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hot-sauce Sauce Storage?

I've always kept my hot suaces in the fridge. But as my collection is growing, I'm running out of room. And, as I am starting to aquire collector's sauces, I am interested in displaying some of them.

Does anyone know if it's okay to store open sauces out of the fridge for a long time? In particular, I'd like to keep out my extract sauces, but I don't want them to go bad.

Are there serious chilihead bacteria out there, or can sauces like Dave's and Blair's stay good for a long time at room temp?
 
The cajun restaurant in my town doesn't bother to refrigerate them, and I know some of those bottles are a couple months old. My guess is that while all food should be stored in the fridge, hot sauces tend to have a better opened shelf life. If you do decide to take a few out, make sure you leave the sauces with higher fruit content in the frigde, while those with high vinegar content should keep longer outside of the fridge. Rate of consumption should also be taken into account.
 
Agreed Dream, I've got quite a collection myself, but usually only put them up on the "shelf of masochism" after they are empty. For point of reference, ours have dairy product in them, so they MUST be refrigerated. The ZERO sauce we create, on the other hand, has a shelf life well into the next ice age. I would suggest to put ANY concoction you purchase into the fridge after opening them...If not only for personal well-being, to undermine the procreation of our unannounced guest clostridium, and of their unwanted cousins and nephews.
 
I can't speak for anyone else's sauces, but the law tells us that if we don't use preservatives, we have to tell our customers to refrigerate; so we do.

Fwiw, if you decide you don't want to refrigerate Hurricane Mash, it can and probably will ferment; those are fresh peppers, and fermentation will only make them hotter; so, knock yourself out... But if anyone asks, I told you to refrigerate it.

If you decide you don't want to refrigerate Fusion Fire; we don't and have never had a problem and because it's cooked peppers, I guess, it doesn't do anything. We keep it on the back of the stove in our house, but again, if anyone asks, we told you to refrigerate it.

For the rest of our sauces... With few exceptions, if you don't refrigerate them, I am not responsible for anything that grows in those jars.

I've more than a few customers who've spent the $25-150 bucks CAD it takes to pick up a bar fridge and use it exclusively for their hot sauces. We have one.

T
 
DEFCON Creator said:
We have a beer fridge in the garage because we don't have a bar. Wow, the wonderful world of semantics.

I could never figure that out... Smoking in the garage, that makes sense, but why can't you Americans drink your beer in the house, like the rest of us??? :twisted:
 
John S. said:
I've always kept my hot suaces in the fridge. But as my collection is growing, I'm running out of room. And, as I am starting to aquire collector's sauces, I am interested in displaying some of them.

Does anyone know if it's okay to store open sauces out of the fridge for a long time? In particular, I'd like to keep out my extract sauces, but I don't want them to go bad.

Are there serious chilihead bacteria out there, or can sauces like Dave's and Blair's stay good for a long time at room temp?

When I called Original Juan, they told me that basically anything above a million Scoville (and maybe even quite a bit less than that) is so potent that nothing is going to grow on it if you don't refrigerate it. I have an opened bottle of The Source, and of Da Bomb: The Final Answer, and I haven't had a problem.
 
Ryan Bell said:
John S. said:
I've always kept my hot suaces in the fridge. But as my collection is growing, I'm running out of room. And, as I am starting to aquire collector's sauces, I am interested in displaying some of them.

Does anyone know if it's okay to store open sauces out of the fridge for a long time? In particular, I'd like to keep out my extract sauces, but I don't want them to go bad.

Are there serious chilihead bacteria out there, or can sauces like Dave's and Blair's stay good for a long time at room temp?

When I called Original Juan, they told me that basically anything above a million Scoville (and maybe even quite a bit less than that) is so potent that nothing is going to grow on it if you don't refrigerate it. I have an opened bottle of The Source, and of Da Bomb: The Final Answer, and I haven't had a problem.

I find that rather easy to believe.

When the shows are over I'll research this question.

T
 
I've had this discussion with CaJohn (of CaJohn's Firery Foods) here a few times. He sorta assured me that the pH of most of the hotter sauces (be it from vinegar or other ingredients) will keep bacteria from growing in it almost indefinitely. You really need to watch out for sauces that have a dairy content (as DEFCON John pointed out) or a high sugar/fruit/syrup content. Most of the stuff we keep at home in our cupboard has been there quite a while, and hasn't suffered one bit from a lack of refrigeration. 8)
 
I have also been told the same thing about the ph and the dairy/fruit content makes perfect sense. A friend of mine who is somewhat responsible for my affinity for hot sauces and has been a head for years told me "just take a sniff and if it smells ok eat it, if it doesn't don't." I am new to hot sauces so I have few examples, but I have not had a problem with leaving Mild to Wild's Red Savina Garlic out of the fridge. Nor do I plan on putting a bottle of Cajohn's Fatali mash in the fridge either.
 
