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cjc_hots

Hot sauce change in color

cjc_hots
10 years ago

About six weeks ago I made a batch of hot sauce out of my crop of chilis, seranos and habeneros. My method involves cooking diced chilis in vinegar with a few spices and some fruit juice, straining and bottling. This year I damaged all but one of my bottles in my sterilization process, so I took what I could not bottle and put it in a sterilized Pyrex bowl with a plastic lid. I would say about 2-3 cups worth. I placed the bowl in p the same cabinet with my one bottle of sauce, which has a screw on cap. Then I sadly forgot about it!

For some reason, this year my mixture settled - the solids settled to the bottom and the vinegar on top, as you would expect.

I just got a bottle to hold what was in the bowl, bit when I bottled it I found the color of what had been in the bowl was a much darker red. I will post pictures if I can.

I'm wondering why the color changed, and if that might mean that the sauce is bad? The lid was secure in the Pyrex bowl, but it is probably not as tight as the bottle top. And the bowl was only about 3/4 full, so there was air in there.

Anyone with any thoughts on why this might have happened and what the implications are? I would hate to have to toss it out, because this was the culmination of a summer of growing and harvesting my peppers. On the other hand, I'm concerned about spoilage or even botulism.

Thanks,

Chris

Comments (18)

  • cjc_hots
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Here is a pic of the sauce batches. The one on the left is what was in the bowl. The one on the right was bottled the same day.

  • seysonn
    10 years ago

    The color is definitely darker, for some reason. But the probability of it going bad, based on your processing method, is very unlikely. That is, it is straight vinegar based and on top of that it has been cooked.
    I would like to see what others say about it.

  • Phildeez
    10 years ago

    It must oxidation. And if so I would be very skeptical of eating it at all at this point. Especially considering you have another bottle of it to enjoy. Nice color btw. Have you pH tested it? If not I would not risk eating it at this point. If the pH is 5.0 or under it is probably safe. However I am no expert, this is just from what I have read and experienced.

  • tsheets
    10 years ago

    I was kind of thinking oxidation as well. Is it safe to eat??? No clue!

  • greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
    10 years ago

    I wouldn't eat it.

    Josh

  • judo_and_peppers
    10 years ago

    5.0 or under? that's well above the safe zone. a pH of 4.2 as I understand it is the maximum for storing a sterilized food at room temp before opening. when I make a hot sauce I shoot for 3.3 or below. I wouldn't eat it. not in a million years. but my opinion is skewed by having many other bottles to enjoy. that's why I offered to send a free replacement.

  • DMForcier
    10 years ago

    Oxidation, not botulism. Botulinum is anaerobic: the presence of air in the bottle would prevent it from growing, even if present. Only way to tell if it's good is to sniff and taste it. It's probably fine since it was in glass.

    Dennis

  • don555
    10 years ago

    Oxidized at the very least, possibly contaminated. I wouldn't eat it, not worth the risk. If you saw a bottle like that on the store shelf alongside a bunch of bottles the color of your sealed bottle, you'd certainly avoid it. Enjoy your good bottle.

  • seysonn
    10 years ago

    Talking about pH.

    If it is made with straight houshold vinegar( 5% acetic acid, pH= 2.4) There is no way its pH can be higher than. 2.8.

    Now, oxidation is something that I don't know about. But food stuff go bad because the bad bacterial producing TOXINS. But as far as I know there is no known bacterium to live in a liquid with a pH of 3 and then multiply and produce toxins.
    But, to be safe , forget it.

  • Phildeez
    10 years ago

    maybe 5% acid is where that number came from. Thank you for the corrections!

  • Bill_Missy
    10 years ago

    Don't want to steal this thread, but curious as to what everyone uses to test their Ph with? Litmus paper? I have been looking at buying some, just not sure which to get. I have been making a lot of sauces lately. This is a batch with 100 Orange Habaneros.

    Bill

  • Bill_Missy
    10 years ago

    Don't want to steal this thread, but curious as to what everyone uses to test their Ph with? Litmus paper? I have been looking at buying some, just not sure which to get. I have been making a lot of sauces lately. This is a batch with 100 Orange Habaneros.

    Bill

    {{!gwi}}

  • judo_and_peppers
    10 years ago

    I bought a cheap electronic pH tester on amazon. I paid about 15 bucks including shipping.

    it needs constant recalibrating but I use vinegar to calibrate it. I know this isn't the most scientific approach, but I know all I'm getting is a ballpark number. and really that's all I need. and the vinegar should be roughly the same pH from bottle to bottle (since I'm using the same brand) so using it to calibrate isn't that unreasonable.

    a lot of my sauces come in around the 2.9-3.2 range, going up to about 3.7 at the high end.

  • cjc_hots
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks to everyone for your responses. I am going to heed the advice and err on the side of caution. I will keep it for awhile just to see if anything else happens to it, continued discoloration, etc.

    I am curious what oxidation does exactly. Does it make the sauce more likely to spoil or grow bacteria?

    It occurred to me that I've got a once bag of green chilis and a bag of habeneros in the freezer that I cleaned and seeded before freezing, so I can try making some more sauce - but not until I've got the woozies! Thanks again.

  • scents_from_heaven
    10 years ago

    In my humble knowledge base an opinion which may be wrong here is my imput. When you added the fruit juice you did not mention what quantity in ratio to the vinegar. It could be the fruit juice that turned and in that case I would not comsume it. Peppers also can lose some of their pigmentation over time but since it was for such a short time frame I do not think this is the case. Did the sauce experience any great variations in temperature while stored? This will also affect the peppers but will not destroy the shelf life. There are just some thoughts and questions. It there had not been any fruit juice added to the mix I would not question it but then the spices can change the color in a container that is not sealed and is not air tight. That is a normal occurance.

  • seysonn
    10 years ago

    Bill,
    A decent pH meter would cost around $300.
    But if you use vinegar as preservative, you don't need it .
    You can see(below) that a little vinegar can go a long way to keep things acidic.
    Note: In water bat (BWB) canning of acidic foods, a pH = 4.2 is MAX.
    The science behind it :
    Look at it in terms of mole/liter. Molar weight of ACETIC ACID is approx. 60. So a 6% acidity is approx.ONE mole per liter. A 5% vinegar is 0.83 mole/liter
    C (mol/L)>> pH
    1 >>> 2.38 (vinigar 6% acidity)

    0.83 >> 2.41 (vinegar 5% acidity)
    0.58 >> 2.49 ( vinegar 3.5% acidity)

    0.415 >> 2.56 (5% ving. diluted 50/50 = 2.5% acidity)

    0.084 >> 3.40 ( 5% ving. diluted to 1:10)

    Keep in mind that we are talking about dilution with neutral distilled water(pH ~=7), in the absence of any BASE to neutralize the acid. This is the case with most, if not all, the food items for canning.

    This post was edited by seysonn on Wed, Dec 25, 13 at 12:22

  • don555
    10 years ago

    "I am curious what oxidation does exactly. Does it make the sauce more likely to spoil or grow bacteria?"
    ___________________________________________
    Oxidation just means the food reacts with oxygen, generally making the food darker colored and off-tasting. Think of an apple, avocado or potato cut open and exposed to air for awhile. They turn brown and although they aren't toxic to eat, they just aren't very appealing and the taste is "off". Sometimes oxidation is beneficial, such as when wine is oxidized as part of the process of making sherry. But generally oxidation is not something you want, even though it doesn't in itself make the food harmful to eat.

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