Looks pretty good to me and I think your takeaways are right on target. Anytime I am canning I boil the jars for 15 minutes to sterilize and I just cover the pot and leave the water boiling so that I can return the filled jars back into boiling water. After a few times you will get the timing down.bpiela said:Ok, so my first attempt I think leans towards failure. I do have pics so that is a good thing.
I started with 150g of deseeded Peruvian Giallo Arancio peppers. These are smaller Aji Amarillos. I got the seeds from Fatalii.net.
Here are the peppers in the food processor:
Here are the seeds I pulled from the peppers. Let me know if you want any seeds....
So, I added 90 ml of 5% Distilled White Vinegar, 1.5 tsp of Agave Nectar and 1/4 tsp of sea salt and spun that food processor up. While doing this, I was keeping a few jars hot in the not so BWB and warming up a few lids in another small pot.
The 150g of peppers didn't seem to produce much puree. I transferred it directly into a pot to simmer. I put it on the lowest heat setting on the stove. Here is a pic:
I assumed it would cook for about an hour so I didn't watch over it much. After 30 mins, I checked on it and it seemed that all of the liquid was gone and it was a paste. I had enough for one 4oz jar and just a little extra. Here is a pic of the extra.
So, after I transferred the puree paste into my 4oz jar, I turned up the heat on the BWB bath and kinda waited for it to rapid boil. 20mins later there wasn't much change so I put the jar in and I was thinking that I would leave it in until there was a rapid boil. That rapid boil never happened. 30+mins later I gave up and removed it from the bath. The lid did pop. Here is a pic of the final product:
I did taste that "extra" puree and I thought it was very good. This pepper isn't the hottest thing around but I tasted the pepper, a slight twang of the vinegar and some sweetness from the nectar.
Takeaways:
1) Make a larger batch. I am guessing 250-300g is a minimum.
2) Be smarter when simmering. Pay more attention to the puree during this time.
3) Get that water boiling earlier in the BWB.
This was my first attempt ever at canning. I have a lot of room to improve. Thanks very much for this recipe.
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If you have a question about commercial production or the hot sauce business, please post in The Food Biz.
tutorial Making some puree today...will post pics of the process....it's easy....
- Thread starter AlabamaJack
- Start date
One of the best threads on THP. Talked to AJ via email today. Doing well! He has not made purees lately and wants to grow again next year. 
wow, I didn't realize this thread was still active.... I need to read and catch up...
by the way Dan...I am glad to be back....
AJ
by the way Dan...I am glad to be back....
AJ
AlabamaJack said:
I see ya Dan...roflmao at myself....this has not been active in a year....roflmao...
AJ
Been so long you're quoting yourself LOL!
REALLY glad you are back
REALLY glad you are back
Can these bottles be used for the recipe from page 1 of this post or is this purée recipe too thick that would require a jar instead of a swing top type bottle?
Will work. You may need to tap the bottle like ketchup is all but the recipe is more like a thick hot sauce not like tomato puree.
salsalady
Business Member
When using those bale top jars, they are not usually intended to be sealed with the swing top stopper to be shelf stable. They can be hot packed and kept refrigerated. Most bale jar users use a crimp top beer cap to seal the jar leaving the stopper top on the side of the jar. Once the bottle is opened, the bale stopper is used. The bale bottles are used more for beverages instead of a thick sauce/puree.
Those bottles will work, may be a bit fussy as THP said. It will be a bit of a challenge getting the sauce into the bottle...and subsequently OUT of the bottle.... Maybe consider making it easier for yourself and use a wider mouthed jar. Or keep the puree/sauce at a thinner consistency so it will work with the smaller neck jars.
The OP cooks down the sauce making it thicker for packing in small jam canning jars, but that is not required. The sauce can be packed at whatever consistency you want. Thin so it flows out of the bottles, thick so it is spooned out of a canning jar.
Those bottles will work, may be a bit fussy as THP said. It will be a bit of a challenge getting the sauce into the bottle...and subsequently OUT of the bottle.... Maybe consider making it easier for yourself and use a wider mouthed jar. Or keep the puree/sauce at a thinner consistency so it will work with the smaller neck jars.
The OP cooks down the sauce making it thicker for packing in small jam canning jars, but that is not required. The sauce can be packed at whatever consistency you want. Thin so it flows out of the bottles, thick so it is spooned out of a canning jar.