Koolaid. You sound pretty sure of yourself. However, being quite the tinkerer in natures domain, "If it looks ok and smells ok, just eat it" is a nice talking point and/or slogan, but doesn't hold much water. Small amounts of bacterium don't smell or look strange at all, ever hear of salmonella or trichenosis? Many pathogenic bacteria do not affect the smell, taste, or look of food for the most part, especially in the earlier stages. Please read the following from a post I did a few days ago, perhaps it will shed some light into the shadowy nooks & crannies:

There are forms of our lovely little friends in the bacterium universe that can grow in nearly everything. pH has a lot to do with the overall 'chance' of an uninvited guest procreating, but it's not the 'steel curtain' some think it is. Granted, the chances of microbial growth in acidic (low pH) solutions is substantially less than a basic medium, but take for instance, our friend Helicobacter Pylori, which lives in our stomachs, and enjoys the various hydrochloric swim meets, whose pH ranks near zero. There are other bacteriums like the genus Thiobacillus that can survive in a .5 pH solution, yeah, also highly acidic. With the adaption mechanisms within the bacterium universe, nearly anything is possible. Hell, look at our little friend clostridium (aka botulism) who thrives in an airless environment. In other words, after opening, keep it in the fridge.
 
DEFCON Creator said:
There are forms of our lovely little friends in the bacterium universe that can grow in nearly everything. pH has a lot to do with the overall 'chance' of an uninvited guest procreating, but it's not the 'steel curtain' some think it is. Granted, the chances of microbial growth in acidic (low pH) solutions is substantially less than a basic medium, but take for instance, our friend Helicobacter Pylori, which lives in our stomachs, and enjoys the various hydrochloric swim meets, whose pH ranks near zero. There are other bacteriums like the genus Thiobacillus that can survive in a .5 pH solution, yeah, also highly acidic. With the adaption mechanisms within the bacterium universe, nearly anything is possible. Hell, look at our little friend clostridium (aka botulism) who thrives in an airless environment. In other words, after opening, keep it in the fridge.

John,

Factually, most of what you said is true...to a point. Clostridia are almost exclusively anaerobic bacteria, which is why botulism grows in unopened cans. Unless you plan on hermetically re-sealing your hot sauce bottles, I wouldn't lay any bets that Clostridum would grow there. Last I checked, Thiobacillus grew in hot springs and such, so it's not exactly a plausible candidate either. As for H. pylori, yep it's possible for that to grow...but that's usually transmitted person-to-person rather than by deposition in a culture medium. Besides that, most people with H. pylori are not symptomatic until they start having signs of ulcers or gastric reflux anyway. I submit that it may be safer to keep those sauces in the fridge, but as a matter of degrees it's probably not to the extent you may think. Just my $0.02....

- Joe
 
I agree. My whole point was to point out the fact that pH is not the 'steel curtain' which many seem to think it is, when it comes to the procreation of bacterium. I was just stating for record that the little bug examples I mentioned (Thiobacillus and H. Pylori) DO grow in very acidic environments, creating the possibility through the process of adaptation, for other little bugs to assimilate into an environment they hadn't previously. Adaptation is a continual process for many forms of bacteria and viruses, look at the ever-changing flu for instance, or the bacteria that adapt to the uses of penicillin and become stronger. As for Clostridia, if a sauce has been sitting on a shelf for God knows how long and has been left unopened, you won't get the same tell-tale sign you do from a can (the lovely bulging). Most extract sauces (not ours, of course 😉 ) smell a little better than battery acid, so even if it was present, the pungently acrid smell of ketone-induced extract would surpass the heavenly scent of Clostridium. I just want to make sure people don't automatically assume that because something is hot, it will last until Halley's Comet comes around again on a shelf at room temperature.
 
Thanks for the info. I still don't think I'll need to refrigerate them. They probably won't last more than two months tops (which I should have mentioned in my previous post). I haven't had any problems so far and have went through more than a few bottles without refrigeration. As far as extract sauces go I have no expierence with those. Which if I do buy an extract I would suppose it would be sitting around much longer. As far as salmonella and trichenosis are concerned, I am no expert, but from my understanding those are common with consumption of under cooked pork or chicken.
 
Kool, you are correct. Trichenosis and salmonella are from undercooked meat, the point I was making was that pathogenic bacterium don't always smell, look, or taste bad. I guess with the idea I was trying to make, you could put carbon monoxide or even carbon dioxide in that train of thought. Neither one of those look, smell or taste at all. But step into a room full of them and close the door, and VOILA someone is collecting on your life insurance. I'm not trying to scare anyone here, I'm just trying to open people eyes to the fact that hot sauces aren't immune from nature's proliferation.
 
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