bottles-jars Boiling vs. Straight to Bottles

[Carabao]

Hi Guys!

To start my knowledge on how to make Hot Sauces, here's what I would like to know.

Some recipes are just a mix of ingredients blended and put in jars or bottles without boiling the stuff.
In many recipes, they suggest to place the mix in the refrigerator to preserve it.

How long without the boiling(heat,cooking,etc.) process can we keep these Hot Sauces inside and outside a refrigerator?

For recipes that have a boiling process, how long we can keep them inside and outside a fridge?

What kind of bottle caps should be used? Sealed,Plastic, Steel?

The reason of these questions are that I'm looking to make Hot Sauces that we can keep for months or years outside a fridge!

Thanks in advance guys!

Cheers!

 

[geeme]

If you really want them to keep, without risking germies, you'll need to use one of two canning methods - either boiling water bath or pressure sealing - and make sure you have the right combo of ingredients for a proper pH. Both will cook the sauce, of course. But that's the only sure-fire way I know to preserve your sauces without preserving germs, especially if you don't want to refrigerate them. In general, though, know that you should refrigerate after opening, regardless. There are many good threads here on canning - check them out!

 

[Carabao]

If you really want them to keep, without risking germies, you'll need to use one of two canning methods - either boiling water bath or pressure sealing - and make sure you have the right combo of ingredients for a proper pH. Both will cook the sauce, of course. But that's the only sure-fire way I know to preserve your sauces without preserving germs, especially if you don't want to refrigerate them. In general, though, know that you should refrigerate after opening, regardless. There are many good threads here on canning - check them out!

Thanks for your interesting reply!

I'll take a look at the canning threads!

Cheers!

 

[POTAWIE]

If you don't heat process it, its a fresh sauce and will usually last less than a week in the fridge. Hot-packing is the easiest safe way to bottle sauces and just requires the pH'd sauce to be hot enough, and the jars to be sterilized. You may also want to turn the filled bottles upside-down to sterilize the caps. This is the way most all hot-sauce makers bottle their sauces. You just can't process a woozie with plastic lids in a water bath or pressure cooker

 

[salsalady]

http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/3958-bottling-hot-sauce/

here's a good thread about bottling-


and this one is in the Hot Sauce Making forum-
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/14991-hot-sauce-making-for-an-uber-newbie/