Hey Friends,
It’s been 10 years since I smoked some jalapeños, stuffed them in a rum barrel with some salt and had no idea what I was doing.
I had heard that folks aged hot sauce in wooden barrels and was all, “I can ferment things! I should do that!”
Narrator: Aging and fermenting are not the same thing.
So, when you ferment vegetables, air is your enemy. But you know what is full of air? Wood.
But you know what also makes a hot sauce ferment taste really, REALLY good? Wood. Rum-soaked wood, to be specific.
And so began my decade-long adventure in trying to tame this particular fermentation beast.
We COULD make our lives easier by doing a high-salt fermentation (12–20%), but that doesn't taste nearly as good. So instead, we use 3%-4% salt and blend the ferment every single day to keep the air exposure in check. But every time we blend, we're introducing new wild yeasts. Which means this ferment never leaves the active stage.
It's a beast. A delicious, delicious beast.
Rum Barrel Fermented Smoked Jalapeño is hands down the biggest PITA hot sauce we make. Which is why we only make it once a year.
But gosh, do we love it so.
And this year's batch? SO GOOD.
The colder temperatures in our kitchen slowed down the fermentation this year, giving the flavors more room to develop. The result is a beautifully balanced, rich, smoky hot sauce with all that wonderful complexity from the St Johnsbury Distillery rum barrel.
Ten years in, we're still putting up with this ridiculous fermentation process because the end result is just THAT good.
And now it's finally back!
If you've been waiting all year for your bottle of Rum Barrel Fermented Smoked Jalapeño, your wait is over. And if you've never tried it, I think you're about to understand why we keep putting ourselves through this every year.
Get your Rum Barrel Fermented Smoked Jalapeño →
Get it in a box with Claire's Maple Reserve →
❤️ Claire
CEO & Founder
Butterfly Bakery of Vermont & Fat Toad Farm
PS: Yes, smoked jalapenos are chipotles. I called it smoked jalapenos because many, many Vermonters at the farmers market didn't know what a chipotle was back then. Times have changed, but the name hasn't.
