• If you have a question about commercial production or the hot sauce business, please post in Startup Help.

cooking Separation in Hot Sauce After Cooking

I'm ready to ditch cooking as part of my bottling process after my 2nd attempt being less than satisfactory.  I'm thinking that keeping the sauce refrigerated is the best way to go.  Just make a raw sauce and keep it refrigerated from manufacture to sale.
 
My first attempt of course I scorched the sauce and in my 2nd attempt I got a separation of something in there.  Also the sauce went from a lovely bright red/orange color to a darker brownish red despite no scorching this time.
So no joy with cooking my thai chili sauce.  It takes a good long while to bring a 3-4 liters of sauce gently to a boil and all that time over heat doesn't seem to be helpful in the appearance or taste.  
 
Here is a link to a photo of my last batch.  It is a closeup of the neck of the bottle showing the separation.  Bright red oily looking globules at the surface and particulates that don't show when I don't cook.  Granted they are really small but it doesn't look good and I worked too hard at this.

IMG36621.jpg

 
Also, after seeing the Tabasco sauce video I posted recently, I think that if the no cooking method is good enough for them, it should be good enough for me right?  Please correct me if I'm mistaken!  
 
My method was this.
 
1. Ferment the mash for 30 days using only sea salt
2. After 30 days, run the mash thru the food processor 1 more time and strain. 
3. Add the requisite amount of vinegar
4. Bring the sauce to boiling for 10 minutes while stirring with a wooden spoon the entire time, then
 
5. Move the sauce pot to a larger pot for double boiling while bottling
 
All bottles were soaked in a dilute bath of bleach and water, then thoroughly rinsed and turned upside down to drain.
 
The pots were heavy duty stainless, the boiling pot being Calphalon brand. All bottles were capped and inverted for 30 minutes at least after filling.
 
As far as I can tell, I've done everything right despite the results.  
 
Looking forward to any comments. :)
 
 
I'm tending to agree with you SL as, although there is some possibility of oils coming from the grill, the oily blobs are are dark red color which immediately said to me there was some breakdown of the sauce components in the boiling of it.  
At the Vegan Mini Market where I participated today I just shook the bottles from time to time but the blobs do reappear rather quickly.  
 
So I have a choice to empirically test for the cause by either taking the boiling from the equation or the smoking, and I'm going to opt for not boiling as the entire product line is based on a smoked, fermented sauce.  A low simmer for a short period to ensure that fermentation has been stopped is all I'll do as I had a batch continue generating small bubbles even after the vinegar was added.
 
People really have no issue with keeping a 180ml bottle in their fridge.  I tell everyone that I'm the guinea pig for safety as I leave all my home sauces out for months at a time with zero issues.
 
Onward to my next batch and we'll see what we get then. :)
 
salsalady said:
I think the drops are actually oil from the chiles.  There are a lot of pictures and videos of the inside of peppers, especially superhots, where you can see droplets of oil. 
 
Here's a picture from NMSU.
attachicon.gif
Trinidad_Moruga_Scorpion_2.jpg
 
I have personally seen ones where the inside is almost fully coated with oily drops.
 
edit to spell NMSU correctly  :lol:
 
 
As an aside, the person ay the event next to me today was selling organic produce and I started to talk to him about chilies.  He's growing Trinidad Scorpions. Now he has a guaranteed customer.  Adding one or 2 to a batch of Thai chili sauce would take my sauces to the next level :D
I'm sure I will be posting about ratios of TS to Thai chilies. 
I'd grow them myself but I have had just horrible luck growing chilies here believe it or not.  I had better luck growing when I lived in Chicago!  One would think with hot weather year round it would be ideal but it's been really hard to get anything growing or able to stay alive even.   
 
 
This is a bit off topic, but anyway...
 
Would it be too humid an environment, when combined with the temperature, in Thailand?
Here in the south of France they grow perfectly during summer. The RH is almost the same as Bangkok - believe it or not - but the temperature is a good 5-8 °C cooler. (Wikipedia being the source of much useful information...)
 
 
People say it is too hot here.  Direct sun is brutal.  I've recorded 44°C aka 111°F in direct sun.  Also the soil that is commercially available is said to be crap.  I add mulch and sand to it.  Sand to help drainage as most soils here retain water really well.  
 
Right now it is rainy season/monsoon so the humidity is slightly higher and it's a little cooler.   The jalapeños I get here come from the Royal Project in Chiang Rai, most likely, or Chiang Mai where there are mountains and it is a bit cooler.  Nighttime temps can be 20°C or lower.  http://www.tsdf.or.th/en/royally-initiated-projects/10757-the-royal-project-foundation/
 
When people are used to 90/32++ daily, 20/68 is really cold for them.  Me too nowadays, but I would never complain about it!  :)
 
nice.chili said:
This is a bit off topic, but anyway...
 
Would it be too humid an environment, when combined with the temperature, in Thailand?
Here in the south of France they grow perfectly during summer. The RH is almost the same as Bangkok - believe it or not - but the temperature is a good 5-8 °C cooler. (Wikipedia being the source of much useful information...)
 
 
 
Back
Top