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preservation Making Hot Sauce - When to add vinegar

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brewingphilly

Hi all- I want to gauge when everyone adds their vinegar to their sauce.. I usually add it while cooking but the aroma it gives off is extremely pungent (I know it is hot sauce, but this is headache inducing). Does anyone add it after cooking? Does this mess with the process at all?
 
Thanks!
 
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brewingphilly said:
Hi all- I want to gauge when everyone adds their vinegar to their sauce.. I usually add it while cooking but the aroma it gives off is extremely pungent (I know it is hot sauce, but this is headache inducing). Does anyone add it after cooking? Does this mess with the process at all?
 
Thanks!
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Hi brewingphilly, and welcome to THP!  We're glad to have you.  :)
 
I add vinegar during the cooking phase of hot sauce making.  Usually my process for cooked sauces goes like this:
 
Inspect and halve or quarter all pods going into the sauce
Roughly chop the rest of the ingredients
Add to a sauce pan, add all liquid ingredients (sometimes just vinegar, other times vinegar & orange juice, etc)
Bring the pot to a boil over medium high heat
Turn heat down to low, cover the pot and simmer for however long is necessary
Blend everything up/put through a food mill if necessary
Bring back up to temp and then bottle using hot fill/hold method.
 
The aroma of cooking vinegar is pungent indeed, which is why I use a lid on the pot during cooking.  The whole place still smells like vinegar (and hot peppers) during sauce making though - can't really get around that.
 
Unless you start fermenting your sauce that is....
 
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Shorerider said:
What kind of vinegar are you using? White wine, Red wine, and rice wine vinegars all have different flavors which you may not find as irritating.
 
Experiment until you find something you like, or try a ferment as S'NF has mentioned. Best of luck.
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That said they all have different levels of acidity to keep pH levels down.You have to test and try. One hot sauce I make uses peppers, tomato's and garlic and red wine vinegar is my choice, but I also make a pineapple jalapeno and I use apple cider vinegar in that. For another sauce I make I use white distilled.
 
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During. Using a lid or your vent helps. The cap in the air is much more a problem than vin! Sour odor or coughing and crying! I guess you are making mild sauce. :)
 
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brewingphilly said:
Hi all- I want to gauge when everyone adds their vinegar to their sauce.. I usually add it while cooking but the aroma it gives off is extremely pungent (I know it is hot sauce, but this is headache inducing). Does anyone add it after cooking? Does this mess with the process at all?
 
Thanks!
Click to expand...
 

Never. Unless the PH is above 4.0 which I have never ended up with . I have one exception only, its my sauce "SpiceDance" made with habanero, mango, and cider vinegar. But I use it for the flavor. I have found, the people who buy my sauce really enjoy the fact that I typically don't use vinegar.
 
Personally I love the taste of vinegar. I'd drink cider vinegar straight from the bottle every day if I didn't care about the enamel on my teeth lol. But for a fermented sauce, in many cases it is not necessary and can detract from the rich flavor you've worked so hard to perfect.
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
During. Using a lid or your vent helps. The cap in the air is much more a problem than vin! Sour odor or coughing and crying! I guess you are making mild sauce. :)
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The sour odor I can handle! The vinnegar cooking is just headache inducing. I was originally using Apple Cider, but i changed to White Wine for a few of my sauces and they have turned out much better. 
 
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