• If you have a question about commercial production or the hot sauce business, please post in Startup Help.

First Canned Hot Sauce

Hey everyone I've just made a hot sauce and canned it using the water bath method. I've never done this before and wanted to see if my methods sound ok. Also I'd love to hear some feedback of my recipe.

300g jalapeños
80g habaneros
200g green mild peppers
200g diced and peeled pears
1 brown onion
8 cloves of garlic
1tsp salt
Juice from 1 lemon
300ml of white vinegar.

I used a food processor to dice everything up then threw it all straight in a pot to start cooking. I then used a stick blender to really blend the sauce once it had been cooking for ~20 mins and then cooked it for another 20 mins.

From there I canned it and boiled the jars with sauce for 15 mins and now they're cooling.

I made sure to use about 25% vinegar by weight as this is supposed to be enough to reduce pH below 4?

Just wondering if this looks like a decent recipe and if it's alright to store out of the fridge. If not I'll put them in.

Hopefully that all makes sense (especially the metric units). :) Cheers.

Edit: I removed all the seeds too if that makes any difference.
 

 
I ended up having enough just with the jalapenos and habaneros but they're all the ingredients minus the pears.
 
Does anyone know what the long green chillies are called in the top right? They're available everywhere in Australian supermarkets and come in green and red varieties.  I didn't use any for this sauce but just interested.
 
I'll get myself a pH meter so I can test it properly. Cheers for the help. :)
 
It tastes alright. I'm not really sure what i'd change to make it better but the flavours just don't seem quite right. In saying that, it's still getting used daily.
 
I was also wondering if cooking up the onions and garlic in a little oil before adding the rest of the ingredients to the saucepan is a good/bad idea?
 
Hey all thanks for all the help and kind words.  I'll keep this thread going as a reminder to myself of what I've made and keep adding recipes as I go.
 
I decided to make a small batch since they had some ghost peppers for sale at a shop nearby and felt like something with some kick. Was going to keep it very simple but as it was cooking I felt like it needed a bit of sweetness and a bit of something else to tone down the heat so i added in the carrot too. I removed the seeds and roasted the garlic and peppers in the oven before adding the vinegar and lemon juice and cooking over the stove.  I used a  stick blender to puree everything and I've ended up with a pretty smooth sauce.
 
Recipe...
6 ghost peppers
big handful of long red peppers (Cayenne, Serrano idk???)
1 red banana pepper (no heat)
1 carrot
10 cloves of garlic
150mL white vinegar
juice from 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
 
You can taste the garlic and the lemon and a bit of sweetness before the heat, which comes in strong.  Overall I'm pretty pleased with this one. Maybe I'll tone it down next time and use habaneros instead of ghost peppers just so I can use a bit more, but I don't often see them for sale and I couldn't help myself. :)
 
I canned it using the water bath method and tested with pH meter (I got a basic one off ebay) to make sure the pH was under 4 (~3.6) so they should be shelf stable.  My phone seems to really bring out the red, they're not quite so intense in reality and have a bit of an orange tint.
 





 
 
sounds and looks really nice!  Keep having fun!
SL
 
Back
Top