• If you have a question about commercial production or the hot sauce business, please post in Startup Help.

Ingredients to look for if the hot sauce will not be refrigerated

Dr Pacheco

Dr Pacheco

Yea, I'm new... hopefully this isn't the wrong forum. But this question has to do with hot sauce ingredients.

I like to keep a bottle of hot sauce at my desk (office), but it's not refrigerated... and it's there until I finish it or, more likely, throw it away at some point.

Are there certain ingredients that do better than others at room temperature? It is my inclination that fruits and veggies would not "keep" as long. And perhaps a more vinegar-based composition would do better? And how about the peppers themselves? Maybe a cayenne keeps better than a habanero (which is fruitier)?

Does it even make a difference? Any/all advice appreciated. drP


:fireball:
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Hi and welcome to the forums. Actually it's a matter of ph that determines the shelf stability of a sauce. Generally I try to get my sauces down to around a ph 3.5. That should give you a good 6 months + or - of shelf stability. Getting your ph down doesn't have to be done with vinegar. Any acid will do it: lime or lemon juice, ascorbic acid, fermentation processing and of course vinegar. Good luck in your sauce making and when you make it post with pictures. We really love our pepper porn around here.

Cheers
RM
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You have a number of options for preserving sauce for "shelf stable". First method is to adjust the PH you can either make it very acid, or very base. Vinegar is popular to acidify, and lye is popular as an alkaline in food. Though I have never seen lye used with peppers.(It's more of a curing agent) Another method you can use is reducing or eliminating the water in your sauce. I've found making a sweet sugar based sauces can work very well. I have yet to actually try using oils or alcohol as mediums yet though.

As to the fruits and vegetables in the sauce. As long as the ph is in the safe range, or the sauce is using another preservation method it should not matter.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Great suggestions so far.

I believe salt also helps with preservation but I could be wrong.

Pasteurization is another consideration.

Bear in mind that stability based on pH doesn't guarantee anything - ambient tenperature can vary wildly. In a climate controlled office like mine it ranges from 68-72 F

If you're talking about your home office, on a hot day any food product can turn.eave a bottle of ketchup out in the sun on a 90 degree day & you'll see what I mean.

Also even if the sauce doesn't "spoil" it can separate - there's a great topic on this in this forum.

I'm currently in process if consideration over whether to add "refrigerate after opening" in addition to "shake well" on my label....will likely defer to my co-packer's advice since they're responsible. I've had sauce keep for 18 mo's+ in the fridge...ambient 8-10 mo's due to low pH, so not sure.

Welcome to the forums and do look around - there are a LOT of really sharp people on here who've discussed all of these subjects in depth!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I am very bad about this, but I have SOOOO many sauces that I often have hundreds sitting around open. My advice is very simple. If it looks bad, smells bad, or pops when you open it, throw it away. Otherwise, I have had sauces last open for years and have never gotten sick.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
JayT said:
I am very bad about this, but I have SOOOO many sauces that I often have hundreds sitting around open. My advice is very simple. If it looks bad, smells bad, or pops when you open it, throw it away. Otherwise, I have had sauces last open for years and have never gotten sick.
Click to expand...

Something tells me your stomach isn't uh, normal though by this point. :rofl:

lol

Sagely advice though. I think when in doubt, refrigerate.

I've been surprised that some of the brands that are lactic acid based (Mayanik for example) don't last particularly long if the weather is in the 80s for any length of time, so now I refrigerate all my Mayanik and similar sauces that I used to think were bullet proof. I don't have nearly the collection you do, but 25-30, so they tend to last. My fridge cracks everyone up as a result, but at least my sauces stay tasty fresh. :D

Now my problem is that I've had a couple fall off the back of the shelf, down behind the crisper - where they half-freeze and turn icky that way. When I find that I get all :evil: like when I found my Asprin X-tra hot back there the other day. Then I got :( and finally :drunk: to feel better.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
IMO pH is the key...if it is around 3.8, it will have a good unrefrigerated shelf life...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Justaguy said:
Looks like you have received great answers here already.
:welcome:
Click to expand...




Indeed! I've been reading these forums for hours now... I probably could have answered my question if I had looked around first, but I do appreciate the feedback.
Now I'm trying to make sense of "fermentation". I'm assuming the people who DON'T do that are making "fresh" sauce, to refrigerate to use fairly soon.
I wish I would have paid attention in high school chemistry class.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Dr Pacheco said:
Now I'm trying to make sense of "fermentation". I'm assuming the people who DON'T do that are making "fresh" sauce, to refrigerate to use fairly soon.
Click to expand...

While that can be true, it's not necessarily so.

I make "fresh" pepper sauces - not from mash. I get my "sour" (e.g. acid, low pH) from vinegar, whereas ther fermented peppers get their acids from the fermentation process (lactic acid) - you'll learn all that in the link that justaguy posted.

Point is that a "fresh" pepper sauce can also be quite stable an not need refrigeration - as has been said, it's alllllll about pH.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I make both fermented and fresh sauces. For me it comes down to the flavor profile that I'm after. Fermenting the ingredients will modify the taste of the ingredients. For instance, my Jamaican hot sauce has golden raisins, pineapple and sweet potatoes in it. With all those sugars you would expect it to be a sweet sauce however after going through the fermentation process it isn’t as the process used all the available sugars to produce the Lactic Acid. So, I get a savory sauce that still has all of the flavors of the fruits just none of the sweetness. Now my Dragons Blood hot sauce is a fresh sauce with dried plums, raspberries and dark chocolate. As it’s a dessert sauce I want all of the sweetness left in so I wouldn’t want to ferment it. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
RM

Edit:
Note that I have seen fresh sauces that were both cooked and raw. While most consider a raw sauce to be more of a salsa and cooked to be true sauce, as the boss says think Spaghetti sauce, there are also those that still consider a raw sauce as a sauce and only though a raw sauce do you preserve the probiotic nature of a fermented sauce.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top