Canning hot sauce using canned tomatoes?

10 years ago

last modified: 10 years ago

I am knee deep in Bhut Jalokia peppers (aka ghost chiles). I literally have hundreds that I have already harvested and many more still on the bush. I was not so fortunate with my tomato crop however, so I used canned tomatoes to make a bhut hot sauce using the following recipe:

3, 28oz cans Cento San Marzano tomatoes with juice

3 cups chopped yellow onions

2.5 cups chopped red bell pepper

18 whole ghost chiles, stemmed

6 cloves garlic

3 tbs sugar

1/2 C cider vinegar

About 2 cups water just to cover the ingredients while simmering

I brought these ingredients to a boil and then simmered them for 20 minutes. I then pureed it and filled my hot, sterilzed jars with the hot puree. I processed 7 pint jars for 20 minutes using the boiling water bath method.

My question is did I add enough vinegar? I know that I would have needed twice that much had I been using fresh tomatoes but the canned Marzanos already have citric acid added to them so I estimated that another half cup would be sufficient to lower the ph enough to make up for the non-acidic vegetables that were used.

Am I safe? Lol

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Comments (3)

crunkcrusher
Original Author
10 years ago
Here is a photo of my hot sauce...
digdirt2
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
<My question is did I add enough vinegar? I know that I would have needed twice that much had I been using fresh tomatoes but the canned Marzanos already have citric acid added to them so I estimated that another half cup would be sufficient to lower the ph enough to make up for the non-acidic vegetables that were used.>

Sorry but there is no way to know for sure without testing the pH. It is just guess work. The citric acid covered the tomatoes in the cans but it doesn't provide any coverage for other added vegetables. And since the sauce will likely be consumed without any further cooking to destroy any possible toxins, it is vital that the pH level be low enough.

The NCHFP approved recipe calls for Hot Sauce
- 8 cups (64 ounces) canned, diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1½ cups seeded, chopped Serrano peppers*
- 4 cups distilled white vinegar (5%)
  
  No onions and no garlic.
  
  The NCHFP Chili Sauce recipe calls for
  
  5 lbs tomatoes (as purchased)
  
  2 lbs chile peppers (as purchased)
  
  1 lb onions (as purchased)
  
  1 cup vinegar (5 percent)
  
  Other hot sauce recipes I looked up all call for at least 1 cup and some call for 2 1/2 cups (one even calls for 3 cups). So best guess is that you are very low on the amount of vinegar. Even if you re-do it and add more vinegar (at least 1/2 cup) there is still no way to know for sure without testing it but it would be safer at least.
Dave
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crunkcrusher
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you for your reply Dave.

That first recipe has a LOT of vinegar in it considering the ingredients. Since it also calls for canned tomatoes it is pretty obvious that the excessive vinegar is for flavoring rather than safety.

The second recipe is pretty close to what I am using and it calls for fresh tomatoes, which have no added citric acid. Taking that into consideration and because it only calls for 1 cup of vinegar I would think that an additional 1/2 cup of vinegar would do the trick.

I'm going to see if I can find a ph test kit tomorrow and i'll test it on some of the sauce that was leftover. I'll update after that.