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Steps to ensure safe hot sauce

jbopbr

jbopbr

Hi. I am new here and I dont really know where to post this , but: I was wondering what each and every step is in the bottling process to ensure my hot sauce is safe. Sanitizing, pasteurization , hot bottle fill/ hold, do I do all three? Is there more, less? If so, how do I do them exactly? Thanks in advance.
 
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jbopbr said:
Okay, so I would need to: clean, rinse, sanitize, make the sauce, heat sauce to 180-190 for 10 minutes, fill, invert , then let sit?
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Welcome and yes you are heading in the right direction....PH also plays a huge part in a shelf safe product.....you need a ph of less than4.0 just to be on the safe side...I like to shoot for at least 3.5 or under.
 
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Sizzle Lips said:
 
Welcome and yes you are heading in the right direction....PH also plays a huge part in a shelf safe product.....you need a ph of less than4.0 just to be on the safe side...I like to shoot for at least 3.5 or under.
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Thank you! So as long as I follow the steps listed and have the right PH , I shouldnt have to worry about any food borne pathogens?
 
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There is a sticky thread in this forum Making Hot Sauce 101, answers everything in detail. I'm on my phone and don't know how to link threads. Hopefully someone will post it up.

Welcome and have fun.
Salsalady
 
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Oops! Just saw Hogleg posted the link. Sorry, and Thanks Hogleg!
 
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Thank you salsa lady, and everyone else. Another quick question I didnt see an answer to: you state in the Hot Sauce 101 That when you cook the sauce before you put it in the woozy bottles, it needs to cook for 10 minutes at a full rolling boil. Ive seen other people say not to cook at a full boil. Which would be better? And whats the best way to do that without compromising the taste of the sauce?
 
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Simmering is fine, unfortunately I can't edit the original post anymore to make the change.  If the sauce is watched and stirred so it doesn't burn, an active boil is fine for a shorter time.  If simmering, (it still needs to be watched so it doesn't burn) simmer for a bit longer. 
 
Sometimes, the sauce flavors meld and develop better if simmered for a longer time.  Think- marinara-.  For some sauces, a longer cooking doesn't improve the flavor.  You just have to think about the sauce you are making and determine if a longer simmer will benefit it or not.
 
SL
 
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Simmer IIRC technically means just barely bubbling. I think most people when they use that word mean something a little hotter like a gentle boil. That's what I do... I cant imagine anything besides botulism spores can living in that (which is why of course pH is so important). For the sake of not making a mess, I almost never do a full rolling boil.
 
Oh, and where are my manners? Welcome!
 
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The cooking times/temps were posted for new sauce makers. 
There is a Time:Temp factor involved when processing hot sauces.  Again, the original post was aimed at totally new sauce makers so I didn't get into all that.  I just went with the safest as a FRB for 10 minutes.  The other side is Gentle Simmer for 20 minutes.  If I could edit the OP, I'd revise some of the information.  (There're rumors about that that may be an option in the next upgrade of THP. :pray: )
 
Sometimes it's hard to judge if the sauce is simmering or gently boiling.  A simmer of a thick sauce will have molten bubbles exploding lava sauce blobs, whereas a simmer of a very thin sauce will show the tiny bubbles. 
 
And one thing that happened to Lucky Dog Hot Sauce's Scott ( and many others, myself included, maybe jhc? :lol: ) is that when working with a medium to thick sauce and it is left on the stove for a bit and it is not stirred frequently/all the time...the bottom heats up and the top doesn't follow.  So when the sauce is stirred, it's a volcanic eruption of superheated sauce, all over the sauce maker and surrounding areas.  Not Good!  That does make a mess~
 
It's impossible to describe all the different sauce scenarios.  HS101 was posted as a base line for new sauce makers.  Just use common sense.  Make sure it has some acidity, make sure to cook it at least (10 minutes at full rolling boil or 20 minutes at a gentle simmer).
 
Most important- Have Fun!  :D
 
 
 
Disclaimer- I'm not channeling Trump.  NotHashtag-NotGood!
 
SL
 
 
 
 
 
 
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I never had that happen. I have had a jambalaya and a beef stew scorch at the bottom becauseI left it on the heat too long without stirring. Sad! or Bad! (I have experienced the superheated phenomenon many times using a microwave, however). 
 
FWIW, the simmer definition I posted was because I was unaware of what I think is the technical definition. I have not tested this, but I'm not sure there's a temperature difference between a gentle boil (lots of bubbles every second but the liquid isn't totally agitated) vs a rolling boil. 
 
Here's what I feel confident in:
 
Botulinum toxin (NOT SPORES) is killed at 10 minutes at anywhere from a simmer to a boil
http://ucanr.edu/sites/MFPOC/Food_Safety/Botulism/
 
Cooked sauces made fresh won't have any toxin in them unless you are using spoiled ingredients. Ferments MIGHT (even though probably won't). I know people keep fermented mashes/sauces in the fridge and eat them without cooking. People also ride around without seatbelts. The risk is probably the same. FWIW the FDA recommends all home-canned veggies (even those pressure-canned) be boiled before eating. Overkill? Maybe.
 
So what else are we killing? Well just about anything else will die at 160F, including the big three of E. Coli, Listeria, and Salmonella. Lactobacillus too, for those that need to stop a ferment so the bottles don't explode. A "simmer" is minimum 180F
https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/60701000/FoodSafetyPublications/p328.pdf
 
Here's what I take away from this: if your sauce is boiling, by which I mean there are many bubbles coming up every minute, for at least a few minutes, you have killed the relevant nasties except for botulism spores. For a cooked sauce, as long as your pH is <4.0, you should be fine. For a ferment, where you can never know if the pH dropped before botulism had time to reproduce, you should cook at least 10 minutes at a boil (gentle is fine) to ensure all toxin is gone.
 
If anyone has better info, then please share. Like SalsaLady and the other folks here, I'm only trying to share accurate information that people can use to keep everyone safe.
 
 
 
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Of course great info from this site. I’ve always cooked at 180f for at least 10 min for both cooked and fermented sauce, then hot inversion bottling. No bad experiences or explosions! Thx
 
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