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recipe-help Pasteurising makes my sauce bitter??

L

Luke90

Hi all,

I love making a super delicious basic no-cook sauce for my family and friends that we keep in the fridge. Blend it all up and bottle it.

I have been trying to make it shelf stable with pasteurising, but it comes with a bitter aftertaste every time.

I have tried slowly bringing it to boil before I hot bottle, adding less / more vinegar, or getting it to cook faster. I can't seem to get it as good as the unpasteurised version. I am trying to avoid adding sugar or another type of sweetener into it and keep the ingredient list the same. Not a massive fan of the A4 ingredient lists.

I am sure it has something to do with the vinegar as shop ones don't always have sugar in. Any ideas on what or how I could get rid of the bitterness?

Recipe
60% Red jalapeños peppers
35% white vinegar
3% salt
1% Garlic
1% Chipotle spice

Thank for the help
 
The Hot Pepper said:
Are you giving it time to mellow out in the bottle? A few weeks?

How are you processing the peppers? Removing seeds, pith etc?
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Yes, I have tried letting the flavours mellow and Seeds and pith removed, it did help lower the overall bitterness but each time there is the distinctive bitter aftertaste, not as strong as out the pot but definitely there.

I also tried apple cider vinegar but no difference, added more salt which helped till it became too salty and bitter
 
Maybe the red jalapenos aren't ripe enough or maybe the recipe just needs a little sugar. If you don't want to add sugar you can try 1) roasting the peppers and 2) roasting the garlic to enhance the sweetness.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
Maybe the red jalapenos aren't ripe enough or maybe the recipe just needs a little sugar. If you don't want to add sugar you can try 1) roasting the peppers and 2) roasting the garlic to enhance the sweetness.
Click to expand...
Thanks, the first time I tried this I made both styles on the same day as I had so many peppers extra and the quick one came out as great as always. keep thinking it might be something to do with how I am brining the vinegar up to temp as thats the other part thats different
 
I believe it will help. The way to fix a bitter tomato sauce is to reduce the acid of the tomatoes, a lot of time that's adding sugar. So if you can reduce the acid of a hot sauce by lowering the vinegar, it might just do the trick. Although I don't find too much vinegar to add what I call bitterness, others might call it that. To me it's more tangy and sour, but still it might do the trick since it is an acid.
 
Is the garlic fresh or dried?
is the Chipotle a dry spice?

Vinegar isn't usually associated with bitter, but there are sweeter tasting vinegars than white and acv. Rice vinegar and balsamic are sweeter. Keep in mind rice vinegar has less acidity than the others, you may need to compensate, but from your pH, it looks like you have enough margin to keep the same amount.

Eliminate garlic, then eliminate Chipotle. Try cooking the sauce without one or the other, see how it tastes. If it is a dry spice you can add it at the very end.

Good luck and have fun.
SL
 
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I did suggest roasted garlic which I think will help too. Throw some cloves in some foil, no oil needed, and roast. They turn sweet due to the caramelization of the present sugars. This also reduces the bite of the garlic, so you may do this trick, that I often do: 50/50. Half roasted, half fresh, a nice balance!
 
The Hot Pepper said:
Useful tips!
oureverydaylife.com

How to Keep Garlic From Turning Bitter

Garlic may taste bitter if cooked when it has already started to sprout. To eliminate the issue, remove the green germ or sprout from the center.
oureverydaylife.com oureverydaylife.com
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Great tips. One thing that stood out is overcooking garlic will lead to bitterness. Try cooking everything except the garlic. Blender, whatever, bring back up to temp, add crushed/minced garlic, simmer just enough to cook the garlic....quickly bottle.

SL
 
salsalady said:
Is the garlic fresh or dried?
is the Chipotle a dry spice?

Vinegar isn't usually associated with bitter, but there are sweeter tasting vinegars than white and acv. Rice vinegar and balsamic are sweeter. Keep in mind rice vinegar has less acidity than the others, you may need to compensate, but from your pH, it looks like you have enough margin to keep the same amount.

Eliminate garlic, then eliminate Chipotle. Try cooking the sauce without one or the other, see how it tastes. If it is a dry spice you can add it at the very end.

Good luck and have fun.
SL
Click to expand...
Thank you for the replies. It's nice to get this great advice from the both of you.

I use fresh Garlic and my peppers. I have smoked, dried and ground to make the chipotle spice that is added near the end.

It might help if I give you a few details about my process, but I think I might be overcooking the Garlic. It doesn't brown but is in for the entire cook. (I will try the tricks about or else powdered, but id like to avoid that if I can)

-Fresh/ whole Frozen Jalapenos membranes and seeds removed (initially thought this was the issue)
-Garlic crush slightly
-Both into a medium heat pot to reduce some of the moisture down whilst I use a big stick blender to break it up (no food processor)
-Once some of the liquid is out, I add some salt and 90% of the vinegar
-Bring to a boil slowly (maybe 10-15 minutes)
-Blend the chipotle powder into the 10% remaining vinegar (I found it was too grainy otherwise), then add
-Bit more salt to taste
-92c and bottle

The entire process from heat on is possibly only 25 minutes
 
Try using a whole clove of garlic, not chopped or crushed and at the end of the cook use the stick blender to pulverize it. That's an on Italian trick, but they would take it out at the end, and it did it's job flavoring with no bitterness.

Just cut the basal plate off (the hard end) to make it like a flavor releaser.
 
I never heard of that with garlic. Excellent suggestion, thank you, that will be my subsequent trial, I have a few more ready to pick but will give them longer to ripen and hopefully get back with a go-to sauce later in the week
 
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