Hello everyone, I'll be trying to make my first sauce soon and am left with some lingering questions after searching through the forums and other internet sources. I'll lay out my current plan and please correct any steps that seem wrong/unsafe/improvable. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Ingredients: 2 sliced mangos, 1/2 fresh cut pineapple, 12 habaneros, 1/2 cup white vinegar, squirt of lime
Current plan:
combine ingredients in pan and leave boiling on low heat for ~10min
blend in food processor
test pH (assuming ~pH<4 using test strips move on)
funnel into bottles which have been washed and then heated in oven at 250°F
cap (plastic cap) and invert for a few minutes
let cool to room temp
My questions for this process are:
Does this seem like an overall reasonable approach?
After cooling to room temp could this be stored at room temp. or does it necessitate refrigeration? (will be refrigerated after opening, just curious about before that)
If I used the same process except don't cook the sauce and simply blended it in the food processor, assuming a ~pH<4 would this be safe to store at room temp.?
Thanks for all the help, would be lost without this forum!
Your base sauce sounds OK, I'd add a pinch of salt, and if you follow the Hot Fill Hold as you described, the bottles would be safe to store in the pantry until ready to use. Refrigerate after opening. The "same process" can't be replicated by simply blendering a <4.0 pH sauce and leaving at room temp. Part of the Hot Fill/Hold process is creating a vacuum when the heated sauce cools in conjunction with a low pH sauce. That can't happen with a room temp sauce. All the boxes have to be Checked to have a successful HotFill/Hold shelf stable sauce.
Your base sauce sounds OK, I'd add a pinch of salt, and if you follow the Hot Fill Hold as you described, the bottles would be safe to store in the pantry until ready to use. Refrigerate after opening. The "same process" can't be replicated by simply blendering a <4.0 pH sauce and leaving at room temp. Part of the Hot Fill/Hold process is creating a vacuum when the heated sauce cools in conjunction with a low pH sauce. That can't happen with a room temp sauce. All the boxes have to be Checked to have a successful HotFill/Hold shelf stable sauce.
Thank you very much! I did read through all the stickied posts, thank you for contributing to those, they were unbelievably helpful. Really appreciate your answers to those questions, was exactly what I was looking for, I probably should have done more research before asking the question about whether or not I could skip the cooking part -- it seems so obvious in retrospect. Thanks again for the help!
to THP!