Preserve peppers by adding a little salt and waiting.

Fermenting peppers is a wonderful way to preserve them, and imparts a tangy, almost leathery flavor. You can ferment any pepper, with minimal equipment: standard mason jars with screw top bands and lids, a digital scale, a food processor and a blender, if making a smooth hot sauce.

Ferment peppers when green, or fully ripened. You'll grind them in a food processor, adding in other flavors like garlic or ginger, or potentially spices like small amounts of clove or allspice. Once processed, add filtered, distilled or even bottled water (chlorine in tap water can inhibit the fermentation process) and salt by weight, then place in a jar to ferment. It's pretty easy:

1. cut off the tops and remove the seeds, if desired, for a less-spicy ferment
2. place the peppers in a food processor and pulse until uniformly ground, adding garlic, ginger and/or spices to taste, if desired.
3. add enough filtered, distilled or bottled water to cover the peppers and pulse a few times to combine.
4. tare the weight of a very clean glass jar.
5. place the pepper mixture in the glass jar and record the weight. Multiply this by .03 for a 3% salt inclusion. 
6. stir in the salt.
7. place a very clean lid on the jar, and tighten a clean band onto the jar, but only about a half turn; just enough for the band to stay on the jar if lifted, but so there's still some play for the lid. This will allow air to escape while keeping the jar more or less sealed during fermentation.
8. place the jar in a dark spot at room temperature. 
9. after 4-5 days, start checking the ferment. It will start to smell tangier, leathery and more profoundly of peppers (and any aromatics you added).
10. allow it to ferment to your taste. I like most fermented peppers in the 7-10 day range.
11. refrigerate the pepper paste, or proceed to making hot sauce (below).

Fermented Pepper Hot Sauce

To make a simple, classic hot sauce, simply puree the fermented pepper base with some vinegar and water. The vinegar will be another layer of preservation along with the previous lactofermentation process, and the water thins the hot sauce to a pourable or dashable consistency. Adding zanthum gum (available online) will homogenize the hot sauce so that it never separates and maintains a very smooth, lightly gelatinized texture that many commercial hot sauces have. This is completely optional.

makes 1 pint

1 cup fermented pepper paste with liquid brine

1/4 cup vinegar (apple cider, red wine, white wine, rice wine, balsamic, Chinese black or distilled vinegars)

1/4 cup water

1/4 teaspoon zanthum gum

In a blender, combine the pepper paste, vinegar and water and puree until very smooth, adding a little bit of water to thin it to a pourable consistency. Add the optional zanthum gum and puree for another 15 seconds, until glossy, homogenous and lightly thickened. Funnel the hot sauce into small jars with dripper tops and refrigerate for up to a couple of years.