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Lime juice concentrate vs real limes

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phayanagaflame

A large portion of my hot sauce is comprised of hand-squeezed lime juice, which is fine to make a few bottles, but I can only imagine it being a huge drag when it comes to making SEVERAL bottles.  I've tried using lime juice concentrate, but the flavor is completely different.
 
So there's no competition between the real thing and the concentrate, but has anyone found any lime juice concentrate comparable to the real stuff? 
 
And what does that conversion from real limes to concentrate look like? By that, I mean that when I tried to do a 1-to-1 replacement of real lime juice with concentrate, the sauce with the concentrate tasted wayyy to limey. Thoughts?
 
Thanks!
phaya
 
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phaya there really is no substitute flavor wise.  On the other hand fresh squeezed is also not uniformly acidic, so it's not used in commercial recipes.  If you're using a product like 'real lime' or whatever, the conversion is supposed to be 2 tbsp commercial lime juice = 1 fresh lime. 
 
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SmokenFire said:
On the other hand fresh squeezed is also not uniformly acidic
Click to expand...
 
Why would the concentrate be uniformly acidic if they use fresh limes to make it without any additives to adjust acid?????
 
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I've used Nielsen's to good effect: http://www.nielsencitrus.com/food-service

They do a cold vacuum reduction followed by quickly freezing the concentrate. Which means it has to ship overnight and that gets expensive. But what you get is, in fact, 100% pure lime (or lemon as the case may be.)

Unlike some other brands that advertise as being 100% juice, but the ingredients read, "Lime Juice From Concentrate (Water, Concentrated Lime Juice), Sodium Benzoate, Lime Oil, Sodium Metabisulfite"

Totally legal by FDA standards, but you can't claim "no added preservatives" if you use the latter.
 
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Nice!
 
I know bro right! I also noticed when you buy any concentrate even at the health food store it says 100% lime juice and has preservatives. Go figure.
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
 
Why would the concentrate be uniformly acidic if they use fresh limes to make it without any additives to adjust acid?????
Click to expand...
 
There are always additives (ascorbic acid to even out acidity in this case), usually with preservatives to boot. 
 
 
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SmokenFire said:
 
There are always additives (ascorbic acid to even out acidity in this case), usually with preservatives to boot. 
 
Click to expand...
 
The ones I have seen have sulfates only which will not adjust acid. I don't think they measure the acid and adjust it to be exact each time with ingredients I think they use the same amount of ingredients each time. It would be very costly otherwise. It is lime juice after all, a high acid product. The one posted above by Sawyer has nothing acidic added. 
 
Here's Kroger brand: lime juice from concentrate (water, concentrate lime juice), sodium metabisulfite (preservative), sodium benzoate (preservative), natural flavor
 
No acid adjusters. Like buying orange juice it's going to depend on the fruit. Why would they need or want to adjust it anyway?
 
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I am not sure about all products but most brands focus on consistency. It would take very little effort to reconstitute to a specific ph.

A little googling on Realemon/lime showed this response they sent to someone who inquired about their product specs.


ReaLemon Acidity (as citric acid) 49-51 g/L

Brix 6.5-8.0%

pH 2.4-2.6

SO2 250ppm
 
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Yeah, I am sure there's an "acceptable range" that is negligible when tasting. When it's out of bounds something is done. They may even just mix batches to even it out or mix levels of concentration. I get the consistency part. I just don't think they are balancing it with additives, at least from ingredients I have read. Probably more of a process than ingredient. But yeah it should be more consistent, I agree. :)
 
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I would guess that the adjustment is the concentrate:water ratio. If a batch of concentrate is slightly less acidic, add more concentrate and less water to get it within specs.
 
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okay update!  I'm using lime juice concentrate because my first time making hot sauce in a commercial kitchen was a disaster and peeling/squeezing limes did not make economical sense with the scale up.  Fortunately, I found a diverse selection of lime juice at my local Restaurant Depot.
 
Thank you everyone again!
 
phaya  
 
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