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tutorial Making Hot Sauce 101

How full do you fill the bottles before you invert them?  It is suppose to be an oxygen free environment, but if there is head space I would think there is oxygen.
 
All bottles/jars have to have 1/2" head space to allow for product and jar expansion during processing.  That's been standard canning recipes for 100 years.  When using woozy or other sauce bottles, there is a ring around the collar which indicates the fill line. 
 
hot stuff is correct that the heated sauce will sterilize the inside of the cap and glass when it is inverted.  Hot Fill/Invert/Hold is a standard processing procedure recognized by all processing authorities.   
 
hot stuff said:
Well it's about time I'm right about something. :)
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Shall we tell your wife?  :lol: 
;) 
 
~glad this post is helping.  That's all it was about. 
 
 
This is our Northern hemisphere harvest and processing season.  I know a lot of folks are cranking up the burners and cooking-cooking-cooking...
and not in a WalterWhite kind of cook...  :lol:
 
LongLiveHotSauce!!!!
 
Newbie questions... so I read the original post, read some other online resources, watched some YouTube videos... this post was VERY informative with pH levels, bottling & such. So I think I'm ready to make sauce & then I see all of this stuff about fermentation. Feel like I'm at square one. Fermentation is not necessary to make a shelf stable sauce is it? What is the benefit of fermentation - taste? I have bottles on the way & peppers ready to put in them but feel like I I have more questions than answers now. Help?

Thanks.
 
Fermentation is a method to raise the acidity of a sauce without the need to add acidic ingredients like vinegar which can impart a taste some may want to avoid.

Start with a few non-fermented sauces under your belt, then when you have things down pat you can try your hand at a fermented sauce.


SR.
 
Shorerider said:
Fermentation is a method to raise the acidity of a sauce without the need to add acidic ingredients like vinegar which can impart a taste some may want to avoid.

Start with a few non-fermented sauces under your belt, then when you have things down pat you can try your hand at a fermented sauce.


SR.
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Ah. Perfect. Thanks!
 
Here's some more information-
 
For further clarification, fermentation and adding vinegar (or other acids like lemon juice) raises the acidity level which lowers the pH number. 
pH 7.0 is neutral
pH 7.01 and above is alkaline
pH 6.9 and below is acidic
 
pH_Scale.jpg
 
salsalady said:
Here's some more information-
 
For further clarification, fermentation and adding vinegar (or other acids like lemon juice) raises the acidity level which lowers the pH number. 
pH 7.0 is neutral
pH 7.01 and above is alkaline
pH 6.9 and below is acidic
 
attachicon.gif
pH_Scale.jpg
Click to expand...
So according to this chart lemon juice and vinegar is just 1 point above hydrochloric acid? Nice way to put things into perspective.
 
yea, hawaiianero, when you look at it that way.... :crazy: 
 
:lol:
 
It's sometimes confusing for new people when talking about raising acidity and lowering pH.  It might be helpful to phrase it as "increase the acid amount or percentage in the sauce to lower the pH."  or maybe the last couple posts are clear enough.  I should probably check the Weights and Measures thread to see if it can be further clarified. 
 
 
Also, notice lemon juice and vinegar.  It's mentioned in the OP about substituting one for the other.  It's OK to sub lemon juice for vinegar in a recipe because lemon juice is more acidic.  It's not OK to sub vinegar for lemon juice.  If the recipe has been formulated using lemon juice with pH 2.3 and vinegar (pH 2.9) is used, the recipe will not have enough acidity.
 
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