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New member, some questions, help fill in the blanks maybe?

G

Genot

So, long story short, I enjoy hot food like everyone here. I got tired of hot sauces using extracts due to the extract taste and my wife was thoughtful enough to buy me a hot sauce making kit. The peppers included were lower in heat than I'd hoped and in the meantime I bought a bhut jolokia plant which is now over 50 pods. So here I am. I want to make a hot sauce, I have several woozy bottles from the kit a tiny amount of literature and a smaller amount of disinfectant. 
 
So, after much research here I understand I need to, combine the recipe I choose in the blender, aim for a ph below 4.6 or ideally less than 4,  disinfect the woozie bottles either by boiling or by the dishwasher using no soap (after washing with soap to remove debris to include all utincils used), heat the list of ingredients up to 180 F, bottle, cap and turn the bottles upside down for 3-5 minutes to kill any bugs in the top and cap. 
 
The recipe I'm looking at is here http://jeanetteshealthyliving.com/2012/11/homemade-ghost-chile-hot-sauce.html 
 
I don't have a pressure caner and no way of testing Ph. My wife is leaving town next week and it seems like the perfect chance to make the sauce. My questions are what did I miss? How can I thinn it out just a bit (more vinegar I assume), how long roughly will it keep in refrigeration?  
 
Thanks for any help, I look forward to participating more in the future. 
 
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Welcome

If you are using glass woozies just boil them in water for 15 minutes to sterilize. You will not need a pressure canner if you are using woozies, just get sauce up to 190f then hot fill and invert. I have never used tomatoes in my sauces so I do not know how that will effect the ph. To be safe you should get a PH meter so you can accurately test it.
 
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I appreciate very much the responses so far. Any recommendations on ph meters? I know temperature will play a role in the readings if they aren't calibrated for it. I'm also looking for a sauce that will keep a month or two in the fridge. I understand canned tomatoes are less acidic than fresh and so harder to convert to the sauce's ph for overall stability. I've got enough bhuts that wastage is ok during my first growing season until I learn enough from everyone here to make a safe and stable sauce. 
 
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If you get a pH meter either get one that can handle hot temps so you can check while making your sauce or have a bowl in the freezer ready to pour some sauce in to cool it off. I believe it was SalsaLady who gave that tip before.
 
Good luck sounds like you did your home work!!!
 
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Genot said:
So, long story short, I enjoy hot food like everyone here. I got tired of hot sauces using extracts due to the extract taste and my wife was thoughtful enough to buy me a hot sauce making kit. The peppers included were lower in heat than I'd hoped and in the meantime I bought a bhut jolokia plant which is now over 50 pods. So here I am. I want to make a hot sauce, I have several woozy bottles from the kit a tiny amount of literature and a smaller amount of disinfectant. 
 
So, after much research here I understand I need to, combine the recipe I choose in the blender, aim for a ph below 4.6 or ideally less than 4,  disinfect the woozie bottles either by boiling or by the dishwasher using no soap (after washing with soap to remove debris to include all utincils used), heat the list of ingredients up to 180 F, bottle, cap and turn the bottles upside down for 3-5 minutes to kill any bugs in the top and cap. 
 
The recipe I'm looking at is here http://jeanetteshealthyliving.com/2012/11/homemade-ghost-chile-hot-sauce.html 
 
I don't have a pressure caner and no way of testing Ph. My wife is leaving town next week and it seems like the perfect chance to make the sauce. My questions are what did I miss? How can I thinn it out just a bit (more vinegar I assume), how long roughly will it keep in refrigeration?  
 
Thanks for any help, I look forward to participating more in the future.
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Hello and welcome!!!!! Have you looked into hot sauce forum's on this site many fantastic recipes here as well as procedure. Before trying a recipe from Jeannetteshealthyliving try a tried and true recipe from THP. These recipes and techniques have been tested many times over and you can take that to the bank!!!
Tctenten got ya covered on your jars and bottling technique !! Thanks Tctenten!! :)
Now you should spend as much time in the hot sauce making forum researching recipes and method. If you want to seriously make sauces definitely invest into a ph meter. Also check out fermenting process many members including myself use this and the results are stellar!!! :)
I use tomatoes in my sauces, depending on the type of tomatoes you use will determine your ph factor.
Some types of tomatoes have a lower ph while heirloom tend to run higher in ph you can research varieties that have a higher ph. My meter which I purchased from Amazon is a Etekcity ph 2011 works fantastic!! But I always remove some of my finished product and cool to room temp before testing only takes a few minutes.
Cheers
 
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hogleg said:
You can get temperature compensating PH meters for around $25. If the the PH is below 4.0 and bottled properly it should last well over a couple months in the fridge.
 
Good Luck, Welcome to THP
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THP on the job!!! Nice hogleg! :)
Also if yer gonna do non fermented sauces definitely look into a pressure canner have lots of non fermented pressure canned sauce sitting on my shelf.
 
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It would be wise to make it outside if your using super hots! Don't make the mistake most of us did the first time. I use a crock pot for 8 hrs. You might need a good blender that will handle heat. You will need to, like others have said keep the temp up to 190f. If you make a bunch you can CAN in pints and transfer to the woozies with small stainless funnels. Ps welcome to THP
 
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Ok, Ph tester has been ordered. Fermented sauces will definitely be next on the list, but seeing my first very ripe Bhutes demands a sauce or salsa now. I read up on pressure canning on low ph foods etc. Three hopefully final questions for this thread. 
 
1) can water bath canned sauces of 4 or lower ph be transferred to smaller containers later on (I'm sure this is a stupid question and already answered by 96strat). At what point can I transfer them? 
 
