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recipe-help How to keep the freshness in green sauces while maintaining shelf stability

HeckinHot

HeckinHot

I've made green sauces for personal use in the past that I haven't cooked (always kept refrigerated) and they always had a great fresh green flavor.

I've been working on trying to develop a shelf-stable green sauce method and thus did the recommended 10 minute boil of the ingredients after blending (I started with just a very basic recipe - about 8 large jalapenos, 2 poblanos, 8oz of garlic cloves, 1 large onion, 1 large bunch cilantro, juice and zest of three limes, salt, and white wine vinegar to bring pH down to 3.75).

The issue is that the cooking absolutely murdered the flavor of the sauce. The color went from vibrant to an ugly olive green and the flavor lost all of its freshness. That's been something I've tasted in a lot of commercial shelf stable green sauces - they just don't have that fresh vibrant taste any longer.

I'm curious about the purpose of the cooking step. Is it pasteurization? I'm wondering if getting a sous vide machine and taking a longer and slower approach would lead to better results. I've seen charts that show half an hour at 145 degrees Fahrenheit should be sufficient. That won't be quite 'hot fill' heat for bottles, but I'm assuming if I get some Star-San and sterilize the bottles and the caps that way before filling it shouldn't be an issue, correct?

Any other ideas on how to maintain that freshness while also maintaining shelf stability?
 
This thread may provide insight:
M

production-facilities Post in thread 'Cold filling hot sauce in facility with no cannery license?'

Got some information on cold-fills. The first screenshot is from a document shared with me from UTennessee. The document originally came from NC State. These are basic parameters for a cold fill. The second screenshot provides more details and was shared with me from NC State. I think some of their professors were involved in the research. The table in this second screenshot is basically a grid that tells you all the details of the parameters needed for a cold fill. To level set on this table, suppose you have a sauce with a pH of 3.5 or below and your sauce contains 1.5% acetic acid...
 
The Hot Pepper said:
This thread may provide insight:
M

production-facilities Post in thread 'Cold filling hot sauce in facility with no cannery license?'

Got some information on cold-fills. The first screenshot is from a document shared with me from UTennessee. The document originally came from NC State. These are basic parameters for a cold fill. The second screenshot provides more details and was shared with me from NC State. I think some of their professors were involved in the research. The table in this second screenshot is basically a grid that tells you all the details of the parameters needed for a cold fill. To level set on this table, suppose you have a sauce with a pH of 3.5 or below and your sauce contains 1.5% acetic acid...
Click to expand...
Thank you. That's actually very helpful. So it looks like if I can get the pH below 3.3 I would be able to do a cold fill and not have to cook the sauce? That would open up a lot of possibilities for flavor.
 
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