01 · August
Pick
By hand and at full colour, in the sandy fields of Dăbuleni by the Danube. Only whole, unbruised pods go in.
The idea
Most hot sauce is vinegar in a hurry. Ours sits in clay crocks for ninety days, until the peppers turn sour, deep and a little wild. It takes
patience.
You can taste every one of those days.
Lacto-fermentation is the oldest trick in an Oltenian pantry: vegetables, salt, water, a clay pot and time. We do the same with peppers, then grind them on stone, sieve them twice and seal every bottle in wax.
No vinegar to rush the sourness, no sugar to hide the heat, no gums to fake the body. What's on the label is what went in the crock. The rest is bacteria and patience.