Besides wine, beer, mead, and other boozy pleasures, I’m looking to get into cheese and hot sauce making. Cheese, fairly straight forward, but I’m looking for information on how to increase SHELF life of hot sauce. Literally shelf, I’m not looking to store in my refrigerator because I do not have the space. I’m looking for the best method that would allow me to keep it in a cool basement. The two most popular things I see in life is fermenting it and using a vinegar salt combination. From what I’ve seen, fermentation, while seems awesome, requires refrigeration and even then only lasts a couple of months. I have the ability (like everyone else) to can, and also want to be able to use other fruits and vegetables, but want my sauce to last over a year. Any advice?
Making hot sauce with good shelf life
- Thread starter Weaves
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If you want it to be shelf stable, you'll have to pressure can it. You can ferment it, and get it just right, and then can it in mason jars.
kl Roosevelt brewer
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I'm not sure what your sauce consists of but I have spaghetti sauce with deer meat in it that I pressure can that's over two years old and still yummy
Ketchup keeps fine in the cupboard even after its been opened. Get the pH low enough and almost nothing will grow in it. I made a hot sauce from dried pods. No fresh onions or garlic. all dried stuff. I used 6% acidity wine vinegar and no water. Boiled it all for about 10-15min.
Filled the bottles hot and inverted them until cool. Its keeps just fine. Under 3.6pH you are pretty much golden using a simple hot fill method.
Filled the bottles hot and inverted them until cool. Its keeps just fine. Under 3.6pH you are pretty much golden using a simple hot fill method.
So from doing more research (and correct me if I’m wrong here please) so long as the ph is 3.4 or below refrigeration is not necessary, If I can it (I use the hot water bath method) or get one of the glass sauce jars (the ones with the heat seals that I can just turn my hot hot sauce upside down in as suggested by @Evilgrin) they can just be stored on regular shelf for a decent amount of time.
As well if these above methods are correct, would it work the same if I did the method when you purée all ingredients together as opposed to a fermented hot sauce and vice versa? Because I definitely want to do both
As well if these above methods are correct, would it work the same if I did the method when you purée all ingredients together as opposed to a fermented hot sauce and vice versa? Because I definitely want to do both
catdaddy66
Well-Known Member
Lower the pH to under 5.0 and you should be good. Vinegar gets you there...
Don't do what I did. I made some mango habanero hot sauce. I remember measuring the pH, and it was pretty low, but apparently not low enough. Grew mold in cabinet.
Making some mango reaper hot sauce this weekend - won't make that mistake again. Will probably pressure can it.
Making some mango reaper hot sauce this weekend - won't make that mistake again. Will probably pressure can it.
Not sure if it makes a difference but I put in tin hot and put heavy gas in the leftover space (same stuff I use when aging my wine) I’ve made the same recipe before but I canned it instead of woozying it like I did this time, but my basement (where the unopened ones are stored) is moderately cool, anyone I give it to I tell to refrigerate right away as well
Rick Davidson
Member
My sauce with the vinegar, garlic, honey and capsaicin is pretty stable in the fridge once it's open, but if you want such sauce as this to last outside the fridge before opening, you'll want to use canning techniques. What I've learnt from my experience - is that any sauce, regardless of pH, can be preserved by pressure canning if you're concerned about holding properties of food.
