How to store hot sauce? (3 measures to adopt)

By TheWholePortion
Page last updated: 18/10/2023 | Next review date: 18/10/2025
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In this brief guide, we are going to answer the question “How to store hot sauce?”, discuss answers to other related questions like how long will bottled hot sauce last, and how to tell if the hot sauce has gone bad.

How to store hot sauce?

The conditions under which you store your chili garlic sauce greatly affect the shelf life of the sauce. To first and foremost thing to consider before you jump to the idea of storing the sauce is to make sure that every utensil that you are going to use like knife, saucepan, lid, and, container, etc. is sterilized. Although the preservatives will help you keep the sauce for longer, the addition of peppers and vegetables to the sauce can limit the safe shelf life of the sauce. So, it is mandatory to thoroughly wash these ingredients before adding them to the sauce. Try to avoid the addition of any kind of salts to the sauce, as the oils can increase the risk of botulinum. Once prepared, keep the sauce in an air-tight bottle. Don’t forget to lower the pH of the sauce as certain bacteria can grow on high pH and spoil the sauce. To decrease the pH you can add some acidic ingredients to the sauce such as lemon extract, lemon juice, or lime.

3 measures that you should adopt to increase the shelf life of the hot sauce

Although hot sauce has a good shelf life, deterioration of the best quality over time is a natural phenomenon that you can never deny. To the least, you can adopt certain measures that may help you increase the shelf life of chili garlic sauce and assure you about the quality of the sauce. These measures include:

  1. Hot sauce can stay good for a month outside the fridge. But it will be better to keep it refrigerated. The refrigeration temperature will keep the sauce chilled and it will remain fresher for a longer time.
  2. The crusty junk on the cap of the hot sauce bottle shortens the shelf life of the sauce by encouraging the growth of microorganisms, including bacteria, by offering them both air and food. So, you should thoroughly rinse the cap of the bottle after using the sauce.
  3. Never dip food directly into the bottle of hot sauce to get your food coated with the sauce. Because it can contaminate the whole batch of the sauce.

How to bottle hot sauce?

To bottle hot sauce, it is important to bring the sauce to a vigorous boil so that it gets the temperature of 248 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature required for bottling the hot sauce. Take sterilized bottles in which you are going to add sauce and make sure that all the other equipment, such as the funnel, which will be used to transfer the sauce to the bottle is sterilized.

For safe bottling of hot sauce, remove one bottle at a time from the sterilizer, shake out any moisture inside the bottle, and then fill the sterilized bottle with the sauce. Once all the sauce is bottled, tighten the caps onto the bottles.

How long will bottled hot sauce last?

Properly bottled hot sauce with low pH can last in the pantry for 6 to 9 months if the bottle is unopened. Make sure that the bottle of hot sauce is stored in a cool dark location, away from the direct source of heat and light.

How to tell if the hot sauce has gone bad?

If the hygienic conditions were not maintained during the preparation of the sauce, or if the sauce was not kept under suitable storage conditions, it can easily go bad. Consuming a spoiled chili garlic sauce is not a good idea at all. So, you must know some telltale signs that may help you avoid the consumption of spoiled sauce. The important telltale signs are given below:

Smell

The conduction of sniff test is always helpful in deciding either something has gone bad or not. If you get any bad odor from the sauce, don’t consume such sauce. A bad or off odor is a clear indication of the fact that the sauce has gone bad.

Taste

Tasting a bit of the sauce can also tell you if it has gone bad or not. If you feel any deviation in the taste of the sauce from the original taste, it is better to discard such sauce.

Visual inspection

If you observe some dark spots in the sauce or if there is any mold formation, discard the sauce as it is no more good to be used.

Conclusion: 

In this brief guide, we answered the question “How to store hot sauce?”, discussed answers to other related questions like how long will bottled hot sauce last, and how to tell if the hot sauce has gone bad.

References: 

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