Here’s my second attempt at making a cheesy fermented hot sauce!
In the prior attempt, I used nutritional yeast as a cheese substitute after being inspired by a commercially available hot sauce. I didn’t find it particularly cheesy and I wasn’t a fan of the flavour that it added.
So here we are. This time, I used some powdered cheese that I bought from Amazon. I also used some chilli oil instead of the canola that I used previously. Otherwise, the recipe is similar.
I fermented some orange habaneros and white fataliis in a 3.5% brine with banana, garlic, shallots and sweet potato for around four weeks.
Blended it all together before straining to separate the liquid from the solids. Post-straining, I added half a cup of oat milk, around 5 teaspoons of chilli oil, 4 heaped tablespoons of cheese powder and some xanthum gum for consistency.
Pasteurised to 80C. Final pH around 4.
Predictably, the cheese flavour is far more genuine. The initial sharpness of the ferment is somewhat balanced by the cheesy base notes. But the flavour still isn’t perfect. The consistency is great and Queso-like.
Definitely a great sauce that I’ll make again. I’m sure I can think of some more small adjustments to make. But as is, I think it’ll go great on a variety of foods eg mexican food, burgers, eggs, steak etc.
Let me know if you have any questions and if you give the recipe a go yourself!