bottling Bottling & Preserving a Peri Peri Sauce Recipe

[emanphoto]

I really love this recipe and so do most folks I know who have tried it so I want to try to bottle something like it.  
 
I'm wondering what procedures aside from the recipe as shown are needed to bottle a sauce with some shelf life to it.  Below is the recipe.
 
My guess here is that I should bottle the sauces, put them in a double boiler, remove them from the heat and cap immediately and invert them, OR just make sure the sauce is 100°C, pour into the bottles, cap and invert.
 
Thank you in advance for any directions, tweaks, or finer points of the process I can get here!
 
Peri Peri Sauce for Portugese Chicken


Prep Time
30 mins


Cook Time
30 mins


Total Time
1 hr

 

Peri Peri Sauce should be garlicy, spicy, lemony, tangy and utterly addictive. This bright, fresh, fully-flavoured version hits all the right notes.

Course: Dinner 
Servings: 16 servings. About 3 cups sauce
Calories: 74 kcal
Author: Barry C. Parsons


Ingredients

• 2 large red bell peppers char grilled
• 1 large red onion char grilled
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• zest of one lemon finely grated
• 10 small red Thai chilis roughly chopped (more to taste for hotter sauce)
• 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika or plain paprika
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 leaves bay

To finish the sauce (when cooked)

• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• zest of one lemon finely minced
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

US Customary - Metric


Instructions

1. 
   Start by roasting the red peppers and onions. This can be done on a gas grill, under the broiler or on a cast iron grill pan. You want to get good char marks on the outside of the peppers and onions. Don't worry if they are not fully cooked, they will get fully cooked in the sauce.
   
2. 
   Chop the peppers and onions and add them to a food processor or blender. You can us an immersion blender if that is all you have on hand, just take the time to get the ingredients well pureed.
   
3. 
   Add the garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, lemon zest, red Thai chilis, smoked paprika, oregano, salt and pepper to the food processor with the grilled onions and peppers and puree until smooth.
   
4. 
   Transfer the sauce to a medium saucepan, add the bay leaves and simmer slowly for 20-30 minutes.
   
5. 
   Let the sauce cool to warm. Remove the bay leaves then return the sauce to the food processor again.
   
6. 
   Add the additional lemon juice, red wine vinegar and lemon zest. Puree for another few minutes until very smooth. Slowly add in the olive oil in a thin stream as the processor is running.
   

Recipe Notes
To make Peri Peri Chicken, brush a little of the sauce onto all sides of the chicken you are using. You can use bone in, skin on chicken or boneless skinless chicken. Place the chicken pieces in a glass dish and cover with plastic wrap.Let the chicken marinate for several hours or overnight.
Grill over low heat on a glass grill until fully cooked, brushing on additional sauce in the last five to ten minutes of cook time. Serve with extra sauce for dipping at the table.

 

 

[salsalady]

hi emenphoto-
 
This sounds like a really good sauce.  For processing, there's a couple things that raise some red flags. 
 
The biggest is the use of oil in what you are wanting to be a shelf stable sauce.  Over here, any sauces that contain oil or butter require full processing training and certification to allow the processor to make and sell the sauces if it is not a refrigerated sauce.  I don't know if you have access to any kind of processing  inspector to talk to about your sauce, but I would highly recommend getting professional advice on your recipe and process.
 
Having said that...the only safe way I know to safely process foods that contain oil or meats is to pressure can them, or keep the sauce refrigerated like a salad dressing.  There are some nice looking glass jars with metal lids that can be pressure canned. 
 
Sorry, I don't think this is much help~ :shrug:    just be safe with what you are doing, talk to your local food people and make sure you follow their advice and don't rely on the interwhebz for all of your advice.
 
Have Fun!
SL
 
  
 

 

[nmlarson]

emanphoto,
 
I wholeheartedly agree with salsalady.  You risk botulism poisoning without the proper processing and that usually cannot be done on home canning equipment.

 

[Jubnat]

But, how are things like mayo and salad dressing shelf stable?  Isn't it all to do with ph, especially since you can't hot process mayo

 

[emanphoto]

Yes this recipe IS great and I can heartily recommend it here without reservation.  One's choice of chilies and their quantity IMO is up to the individual.  I use Thai chilies as they are readily available.  
 