2) If I stick with boiled woozies, very generally am I looking at sauce that is good for a day, a week, two weeks?
 
3) lastly, I dug around the recipe forum and used the search tool. and its hard to search through all the posts, looking for ingredients on hand, dried vs fresh peppers it was tedious. If anyone has a simple super hot recipe I'd be grateful. 
 
Thanks again everyone I've learned a TON. 
 
and 96, I'll be sure to make this outside. Finally my gas grill has a redeeming value. 
 
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I am pretty sure that if you hot-fill into sterilized woozies and the sauces are at a shelf stable PH, they will last for awhile.   Hopefully one of the more knowledgeable can give you a definitive answer.
 
Shelf Stable-
Making a shelf stable product means processing the food in a way that it is safe to be kept unrefrigerated for an extended period of time. A shelf stable product can be created by-
 
-getting the pH level low enough that nasties can’t survive or grow by using acids (vinegar, citrus juices) or by fermentation, and then using the Hot Fill/Hold process or the boiling water bath process to create oxygen-free environments for sauces with pH’s below 4.0.
 
-OR- any sauce, regardless of pH can be preserved by Pressure Canning.  For sauces with a pH above 4.6, the only safe processing method is pressure canning.
 
That is from Salsalady thread in hot sauce making.  
 
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:welcome: to THP, Genot!
 
There are a lot of simple sauce recipes HERE, most hotter chiles can substitute with habs and such without any problems.  Keep in mind that the recipes on pepperfool have not been professionally tested so use common sense. 
 
 
Since this is your first batch, you may want to cook it up, blend etc, then chill it overnight to check the flavor the next day.  You can keep it for several days if you can't process right away.  Make a few changes, or not, then heat, bottle etc.
 
 
Have fun! 
 
salsalady
 
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PS- Yes to tctenten's post.  If the sauce is processed as in Hot Sauce 101, it is considered shelf stable and good for a year minimum.
 
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A basic Louisiana hot sauce will be peppers, vinegar and salt.  You can add other veggies in there to start to customize and shape your flavor profile.
 
Learn the lingo, LOG your recipes and record all measurements with grams (G) or milliliters (mL) and when experimenting save cost by making a pint to quart at most.  Get your own blender because your SO will most likely not be happy with everything starting to taste like hot peppers that go into the blender.  The cap oil will get in the plastic a bit :)
 
Try making a sauce that blends peppers with carrot, onion, tomato, kosher salt and vinegar together.  Blend it well, put it in a sauce pot and bring it to a boil for 15 minutes.  Add water if it gets too thick.  Let it cool a bit and put it back in the blender (I suggest a ninja blender or similar high powered, heavy duty blender) and let it blend for 5 minutes straight.
 
Use a food mill over the sauce pot and pour the blended mixture back into the sauce pot through the mill, straining the seeds out (or use a strainer and metal spoon to remove the seeds and pres the pulp through).  Heat it to about 190 degrees and carefully bottle the sauce.  As long as the glass bottles are clean, the sauce will sterilize the bottle.  Fill the bottle to about 1" from the top of the bottle itself.  Cap and invert the bottle until it cools.  Let it cool at room temp.  Be careful not to burn yourself on the glass, sauce or pot.  Use safety goggles, a mouth cover and nitrle gloves for your skin.
 
The sauce will get better over time too.  Eating the sauce right away will taste a bit... raw.  You can pick out every single flavor, etc. But after a month or two, it starts to get happy and meld, turning into one nice texture and flavor.
 
have fun with it!  If you are planning on selling it, hang onto every receipt for all ingredients you use, all items you buy for equipment etc.  Your accountant and wallet will thank you come tax season.
 
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Thanks to everyone who contributed, seriously. 
 
I attempted to research Bhut sauce recipies here, but they generally included 3 other peppers and a days worth of errands of ingredients (I'm exaggerating a bit).
 
Anyway I found a pressure canner (I am under the impression fermenting is the main method here,  but consensus seems to be pressure canning eliminates all rookie mistakes if done properly). I ended up trying too many things and tests at once. I had mason jars boiling a ph tester ready for calibration, the sauce cooking, the water in the canner heating. Long story short I never checked the PH, which from what I've gathered doesn't matter since I've pressure canned if done correctly. The recipe I used called for onion which was the longest item on the provided book. I kept it in for 45 rather than 40 and at 15 rather than 10 for pressure. 
 
I guess my question is I rendered 3 pints. One is in the fridge as a control and as it was cooked 4 hours ago and the other two are in the basement. I'm assuming I'm good for a couple of days like any cooked food just to taste test especially since the control is in the fridge, but with the others do I call the extension or just let them sit? 
 
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Sam & Oliver said:
A basic Louisiana hot sauce will be peppers, vinegar and salt.  You can add other veggies in there to start to customize and shape your flavor profile.
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I have to nit pick for a sec. What makes a Louisiana style is the aged pepper mash (usually with salt) diluted in vinegar. Aged cayanne, tabasco, etc. If fresh peppers with salt and vinegar added, not really Louisiana style. :)
 
But yes, build on the basics.
 
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Back to Basics! 
 
 
Check out-
 
Chile Pepper Weights and measures
 
making Hot sauce 101
 
fermenting peppers 101
 
 
 
fermented peppers taste waaaaayyyyy different than sauces processed with non-fermented chiles.  It's a flavor profile as well as a processing technique.  Some like a fermented flavor, some don't.  Understand that fermentation is ONE way to get a sauce to a low pH with a specific taste of fermented chiles.
 
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