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tutorial Making Hot Sauce 101

@naga~ glad this helps, have fun with your sauce.

@Don- looks like you end up with about a quart of sauce. 1 1/2 cups vinegar is quite a bit, you could probably back that off to 3/4c or even 1/2c since you do have lime juice also. If you plan on keeping it refrigerated, pH isn't as critical as it would be if you were trying for a shelf stable product. Good Luck!
 
Thank you so very much Salsalady, I like a little vinegar in my hot sauce but I don't want it to be like a wing or vinegar BBQ sauce. right now it's almost as thick as ketchup and I didn't want to add more vinegar so I could probably thin it a little with water. I'm also glad I went back and looked at the links you posted in the beginning for bottle suppliers. I've had a few requests for my stuff and now I can get the bottles I need for gifting. I do believe this was the right place to come
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+ :hotsauce: = :party: Here's what I have going
 
You can also thin it with a fruit juice. Keep it at 3/4c acids per quart (combined vinegar and lime/lemon jc) and just keep it refrigerated, and you should be good to go. Without having a pH reference, it's best to just keep it refrigerated or do a proper pressure canning for dry storage.

Have Fun!




PS- corrected the name typo, sorry- :cool:
 
Thank you so much for this post. It's the exact information I was looking for. :)

Two questions,
- do you have any good resources on where I can buy a pH meter?
- Can you use any type of pH meter for testing your sauce, or is there a certain food pH meter for this??
 
You need one for food. There are several threads about what brand pH meter to buy, use the search function to find them. Also be aware that some can handle hot/heated products, other meters are strictly for cold or cool foods (up to something like 80F).   A sauce can be quickly cooled by putting a small glass or SS cup/ramekin in the freezer, then put a teaspoon of the heated sauce in the cold dish.  It will chill down fast, enough to use a regular temp pH meter.
  And :welcome: to the forum! salsalady
 
Thank you, I found a lot of Good information that would help me on here. I made hot sauce once it was OK but it was a small batch. I had a bunch of new pH test steps my friend got me from a lab she works at but I want sure if that would work.
 
pH test strips work OK and are better than nothing at all. A lot of people use them for their home sauces. They can at least tell you what the range is for the sauce. As long as it appears to be 3.5 or below, that's probably pretty safe. Anything above 3.5 with a test strip is getting into danger territory and you would want to use a proper meter if it was to be marketed and sold. For home use, test strips will at least give you an idea and if the pH is too high, you can add a little more acidity, just to keep it safe. Good Luck and Have Fun!
 
Yep, a very good idea to make it easy for everyone. I saw how often the same information was being discussed over and over - this makes so much sense to put it out there all in one post that can be used as a refrence by so many. Great job - thanks!
 
I think I am making my first run at a sauce tonight. I saw the OP said enamel pots are acceptable. Anyone make sauce in a la crusett or lodge enamel pot?
 
as long as there are no nicks or chips, those type of heavy enamel work well.  Good heat distribution...
 
salsalady said:
as long as there are no nicks or chips, those type of heavy enamel work well.  Good heat distribution...
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Thanks salsalady. My la crusset is a little banged up but the lodge one was only used once. Gonna have to make this tomorrow. Can't wait to play with the new ph meter!
 
Have Fun!!!   :D
 
I LOVED my gigantic le crusset pot....until my ex-g/f got sick, used it to boil water for tea, & fell asleep for 6 hours - I got home to. a thoroughly blackened & burnt pot.

I'm not saying that's the reason we broke up, but it's definitely on the list.

lol

I have all copper bottom heavy clad pots now - ones a cuisinart, the other a caphelon. I do most of my prototyping in those. Love the evenness of the thick bottom pots, but that said I agitate constantly.

In addition to evenness of cooking there's another excellent reason to stir frequently - safety. When cooking a recipe with solids & liquids, (like water, juices, fruits, peppers, dried stuff like salt/sugar/spices) what can sometimes happen is that the solid matter settles to the bottom while the liquids "float" on top. As you pasteurize you're cooking to 180-200 degrees, just below boiling. If a layer of sediment settles on the bottom, it can be MUCH hotter than the 180+ degree liquid, and if you then stir with a whisk, the sauce can "volcano" on you. Literally ON you. I burned the crap outta myself on an early batch this exact way - learn from my mistake & stir early & often.

It also helps prevent scalding/burning as SL said, but for me this is a major safety issue, speaking from experience.

Heat rises, so if you've got a boil trapped under a layer of sediment at the bottom of a big kettle, as soon as you break that surface area it's gonna uncontrollably boil over and in my case jumped about 8" above the pot rim.

This was not fun.
 
bumping on this thread again.  I didn't see it really posted in the OP, and I didn't read through the entire thread again:
 
what's the best way for sanitizing say... 600 bottles that you just got on a pallet and you have 1 day at a kitchen to produce, cook and fill all 600.  Do you run the 600 through a professional dishwasher?  put them all in a massive pot of water for 15-20 minutes, then hang them upside down on a bottle tree?  See what I'm saying?
 
Now that I've squared away most of my red tape and am ready to produce a line of product: I need to make 600+ bottles.  I only have a pot that can hold about 25 total at a time.  It's only me in the kitchen and I have 1 day every 2 weeks to use a restaurant certified kitchen.
 
You touched on why it's important to clean the bottles, but not the best or fastest way.  I need speed and volume, and how to get the bottles queued up while staying sterile as they await to be filled.
 
Thanks in advance :) :) :)
 
I know Ann will be in to give you an answer but my thought would be to put them in one of the ovens at 250 for I think it's 30 minutes. You should be able to if all the bottles in to one if not 2. 
 
Thanks RM.
 
As this Hot Sauce 101 thread is geared to the home sauce makers, either boiling, bleach, or using the oven method is suggested, which is not practical for 600+ bottles.   I  believe Kalitarios has already received private feedback relating to commercial productions runs, so I won't go into all that. 
 
 
For the home sauce makers, the bottles can be cooked in the oven ahead of time and then turn the oven off and leave the bottles until ready to process.  The bottles don't have to be heated when bottling.  Also, if the bottles are baked and cooled, they can be removed from the oven and covered with cling wrap to keep clean until bottling time.
 
250F for 30 minutes is a good starting point.  It also depends on how tight the bottles are packed, if they are upright in a shallow cake pan, or layered sideways in roasting pans.  The goal is to get the middle bottles up to temp. 
 
Question about  dried peppers, I know some can be ground when dried and some they suggest you put into a bowl of hot water, does this soaking take away from the flavor or heat also has anyone ever used mulato chiles for flavor and what did you you think about them if you did? Thanks, sorry I don't post more but I'm still in the learning process.
 
Dried chiles can be used in processed hot sauces with no problems.  Finely ground chiles would work better than whole chiles soaked in water. 
 
Many recipes for things like enchilada sauce say to soak the whole chile, and then blender/puree the soaked chiles with some of the broth.  And sometimes use some more of the broth in the recipe and discard the rest.  That's not usually the case for hot sauces.  Soaking chiles and discarding the water will leach away some of the flavor. 
 
I'd suggest getting the chiles ground up to the size you want, add then to the recipe and let the liquids in the recipe rehydrate the ground chiles.  Maybe reserve some of the other liquids to the side until the chiles are rehydrated and you can see the viscosity of the sauce.  Then add more liquid, or reduce the sauce as needed.   
 
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