Here in Bangkok we have a Peri Peri chain that has bottles of their version of this sauce on the tables in an olive oil size bottle, and between my wife and I we will nearly finish the bottle!  Thing is a bottle will set you back $9 aka 300THB so making this sauce was my only option   I read the ingredients and it does contain oil.  Ingredient listings on bottles here can sometimes be a little ambiguous but one can get the general gist of the contents.
https://tinyurl.com/y73zazcv
 
BTW the entire article and recipe can be found here.  
https://www.rockrecipes.com/peri-peri-sauce/
 
But on to your comments.  There's nothing to be sorry about as this is EXACTLY the kind of information I'm looking to find out!  
I had seen a posting off-site about bottling a similar sauce with the same comments re: botulism, but there were no options given and doing this by pressure bottling is a possible answer I hope I can do and a totally great idea as far as I am concerned.  This gives me a direction to explore and learn about.
There is an FDA here of sorts but being Thailand, a lot of stuff goes under the radar and gets little or no inspection or verification.  Think fermented shrimp, fish, meat etc that is used in a lot of cooking here.  People make this kind of thing from their homes and sell all over the country.  The products are often not in grocery stores but are sold locally.
 
Which leads me to a brief digression here....
There are dishes made here that under no circumstances should be consumed.  Simple country folk that DO eat such things as koi pla say, "see I ate it and no problems!  I eat it all the time"  Unfortunately it isn't until years later that the liver flukes' damage becomes apparent and it is too late.  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/28/thai-doctor-fights-against-carcinogenic-raw-fish-dish-that-killed-his-parents
I swear some of the dishes I've heard about here seem to have only been conceived under the influence of an abundance of hard liquor!
 
At the same time there is a lot of ingredients that ARE safe.  You'll probably never see a lot of stuff from here in western Thai restaurants but is commonplace here such as Naem.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naem  Naem is completely safe.  When I first saw my wife, a city girl, making naem leaving the prepared raw sausage out in the air (Chicago back then) I said nooooo! put this in the fridge!  you can't leave raw pork out!  Well in this instance I was wrong.  Once it's done, onto the grill w/it and it's great.
 
But back to the peri peri sauce....I may have connections to food people via family that can help in this process where I can get friendly advice to make a small scale food safe product.
 
My followup question is this.  nmlarson you mention "that usually cannot be done on home canning equipment." 
Can you elaborate on that please?  Are you saying a pressure canner like this in the link will not be up to the task?  If not I'll be curious as to why that is so and what my options might be.  
 
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Presto-23-Quart-Pressure-Canner-and-Cooker-01781/2625289
 
Thanks again salsalady and nmlarson.

 
 
 
 
 
 

hi emenphoto-
 
This sounds like a really good sauce.  For processing, there's a couple things that raise some red flags. 
 
The biggest is the use of oil in what you are wanting to be a shelf stable sauce.  Over here, any sauces that contain oil or butter require full processing training and certification to allow the processor to make and sell the sauces if it is not a refrigerated sauce.  I don't know if you have access to any kind of processing  inspector to talk to about your sauce, but I would highly recommend getting professional advice on your recipe and process.
 
Having said that...the only safe way I know to safely process foods that contain oil or meats is to pressure can them, or keep the sauce refrigerated like a salad dressing.  There are some nice looking glass jars with metal lids that can be pressure canned. 
 
Sorry, I don't think this is much help~ :shrug:    just be safe with what you are doing, talk to your local food people and make sure you follow their advice and don't rely on the interwhebz for all of your advice.
 
Have Fun!
SL
 
  
 

 

 

[nmlarson]

emanphoto,
 
I'm not saying you couldn't do it.  The key word here is "usually." 
 
Recipes developed for use in home pressure canners have been created with the use of specific sized jars, holding a specific food product(s) of a particular weight/density, so the canner and its contents can be brought to a specific temperature and pressure and held there for a specific period of time.  
 
Botulism spores CAN exist in jars processed in a pressure canner, IF the jars haven't been processed at the correct temperature, at the correct pressure, for the correct amount of time. Unless you're using a recipe developed for your specific product, how are you going to know that information?
 
Again, I'm not saying you can't do it, I'm saying that's a pretty big risk to take, especially when you're considering distribution of your sauce. 
 
And, a final comment:  Instant Pots and similar pressure cookers are NOT pressure canners.  They're not capable of reaching the pressures required for safe food processing.
 
P.S.  The recipe looks terrific and I hope you find a way to make it!

 

[emanphoto]

Again another great answer that fills in some of the many blanks in my knowledge of this process, thank you.  
I have zero experience w/pressure cookers except to make a meal that only came out so-so, so any info that comes in here is probably going to be news to me and of course be helpful.  The necessity of killing of the botulism spores I was aware of but how to achieve that and how to figure out all the pressures and times I do not.
 
Weight and density of the liquid is something I would have never thought would factor in here.  Is a reading of the specific gravity of any given sauce needed to ascertain proper pressure and cooking times?  Only halfway joking there but it seems within the realm of possibilities a procedure needed from what you're saying.  Or is it more ingredient and pH based?
I'm getting the impression there is no rule of thumb to follow in this process to produce a food safe product?
 
Please forgive the stream of questions as finding reading material on this is near impossible here and if it does exist I can't read it.  My wife can be of help as she's Thai and can read it of course assuming she's able to find it herself.

emanphoto,
 
I'm not saying you couldn't do it.  The key word here is "usually." 
 
