Was my 1st Sauce attempt unsafe!?

[JonnyRockets]

Hello All!

Brand New here!

Last year, made a batch of hotsauce with various peppers from my Garden.

Peppers, Garlic, Sugar, Salt, Herbs etc. All boiled in Applecider vinegar and a little water.

Put all contents in a jar, added more apple cider vinegar to cover - and put it in my basement for a month. I'd check to make sure nothing was above the vinegar level, and for any mold - and all was OK.

Did I get lucky? Is this an unsafe method of doing things?

Thanks! looking forward to sharing this years batch / getting inspiration from all!

 

[Burning Colon]

as long as the product hit boiling point and the jars are air tight, you should be good - I am assuming you sterilized everything first.
but that's about what I do, other than my jars are stored in a small fridge.

 

[JonnyRockets]

as long as the product hit boiling point and the jars are air tight, you should be good - I am assuming you sterilized everything first.
but that's about what I do, other than my jars are stored in a small fridge.

Yeah - that's the thing - I did hit boiling point - I had put all my jar pieces in boiling water, but it wasn't sealed - as in the pop up area wasn't down. Plus I'd open it once in awhile to check for mold.

So - I'll read some more probably and try the fridge method I'm thinking?

Anyone else?

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Mold is not the killer it's botulism.

 

[JonnyRockets]

Mold is not the killer it's botulism.

I had to google that - Scary stuff. Wow.

Has anyone made a great beginners guide here on the forum? I'll do some searching, I don't see anything 'sticky' suggesting so. I don't know where I learned how to do what I did - I must have skimmed over some recipes and found it a common thing to do. ( Let the mixture sit for a long time to intensify flavor. )

 

[salsalady]

botulism is not something to play around or take chances with. Having said that, it SOUNDS LIKE your sauce is ok due to the amount of vinegar.

Here's a good thread for the basics, and just keep reading posts in this section "hot sauce making".
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/14991-hot-sauce-making-for-an-uber-newbie/

And WELCOME!
salsalady


edit- one other thing, if you don't know/test the pH of the sauce, it's usually recommended to either hot water bath canning the sauce (which will seal the jars, preventing "nasties" from growing) or if you don't can it, store it in the refer.

 

[JonnyRockets]

botulism is not something to play around or take chances with. Having said that, it SOUNDS LIKE your sauce is ok due to the amount of vinegar.

Here's a good thread for the basics, and just keep reading posts in this section "hot sauce making".
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/14991-hot-sauce-making-for-an-uber-newbie/

And WELCOME!
salsalady


edit- one other thing, if you don't know/test the pH of the sauce, it's usually recommended to either hot water bath canning the sauce (which will seal the jars, preventing "nasties" from growing) or if you don't can it, store it in the refer.

GREAT GREAT LINK!

Thanks so much! I'll give the whole thing a read this weekend or when I have time!