One of the most frequent questions we get asked about fermenting hot peppers and making hot sauce is, “Why do you ferment your hot peppers whole when many recipes call for chapping them fine?
The first part of the answer is personal opinion: there is no real right or wrong.
But the main reason I ferment them whole (or in big pieces) is simple: it’s far easier to keep them submerged under the surface of the water – and keeping them submerged is the number one way to prevent mould from appearing in the ferment.
The next reason I ferment them whole is easy: it allows me to pull some of the peppers out of the ferment while they are still semi-solid so I can store hot sauce as well as fermented hot pepper slices (for things like tacos). A quart (liter) of fermented hot pepper slices rarely makes it through the summer.