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Bottled my sauce and it exploded

StoneySauce

StoneySauce

I searched for a related topic and didn't find one. Sorry if this post is redundant.

I have started bottling my hot sauce and there is a serious fermenting issue. My neighbor told me he opened his bottle and it began to foam/overflow out of the bottle when he opened it after taking it out of the fridge. I kept my bottle at room temperature. While making dinner tonight I shook up my bottle and when I opened it it literally exploded out of the top of the bottle right in my face and all over my kitchen. After spending about 20 minutes hovered over the sink with the water sprayer directly in my eyes I am just now getting my sight back. When it blew the plastic dripper grommet off of the bottle it sounded like a large firecracker. 2/3 of the content came out violently. It blasted hot sauce all the way to the ceiling. It REALLY freaked me out.
The 3 main ingredients are habanero peppers, pineapples and a little white wine vinegar. I don't cook it (except for the garlic cloves) as I prefer the raw flavor. I just puree it in a smoothie machine and keep the blender pitcher in the fridge then re-blend as needed. My neighbors wanted some of their own so I bottled some.

Why did it react like this? What can I do to prevent this?
 
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Dude its so not fun, and im actually Paranoid bout opening them after the "Wrath of God" incident, 2 days my hands burnt for...

as Bent says, COOK it and Ph check... did an experiment and had to have naga's in a bottle of water,, 2 weeks later, had 1 didnt Open,"oooo wonder what that's like" BANGGGGGGG as Opened, Naga Water Everywhere(not fun again).. Non cooked stuff ferments and Cooked will too if cetain things arnt met..

no more exploding Pleaseeeeeeee :shocked:
 
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Ya, if its not cooked to a certain temp then its going to ferment and build up pressure if its in a sealed jar. I had a canning jars explode on me once several years ago:(
 
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Cook the peppers and other ingredients down, add the vin and simmer on a low boil for 15 and then bottle. Cutting down on the ammonium hydrate and diesel #2 will also help. Don't play with match's when opening.

Cheers, TB.
 
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:hell:If you don't like cooking your sauces there are ways around it.

If your ingredients are fully dehydrated you shouldn't have any prob, a properly or should I say fully dehydrated pepper or any other vegetable has a very very very very very very low chance of any type of bacteria growing on it period. Plus dehydrated makes better flavors in sauce I believe, especially if you do a cold dehydration it preserves and concentrates all the color and flavor.

You never HAVE to bring your vinegar to a boil, just make sure your using enough to have the low ph levels everyone's been talking about above.

If you do have any other liquids other than vinegar, or raw ingredients that you can't or don't want to dehydrate, you do need to cook that part of the sauce, but you can do it separately, let it cool to room temp, then add your vinegar and dehydrated ingredients,and blend or whatever you want to do. I also keep my large batches in the fridge just in case, smaller batches on the kitchen table.

If you are making hot sauce without cooking you HAVE to have a lot of vinegar in it....or maybe at least 80proof alcohol......hhhhhhmmmmmm what would that do???.........research time

and as far as oils, or anything else, (I love habanero honey) again, just used dehydrated peppers and your golden; make sure whatever container your using has been sterilized 1st as well

oh, and about the fermentation...fermentation is a preservation technique in itself, and is not a bad thing as it may have been portrayed above, and there is still a small chance your sauce will ferment, just carefully remove the lid a few times a day for the first three days of your sauces life, and then you can leave it alone for as long as you'd like.
 
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theHippySeedCo said:
Dude its so not fun, and im actually Paranoid bout opening them after the "Wrath of God" incident, 2 days my hands burnt for...

as Bent says, COOK it and Ph check... did an experiment and had to have naga's in a bottle of water,, 2 weeks later, had 1 didnt Open,"oooo wonder what that's like" BANGGGGGGG as Opened, Naga Water Everywhere(not fun again).. Non cooked stuff ferments and Cooked will too if cetain things arnt met..

no more exploding Pleaseeeeeeee :shocked:
Click to expand...

hmmmm.....I have scared you forever havnt i mate.....? Yeah ph is very important and also cooling naturally....I also found that some pods that have a certain mould arent affected by cooking and are dangerous....so make sure your pods are checked when cutting and that everyting is clean and your ph is correct. Havnt hurt anyone since Neil old mate of mine Neil.

Tasted good though huh lol!

Scorp
 
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Just had a sauce go everywhere on me the other day, was very annoyed by it. Not sure what happened, it was cooked for a long time, it had a decent amount of vinegar in it, it was in a clean bottle, ah well, live and learn.
 
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anytime you use a food processor/blender for a good amount of time, to really mix things up your going to get a lot of air mixed into your sauce, this will always produce some pressure on your bottles, EVEN IF YOU WERE USING HEAT....it's about the blender

to avoid this, like stated above, once your sauce is naturally cooled to room temperature, bottled and placed in the fridge, before you go to bed that night, CAREFULLY release the pressure over the sink, put it back in the fridge. Do it twice the next day. By day three at the very latest, all air bubbles are gone from your sauce, and as you'll notice, all pressure is gone as well! When you eat your sauce 2 years later....you will NOT get botulism...ASSUMING you have followed everything we have discussed above....
 
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Always use dried ingredients in oil. Fresh will still grow nasty mould etc. even after simmering. Also, never bring non-winterized oil (ie- olive oil) to a boil, just bring to heat. A soon as you see bubbling, remove from heat. These oils will also break down because of their low smoke point, and can cause further problems for you.
 
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interesting thread.
above hotenuff4u said fermentation can be a part of your sauce.
thats a bit vague.
if it fizzes or pops when you open it be safe and don't eat it.
good bacteria and bad bacteria
don't take the chance as people can be hospitalised or die.
 
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I have had a few "fizzers" including a 20 ounce bottle with a wire
hinged ceramic cap(for pressure) that I had filled with a fresh
type hot sauce, I shook it up to mix and flipped the wire bale,
ever seen a hot champagne bottle shook and opened? It was like that!
I use a blender on all my hot sauces, but I always reheat the sauce
back to just boiling (helps with excessive pectin and keeps separation
to a minimum) and bottle it while still very hot. When you open a bottle
later, it normally has a vacuum in the bottle and the sauce level is slightly reduced.

ButchT
 
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I made a sauce 2 days ago that was not cooked but just blended. After 2 days the lid was bent looking and when I opened it the sauce over flowed from the jar. What caused this to happen. About 1/4 of the 16 oz jar bubbled out when I opened it up. 
 
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