So many neglect and discard this part of the chilli when infact inside this little green pad is a world of complex flavours and aromas unique to that individual chilli.
Another fascinating thing about the stems of many chilli varieties we grow is that they attract the same bacterial cultures as you find in many yoghurts, each plant in nature has its own species and strains of bacteria that like to munch on it for their food, so all life is very snybiotic.
With that info, one could simply pop a few stems in some milk, keep it warm around 86F overnight and the next day you will see it curdled and lumpy.
Strain the lumps out and use them to culture out a batch of yoghurt.
After about the 3rd time using the previous yoghurt to make new batches the correct bacteria will naturally strain isolate theirselves, so then only the good ones that make the yoghurt are the survivors.
It's called competitive expulsion. The backbone to the world of fermentation.
Then you will have a nice cultured right out of chilli nature yoghurt.
Possibly the best probiotic yoghurt you've ever tasted or could get your hands on. 😉
by thefishfrierscuff
10 Comments
This is very interesting, thank you for sharing. When fermenting my peppers for hot sauce I have always chopped the stems off as I figured they would add bitterness. Have you ever done a ferment and compared the flavor profile? My habanada’s are almost ripe so I will be starting a new ferment soon and might split the peppers into two ferments to see the difference.
You do you bro
TIL. Thanks!
Can you talk a little more about the yogurt process here. I’ve been really toying with the idea of making my own yogurt and I love my chilis.
Are you saying make the yogurt, then use that yogurt to culture another batch, and then the second batch to a third. Is the first and second batches good to eat? Or are they just waste to get to the good stuff?
I will eat a pepper stem tonight and see how it goes. If I’m not back in 72 hours, call the cops.
Good ol’ lactobacillus
Nice post! Please don’t delete it 🙂
I’ve never made yogurt so this may be a stupid question, but does the type of pepper used change the flavor?
I’ve eaten a pepper stem and you’re full of bs.
You do you, though.
Personally most of the peppers I eat can just be twisted off so there is very little waste as just the stem itself is removed leaving the top of the pepper.
So should you use the stems in salsa and hot sauce too???