1st time sauce maker

[masschilehead]

Hello everyone! I'm growing super hots for the first time this coming year with plans of hot sauce, jerk sauce and possibly drying for powders or market. My question to you for sauces is: Do I need to add a preservative? If not, how long can I expect my sauce to keep? If it's helpful, I plan on first doing a variation of the sauce on allrecipes.com using mustard, molasses, etc. Thanks in advance!

-Masschilehead

 

[Scovie]

Welcome MC!
There are no simple answers to your questions. Between the Food prep license, and the Ph testing, and label making, my suggestion would be to investigate, watch and learn. You have time! Look around, put your feet up and stay awhile!

 

[masschilehead]

Welcome MC!
There are no simple answers to your questions. Between the Food prep license, and the Ph testing, and label making, my suggestion would be to investigate, watch and learn. You have time! Look around, put your feet up and stay awhile!

Thanks! I'll take that to heart! I do suppose I'm a bit early, which does give me more time to research MA retailer information, etc.

 

[Timmmy newbie]

Hiya mass,

If you make a small amount of sauce and leave it in the fridge you can expect it to last for a week or two depending on the ingredients.

If you want to preserve a sauce you have to cook every ingredient, so shove it all in a pot and cook it down a bit.

If you add in vinegar or something acidic then it will help to limit the growth of un friendly bacteria.

Try adding 20-25% vinegar to the sauce before the cooking process, lemon/limes can also be used to replace the vinegar.

This should drop the pH of the sauce into the acidic range around 3..

A boil time of twenty minutes is a good idea if you want it to last.

And all equipment including bottles, funnels and utensils need to be sterilized before the sauce is bottled.

Baby bottle steamers or food steamers are great for this.

theres a start

 

[The Hot Pepper]

You only need shelf-stability if it's on the shelf.