misc Straining Hot Sauce

Is it commercially viable for a startup hot sauce maker to sell a strained hot sauce?
 
 
Lately, as I've become increasingly interested in turning my hot sauce hobby into a business I've been looking at my recipes with an eye on my bottom line.  I have typically made most of my recipes in a style where all of the ingriedents end up in the bottle. However I have a couple recipes I would like to tweak to strain out the pulp to make a smoother sauce, but obviously this would result in a much smaller yield.
 
I understand pricing is already a major concern for those starting in the business so wouldn't straining the sauce make each bottle prohibitively expensive? Is this a legitiate issue for me to contemplate as I tweak my recipes, or am I just distracting myself.
 
Thanks again for your input!
 
PS. If you are confused by what I mean by "strained" hot sauce, here is one example I found online: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/how-to-make-homemade-sriracha-sauce/
 
 
My hand-batch/small batches are always strained.  I pass the entire vat (2, 3, 5 gallons) through a food mill.  But some places that fill bottles for you don't have the ability to.  They can blend them pretty well.
 
Cinder is an example of that.  My hand-batch is smooth, very few seeds if any get through.  I did this for aesthetics as I didn't like dark seeds.
 
But when Endorphin Farms produced mine, I was nervous at first because they couldn't do it.  But I'm glad I did, because it adds to the "all natural" charm of it, people actually mentioned this when taste testing it.
 
 
It's going to cost extra to strain, yes, and more time.  If you do it by hand, when are you going to strain?  After cooking?  while cooking?  during bottling?  My small batch uses an extra pot, specifically because I have to boil the sauce and then pass it through a 10 cup strainer, into a food mill and into another pot, then reheat it.  It gets tricky without aid from someone else.  I often reserve the seeds and extra pulp, dry it out in the oven and put it in a coffee grinder, then add salt and use it on corn, pork and other things.  No need to waste it!
 
Or add peanuts and blend it for a hot nut sauce, like someone else mentioned here.
 
I use "strainers" for my sauces. But I grind them through the mesh. I then pass it through finer meshes.In the end It just takes out the pepper skins, and the seeds making a very smooth often thick sauce.
 
I like the idea of reusing the dried pulp. I'm going to have to pick up some peanuts and test that out!
 
Is it fairly common for co-packers to not be able to strain sauces?  That seems like a good tid-bit of info to keep in mind otherwise.
 
Octang said:
I like the idea of reusing the dried pulp. I'm going to have to pick up some peanuts and test that out!
 
Is it fairly common for co-packers to not be able to strain sauces?  That seems like a good tid-bit of info to keep in mind otherwise.
 
I dehydrate the pulp, and grind it into powder.it actually turns out very fine. Quiet tasty.
 
Kalitarios said:
  I often reserve the seeds and extra pulp, dry it out in the oven and put it in a coffee grinder, then add salt and use it on corn, pork and other things.  No need to waste it!
 
Or add peanuts and blend it for a hot nut sauce, like someone else mentioned here.
Brilliant idea!! I love how I can just browse randomly through all the threads and find little gems of info like these everywhere.
 
Back
Top