How is the purée "cut" or thinned? Is the cook time altered or the temp or is there an ingredient in the recipe that can be used more or less of?
salsalady said:
salsalady
Business Member
It's the cooking down time that thickens the product. Low and slow simmer evaporates the moisture. In the OP, AlabamaJack uses a skewer (or chop stick???) to monitor the reduction of the sauce. It starts as a thinner chile sauce and thickens/reduces to a thicker consistency which we call a chile puree.
When the sauce is first starting to cook it, it is sort of thin. Even at the beginning consistency, the sauce/puree can be packaged. It's a bit thinner, and when folks cook it down a bit (aka-reduction/reduce) the sauce is thicker.
In the post a couple spots up, they were asking about using the small neck bale jars, which would work but would be a bit of a PITA to work with if trying to pack a thicker reduced sauce.
Think of trying to package tomato paste -vs- tomato sauce.
SL
When the sauce is first starting to cook it, it is sort of thin. Even at the beginning consistency, the sauce/puree can be packaged. It's a bit thinner, and when folks cook it down a bit (aka-reduction/reduce) the sauce is thicker.
In the post a couple spots up, they were asking about using the small neck bale jars, which would work but would be a bit of a PITA to work with if trying to pack a thicker reduced sauce.
Think of trying to package tomato paste -vs- tomato sauce.
SL
salsalady said:
Do you have another term for the crimp top beer cap? I tried googling it, but I'm not certain what cap you're referring to.
I think I found some woozy bottles for thicker sauces and I like your idea of having the swing top available after it's been opened for the first time.
Here are the woozy bottles with a wider mouth - http://www.fillmorecontainer.com/5oz-Woozy-Hot-Sauce-Bottles-Wider-Mouth-P368.aspx
If you can suggest a crimp top beer cap or provide a link to the type of cap you're referring to, that would be super.
Thank you
salsalady
Business Member
Just your standard beer cap. Home brewers use a couple styles of cappers. Google bottle cappers or look on home brewing sites. Im on the kindle and dont know how to link.
edit-
https://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermenter-s-favorites-oxygen-absorbing-bottle-caps
edit-
https://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermenter-s-favorites-oxygen-absorbing-bottle-caps
Attachments
600g of seeded amarillos.
Made only 2.5 half pints. I cooked it down to a thickness similar to the commercial product.
Next time I think I'll leave seeds in and strain them with a mill. I think I lost a bit of heat from removing that placenta.
Over all this stuff is great. I like it a lot better than the commercial product. It has better color and a better fresher brighter taste and flavor.
Thanks for the recipe! This is a great way to empty my freezer.
1.5lbs reapers and a pound of ghosts for 2.5lb total peppers turned into AJ puree! Did half with the addition of atomic grape tomato puree + garlic added; other half just the peppers, agave, salt, and vinegar. All seeding was done with my kitchenaid FSVGA parts after a quick blender blitz to break up the flesh to go through more readily-the trick to using the kitchenaid is to keep rerunning it until your getting just seed and core, glad it worked as it saved me boatloads of time hand seeding all of em! Still couldn't save my hands from catching fire and the capsicum oils in the air! 15 mins Pressure canned 'just cuz', as I had yet to use it for canning. Extremely hot concentrate but DAMN Good! Still very time consuming but would rather do a lot than a little as it's all the same steps! At least 3 hours but that's chillin drinkin type hours, and includes washing all the peppers methodically..
While simmering down it was the deepest-brightest-yet dark at the same time red I've ever seen ever from a sauce! It stains everything it gets on, plastic included. Had a hell of a time cleaning all the white plastic parts like kitchenaid blender etc! Contains over 100-120 superhots! Still need to figure out fast-like weeks ago-what to do with another 6 pounds of reapers!
Going to do it again tonight with choc Habs as I have those coming out my ears as well and already lost a bunch from not processing from splitting cracking etc and just falling on the ground because they're so loaded an have not been harvested or used due to everything else going on and the massive surplus the plants are putting out. So got to use them ASAP! Wonder what would taste good with them or just keep em single in the puree recipe...
While simmering down it was the deepest-brightest-yet dark at the same time red I've ever seen ever from a sauce! It stains everything it gets on, plastic included. Had a hell of a time cleaning all the white plastic parts like kitchenaid blender etc! Contains over 100-120 superhots! Still need to figure out fast-like weeks ago-what to do with another 6 pounds of reapers!
Going to do it again tonight with choc Habs as I have those coming out my ears as well and already lost a bunch from not processing from splitting cracking etc and just falling on the ground because they're so loaded an have not been harvested or used due to everything else going on and the massive surplus the plants are putting out. So got to use them ASAP! Wonder what would taste good with them or just keep em single in the puree recipe...
