Tomato puree for hot sauces?

[OhioGrown]

I made up a hot sauce today with 1.5 cans of tomato puree (about 40 oz), the juice from 6 limes (half cup), two tablespoons of minced garlic, a tablespoon of kosher salt. I also added about 15 Red Ghosts, 6 Douglahs, and 2 Trinidad Scorpions, and a medium onion. I smoked all the peppers and onions for about 2 hours over apple wood smoke. Do you think the sauce will be pH safe? I wanted a thicker sauce, but not bbq sauce consistency. It pours really well, but not watery, and the heat came through really well too. I haven't seen any recipes using puree as a base. I read all about the Salsalady thread, and had everything boiling, and cleaned, etc. I bottled and inverted, etc.
 
any tips would be great.
 
It came out to 10.5 5oz bottles.

 

[salsalady]

Hi OhioGrown,
 
It's great to see folks using the information and still asking questions. 
 
 
 
Based on your posted measurements, there's 4 oz of acid (lime juice) in +50 oz of sauce.  (10.5 bottles x 5 oz).  It looks light on the acid-to-other ratio and with the new hybrid tomatoes being grown for their low acid content, tomatoes can not be counted on to add to your acidity and lower the pH of the sauce. 
 
My feeling is that you should keep the bottles refrigerated and not consider them shelf stable.  Keep the bottles tightly capped and if you have occasion to get a pH meter or have some sauce pH tested and it does test out OK of pH, then go ahead and take the bottles out of the fridge and store them in the pantry. 
 
But for now...if the pH isn't known, I'd suggest keeping all the bottles in the refer. 
 
BTW, how does the sauce taste?  Did you have fun???
 
SL

 

[OhioGrown]

I forgot to add that I added a whole cup of vinegar to the mixture as well, sorry. The sauce turned out really well. I wanted something that other people would like as well. With all my sauces I've been making this year, this last one was the best. I try to stick to the whole cup of vinegar (or juice) to 10 cups of mix. Usually I think I overdo the acid part a little. thanks again, salsalady.

 

[salsalady]

With the 1 cup vinegar, that should make the pH good.        

 

[OhioGrown]

Thanks Salsalady. I made 4 batches of sauce this year. The first one used about 14 Chocolate Habs and I made 4 bottles of it. The second batch used the same amount of peppers but I made 13 bottles with it. The third batch was similar to the second. And the 4th batch I made 12 bottles but used a couple dozen super hots (ghosts, a few douglah, a few Trinidad scorpions). I smoked the peppers for all of them over apple wood for a couple hours. I also smoked the onions I used. The first batch is probably the hottest, and the smoky flavor comes through really well. The second and third batches are obviously thinned out heat-wise, but still pack a punch. They're more of what most people would like. And the fourth batch is just as hot as the first, maybe a little hotter. I'm gonna try another one here soon with a dozen scorpions, less tomato, more vinegar and lime/lemon juice.