Recipes developed for use in home pressure canners have been created with the use of specific sized jars, holding a specific food product(s) of a particular weight/density, so the canner and its contents can be brought to a specific temperature and pressure and held there for a specific period of time.  
 
Botulism spores CAN exist in jars processed in a pressure canner, IF the jars haven't been processed at the correct temperature, at the correct pressure, for the correct amount of time. Unless you're using a recipe developed for your specific product, how are you going to know that information?
 
Again, I'm not saying you can't do it, I'm saying that's a pretty big risk to take, especially when you're considering distribution of your sauce. 
 
And, a final comment:  Instant Pots and similar pressure cookers are NOT pressure canners.  They're not capable of reaching the pressures required for safe food processing.
 
P.S.  The recipe looks terrific and I hope you find a way to make it!

 

 

[nmlarson]

Again another great answer that fills in some of the many blanks in my knowledge of this process, thank you.  
I have zero experience w/pressure cookers except to make a meal that only came out so-so, so any info that comes in here is probably going to be news to me and of course be helpful.  The necessity of killing of the botulism spores I was aware of but how to achieve that and how to figure out all the pressures and times I do not.
 
Weight and density of the liquid is something I would have never thought would factor in here.  Is a reading of the specific gravity of any given sauce needed to ascertain proper pressure and cooking times?  Only halfway joking there but it seems within the realm of possibilities a procedure needed from what you're saying.  Or is it more ingredient and pH based?
I'm getting the impression there is no rule of thumb to follow in this process to produce a food safe product?
 
Please forgive the stream of questions as finding reading material on this is near impossible here and if it does exist I can't read it.  My wife can be of help as she's Thai and can read it of course assuming she's able to find it herself.
 

Now you're asking questions I can't answer. My best suggestion would be to go to that restaurant, speak with someone in management and ask them for the contact info for the processor that makes their sauces. Or get in contact with another company that has food produced on a local level.

Here in the USA, we have "extension offices" in each state. Each office has a representative who can contact the state department of agriculture, who handles just these sort of questions. Are you a U.S. citizen? Our consulate there (Thailand) may also be able to point you in the right direction.

Sorry I can't be of any more help,but there are some ideas. Good luck!

 

[salsalady]

Again another great answer that fills in some of the many blanks in my knowledge of this process, thank you.  
I have zero experience w/pressure cookers except to make a meal that only came out so-so, so any info that comes in here is probably going to be news to me and of course be helpful.  The necessity of killing of the botulism spores I was aware of but how to achieve that and how to figure out all the pressures and times I do not.
 
Weight and density of the liquid is something I would have never thought would factor in here.  Is a reading of the specific gravity of any given sauce needed to ascertain proper pressure and cooking times?  Only halfway joking there but it seems within the realm of possibilities a procedure needed from what you're saying.  Or is it more ingredient and pH based?
I'm getting the impression there is no rule of thumb to follow in this process to produce a food safe product?
 
Please forgive the stream of questions as finding reading material on this is near impossible here and if it does exist I can't read it.  My wife can be of help as she's Thai and can read it of course assuming she's able to find it herself.
 

 
 
  You don't need to know the specific gravity of the sauce~~~   it is more ingredient and pH based.  I think the critical factor in all this is the presence of oil in the sauce.  How important is it to the sauce?  Can the sauce be made without the oil? 
 
Other condiment sauces, like pesto, contain oil and can be frozen quite nicely.  That would be a bit of a headache if looking at things from a marketing/distribution stand point.  Maybe it can be sold refrigerated.  Or just look into a pressure CANNER (thank you nmlarson for pointing out that pressure cookers are not the same as pressure canners!). 
 
Maybe you can find someone with a pressure canner to borrow and do a test batch with traditional mason canning jars. 
 
FreshPreserving website has tons of great information and instruction on canning.  Just look at things like it was a meat product and follow those instructions.  It may turn out that the pressure canning process totally ruins the sauce, or it may be just fine.  No way to know without trying it. 
 
Good Luck~
SL

 

[salsalady]

ps- homestyle pressure canners can be used for the processing.  Obviously, they are smaller and can't do as many jars.  Over here, if the processor is commercially licensed and the approved recipe calls for pressure canning, the equipment is supposed to be tested once a year to make sure it is operating properly, the gauges are working, etc.  But that's a whole other ball of wax....
 
 

 

[emanphoto]

Thank you salsalady and nmlarson.  At this point I'd only be making small batches in the kitchen as I do with my chili sauces.  I don't really have a market yet so I'm not ready to jump into mass production.  In the meantime I obviously need to learn as much as possible about making this sauce so it can remain food safe once opened and refrigerated.  
My brother in law here is CEO of a chemical company that supplies industrial quantities of chemicals for shrimp farming (vitamins) and other agri businesses so he may have some local contacts that may be of help in my pursuit.