend to Impulse Launch Systems, you might enjoy a few bottles of this yourself.

You can learn more and even see recipes here at my personal website.