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cooking Cooking Sauce (Minimum Temp and for how long?)

MrJohnGallagher

MrJohnGallagher

Hey Guys!
 
Do you guys ever experience this problem?
 
You use the blender to create the perfect balance of flavours...and then you have to cook it so you can bottle it safely.
 
You lose all the zing from the vinegar, all the umami from the middle and your left with generic sweet/sauce.
 
Does anyone know the minimum temp I need to heat the sauce and for how long?
 
From the 101 Guide, 180F must achieved but for how long exactly? 
 
(P.S the Ph of the recipe is good to go)
 
Any help or pointers in the right direction would be great!
 
 
 
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MJG - 
 
Whenever I cook a sauce I always balance flavors at the end - right before bottling.  The heat of cooking stops fermentation but can also change flavors so I'll adjust with salt/sweet/sour at the end to achieve the balance I require.  You'll need to play around on the stove (with small batches) until you hit on exactly the adjustments your sauce requires.  Once adjusted, I bring my sauce up to a simmer (right around 200 degrees f) and then hot fill/hold.   
 
Alternately you can avoid cooking the sauce entirely, but then it must be kept refrigerated throughout it's product life (which is quite a bit more expensive). 
 
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Thanks for the replies guys. 
 
Smoken Fire - Do you not measure how long you cook the entire sauce for? Do you just make sure you are at 200 F before bottling? Thats what I have been doing just wanted to make sure it was bottle safe.
 
Shoerider - Good advice. That's exactly what I tried yesterday. I use apple cider vinegar in the beginning and then cranked it up with some Aspalls at the end. 
 
I am just trying to work out the flavours I am losing and then amping those up!
 
 
 
 
 
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MrJohnGallagher said:
Smoken Fire - Do you not measure how long you cook the entire sauce for? Do you just make sure you are at 200 F before bottling? Thats what I have been doing just wanted to make sure it was bottle safe.
 
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MJG most of my sauces cook down for 1-2 hours, sometimes longer.  Then I put them through a food mill into another big stock pot, boat motor the shinola out of them, taste/adjust seasonings as needed and then bring up to temp for bottling.   
 
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It's all about taste. Taste as you go!
 
I've seen people post they cook for 15 minutes and I'm like wtf? But hey to each...
 
I'm more like SNF on cook times. Especially with chinense peppers. That harsh perfumy bite can actually be cooked out, and when I taste a sauce that has it I feel it is undercooked. Grandma's Sunday gravy cooked for 8 hours, just sayin. ;)
 
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What is the temp you use for bottling?
 
SmokenFire said:
 
MJG most of my sauces cook down for 1-2 hours, sometimes longer.  Then I put them through a food mill into another big stock pot, boat motor the shinola out of them, taste/adjust seasonings as needed and then bring up to temp for bottling.   
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Boss / SmokenFire a (somewhat related) question: advice for maintaining the consistency of the sauce? i.e., a longer cook time will lead to something thicker. Do you generally start runny at the beginning or do you add liquid (water) near the end?
 
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Either route will work...depending on your process.

Some things like apples, yams, carrots work as thickeners, but even with these the sauce will separate as it sits over time. Not a big deal for most people, just shake the bottle and off you go...
 
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nice.chili said:
Boss / SmokenFire a (somewhat related) question: advice for maintaining the consistency of the sauce? i.e., a longer cook time will lead to something thicker. Do you generally start runny at the beginning or do you add liquid (water) near the end?
Click to expand...
 
I will start with a thinner sauce with all ingredients and then cook down to the proper consistency.  Process is:  Big stock pot all with all liquid/fresh & dry ingredients cooked down for however long it takes (usually 1-2 hours) then I will blend the sauce and put it through a food mill (different plates for different sauces) into another stock pot, then that resultant sauce is cooked down to bottling consistency. 
 
 
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I like shorter cook downs for one reason....Fumes can be brutal if your range hood dont vent to the outside. This got me looking into smaller pressure cookers. Nice stainless 2liter and under are fairly cheap and cook fast. They will turn carrots into mush within minutes of the whistle going off. You can do what normally takes an hour or more in under 20min.
 
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