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bottling Issue with inactive air bubbles after capping with a vacuum machine

C

ChilliPadie

Hi guys, stumble upon this forum while searching for solutions to better the quality and bottling for my hot sauce.

I have an air bubble issue with my sauce after vacuuming with a vacuum machine.

FYI, my sauce is all natural.

Bottling process as below:
-Blend ingredients in heavy duty blender
-Cook
-Let the sauce cool a little
-Fill bottles with a filling machine
-Vacuum seal the bottles with a vacuum capping machine

Do you guys have any idea how to eliminate these air bubbles? There are no visible air bubbles before vacuum capping but they come out after vacuuming.
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Last edited:
Greetings, :welcome: to THP!

The issue is probably the 'heavy duty blender' aerating the sauce.

With a couple of my sauces using a blender, I have to slow cook and stir-stir-stir the sauce before bottling to work out the air bubbles.

Another solution would be to consider the order of the ingredients and what is blendered. Do ALL of the ingredients need to be put thru the blender? Maybe just blender only the produce/peppers with a bit of the liquids, then add in the rest of the liquids/ingredients to the cooking pot so they don't get aerated.

Good Luck! Hope this helps~
SL
 
Trying to look at the ingredients listed and not sure how they are being processed, maybe process the fresh chiles first, blendering to a very fine puree with something like a food processor. By getting the produce to the very fine consistency first, the sauce doesn't need to be blendered a long time. Just pulse a few times to emulsify.

If you are blendering the chillis with the liquids to get the sauce very smooth, that will aerate the sauce. Separating the steps will cut down on the aeration.

Hope this helps~
SL
 
Thanks for the reply! Yes I’m using a heavy duty blender due to the use of lemongrass. Also I need to blend everything. I add both vinegar and water into the mix to blend as well.
 
In there another form of lemongrass that you can use?

I used to use a frozen ground ginger puree but it is no longer available. I've had to change to bottled ginger juice, which is subbed in at 1:1 to the frozen ginger pulp.

Is there a lemongrass puree or lemongrass juice that could be used?

I'm also thinking of a simple juicer machine. Could the lemongrass be 'juiced' and that would give you a fresh lemongrass product without the fiber and having to blender the snot out of the grass to get to a nice consistency.

I know using powders or essential oils may not taste the same as using fresh, but it might be worth sampling. A few I found with a quick google...

thespiceway.com

Lemongrass Powder

LEMONGRASS POWDER - a flavorful herb used for cooking and tea, with a strong lemon flavor with a deep mint tone. It is also used to make Lemongrass paste and as an important ingredient of many eastern seasonings. MANY USES - Add to many dishes including chicken, stir fry, soups. Also makes a...
thespiceway.com thespiceway.com


 
the AMZ lemongrass sauce doesn't list the ingredients, but comments suggest it is a compound sauce with fish sauce ant a lot of other ingredients. The powder lists only one ingredient....lemongrass...so that would be all that needs to be listed as ingredients. Should work with your existing labels. The juiced lemongrass would also work as a single listed ingredient.
 
one last comment...

The blender ABSOLUTELY makes a difference! I have used Ninja, VitaMix and BlendTec. The BlendTec is the BEST!!! by FAR!!! It can make a fine pepper powder out of dry black peppercorns. The other 2 don't even come close. I have tried to blend mustard seeds into a mustard powder. Ninja and VitaMix couldn't even hardly break up the seeds. BlendTec zipped it to a very fine powder in seconds.

Maybe invest in one appliance and puree the fresh lemongrass using a bit of liquid. Then mix that with the rest of the ingredients that don't have to be super-blendered.

On that note- you could buy a bulk box of lemongrass and set aside a few hours to just process the lemongrass into a puree. Freeze the puree in portions enough for 1 batch. On processing day, just take out one frozen portion, toss it in the sauce, cook it up and go!

I also do this with chilles in season. Process (wash/trim/grind) the fresh chillis and dry or freeze in batch portions.

Reconditioned BlendTec units are available in the US for about $300-450.
 
salsalady said:
I have tried to blend mustard seeds into a mustard powder. Ninja and VitaMix couldn't even hardly break up the seeds. BlendTec zipped it to a very fine powder in seconds.
Click to expand...

Offtopic: What model of vitamix do you use? I have ground mustard seeds many times in mine without an issue. Never tried it in my Ninja though.
 
Could it be fermentation creating the bubbles?
 
DaQatz said:
Offtopic: What model of vitamix do you use? I have ground mustard seeds many times in mine without an issue. Never tried it in my Ninja though.
Click to expand...
I can't find the vitamix right now, I think I may have left it at the community center after our last hot sauce class.


BlendTec -v- Ninja Professional 1500W discussion
thehotpepper.com

blenders - BlendTec -v- Ninja blenders/food processor

Mine was refurbished also. Base was in great shape but the carafe was obviously used and the hard plastic lid had a bunch of dings. Oh Well, it worked for long enough. Also, the first carafe I got wasn't a Wildside, the replacement was a new wildside and the design of the Wildside was an...
thehotpepper.com thehotpepper.com
 
If your pH is below 4.6 and you're cooking the sauce, it's sterile going into the bottle so you shouldn't need to vacuum seal to be shelf stable. Is there any way you can reduce the pull of the vacuum?

If the vacuum is necessary for whatever reason, then can you pre-vacuum the sauce before bottling? Using something like a vacuum chamber to draw out the air from the sauce before bottling. If you're making the sauce in a big pot then it can be as simple as adding the vacuum lid straight to the top of the pot.

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