HI All
I’ve been giving a recipe from a family friend from South Africa who has been selling his sauce for over a year now. The rules and restrictions are lot more relaxed over there so I’m just making sure I get the process down right so I can take the product to farmers markets, and then hopefully get it into some stores.
I’ve read the 101 on bottling hot sauced and just want to make sure I’ve got it down right. I also need some advice on bottling the sauce as it’s half pieces of various peppers and garlic, and the other half lemon, oil and water. Similar to a salad dressing that separates in the bottle whilst sitting on the shelf.
Here’s my process and tell me where I could improve or where I may be wrong …
Sauce
- Ingredients are purchased from suppliers washed and prepare for cooking
- Peppers and garlic are processed in food processor into bits
- They are cooked in a pot of oil with water and lemon juice for 20min
- The temperature is around 200-220F during the 20 min cooking time
Bottles and caps
- Bottles are Dorica 100ml and 250ml in size with screw on caps
- The screw on caps have a foam insert inside them
- Bottles are rinsed and placed into a 210F oven for 20mins
- Caps are rinsed and air dried
The bottling part doesn’t happen until the sauce has finished cooking and I am ready to bottle. The sauce is then kept (or brought back up to) a temp of 200 or higher when bottling.
The pH of the sauce is around 5 so I need to hot bottle in order to get a stable shelf life.
My questions…
1 – With a temp of 200F whilst bottling, do I need to worry about the foam in the caps getting too hot? I’ve done a bunch of rounds of making the sauce and there doesn’t appear to be any melting or anything noticeable.
2 – With the current setup, how long could these bottles last on the shelf? In the fridge?
3 – Can the handy filler that a lot of guys use on here be used to fill my bottles? See the picture below you’ll noticed that half is liquid, and half chunky goodness.
4 – Are there alternative to the handy filler? Being in Canada $400USD is more like $600CND+
I'm sure there will be more questions later ...
Sorry, I wanted to add ....
- How can I keep my liquid and chunks agitated in a vat or pot whilst bottling so its a good mix of liquid and chunks?
- Can the Handy Filler handle that?
I’ve been giving a recipe from a family friend from South Africa who has been selling his sauce for over a year now. The rules and restrictions are lot more relaxed over there so I’m just making sure I get the process down right so I can take the product to farmers markets, and then hopefully get it into some stores.
I’ve read the 101 on bottling hot sauced and just want to make sure I’ve got it down right. I also need some advice on bottling the sauce as it’s half pieces of various peppers and garlic, and the other half lemon, oil and water. Similar to a salad dressing that separates in the bottle whilst sitting on the shelf.
Here’s my process and tell me where I could improve or where I may be wrong …
Sauce
- Ingredients are purchased from suppliers washed and prepare for cooking
- Peppers and garlic are processed in food processor into bits
- They are cooked in a pot of oil with water and lemon juice for 20min
- The temperature is around 200-220F during the 20 min cooking time
Bottles and caps
- Bottles are Dorica 100ml and 250ml in size with screw on caps
- The screw on caps have a foam insert inside them
- Bottles are rinsed and placed into a 210F oven for 20mins
- Caps are rinsed and air dried
The bottling part doesn’t happen until the sauce has finished cooking and I am ready to bottle. The sauce is then kept (or brought back up to) a temp of 200 or higher when bottling.
The pH of the sauce is around 5 so I need to hot bottle in order to get a stable shelf life.
My questions…
1 – With a temp of 200F whilst bottling, do I need to worry about the foam in the caps getting too hot? I’ve done a bunch of rounds of making the sauce and there doesn’t appear to be any melting or anything noticeable.
2 – With the current setup, how long could these bottles last on the shelf? In the fridge?
3 – Can the handy filler that a lot of guys use on here be used to fill my bottles? See the picture below you’ll noticed that half is liquid, and half chunky goodness.
4 – Are there alternative to the handy filler? Being in Canada $400USD is more like $600CND+
I'm sure there will be more questions later ...
Sorry, I wanted to add ....
- How can I keep my liquid and chunks agitated in a vat or pot whilst bottling so its a good mix of liquid and chunks?
- Can the Handy Filler handle that?
