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Looking for a way to make my hot sauce shelf stable.

L

Lisathinguyen

Hello all! I am looking for a way to bottle up a batch of hot sauce Im making and keeping it shelf stable to give away for holidays.
This is my first time making hot sauce but this is what i did..

I chopped up lots of super hots and red bell peppers and garlic, blended it up, added 2% of the weight of the pepper mash with salt blended everything together... put it in a mason jar and covered with cheese cloth to ferment. It is fermenting pretty well. In just a few days i will take it out, add vinegar and sugar to it and blend everything together and this is where i need help... i have not seen anything that says it will be shelf stable. All recipes Ive read said to put it in the fridge. I would like to bottle these up and give them away for Christmas but dont want the risk of hurting anyone if Im doing this incorrectly. Not sure if i can heat this up then bottle it or not sure if i can can it? Hope you guys can help this clueless beginner! Thanks so much.
 
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Thank you all for the welcoming comments! I am super excited to share with you guys the hot sauce once its finished! Here is my sauce now fermenting!
 

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Hey guys!! I am finally finished with the fermented hot sauce! So... i added white wine vinegar and sugar to the finished fermented pepper mash and blended it real fine and then cooked it. Not sure if i was supposed to but i cooked it for about 15 mins, took my sterilized jars out of the oven filled them, capped them and inverted the jars immediately. Let me know if cooking the fermented pepper mash was a good idea or not. I am trying to get these shelf stable. Here is my finished product!
 

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This just occurred to me and you might find it fun.  Every sate has something called the County Extension Office.  Some states have cottage industry laws for selling things like home canned goods at farmers markets.  A lot offer classes to get certified to do so.  Even if you are only making sauce for family and friends, the classes would help and you would probably enjoy them.  In my state, the university goes the extra mile with the program and certifies your recipe and process.  Even if it is home cooking, that university approval can give you piece of mind. 
 
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Mr.CtChilihead said:
They look good..You need to cook it and bottle it hot if your looking for a safe shelf stable product. Do you have to? Probably not but I wouldn't chance it.
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Since you're bottling these to give as gifts hell yes you should cook it.  Uncooked the active ferment will continue, and pressure will build in the bottle.  That can (and does) lead to blow outs - either on their own in the cabinet or when someone opens them.  Speaking from experience, a face fulla hot sauce isn't dreamy.  ;)
 
If this ferment was for your own use you'd be fine bottling the uncooked sauce so long as you keep them refrigerated to slow the active fermentation.  As it is (cooked and bottled) the sauce should be fine for gifts provided your cooked sauce had a pH lower than 4 when it was bottled after cooking.
 
Sauce looks great by the way - really nice color you got.  :)
 
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SmokenFire said:
 
Since you're bottling these to give as gifts hell yes you should cook it.  Uncooked the active ferment will continue, and pressure will build in the bottle.  That can (and does) lead to blow outs - either on their own in the cabinet or when someone opens them.  Speaking from experience, a face fulla hot sauce isn't dreamy.  ;)
 
If this ferment was for your own use you'd be fine bottling the uncooked sauce so long as you keep them refrigerated to slow the active fermentation.  As it is (cooked and bottled) the sauce should be fine for gifts provided your cooked sauce had a pH lower than 4 when it was bottled after cooking.
 
Sauce looks great by the way - really nice color you got.  :)
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I hope you didn't think I was encouraging not cooking it. I should have explained myself better.
 
Not to take things off subject but what happens when you have a blow out? Does the cap blow off or does the bottle break?
 
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Mr.CtChilihead said:
 
 
I hope you didn't think I was encouraging not cooking it. I should have explained myself better.
 
Not to take things off subject but what happens when you have a blow out? Does the cap blow off or does the bottle break?
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Nah I didn't think that at all CtC.  It's all good.  :)
 
I've had blowouts that popped their tops (cracked the lid/blew it off and sprayed all over inside the cabinet) others I've experienced were the mild sort; open the bottle and the sauce overflows the top and over your hand - then still others where I've opened the bottle and the sauce has sprayed out up on my face and the ceiling above.  No actual broken bottles from hot sauce though.  
 
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