BBQ sauce help

cook 17,
only thing i can think of is to water bath can it. it has a high acid level and this has worked well for me. i can give you a range but it is based on the quart sized jars. past that you might have to pressure can to be safe.
to water bath in a large pot bring enough water to the boil to cover the tops of the jars by at least one inch. fill your jars and dog down the bands and put in water for 20 mins after it returns to the boil. take out and wait to hear the top go ting. check all lids to make sure they are down. no refrigeration need after this until opened.
been doing this for past 20 years with no problems but never above the size of a quart jar.
you might want to ask ball mason jars this question though as i am sure they can help. another good resource is your county extension person (they are the only ones i dont mind sending tax money to)
hope this helped
jack
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!
ps. it was the canned bbq sauce that got us into so much trouble lol. now we are waiting on our trailer tech rig and an sm150 and fec100 all because people bought my sauce

My sauce will stand for over 6 months. In a batch of about 4.5 gallons there is about 2 pounds of brown sugar, 1.5 cups each of apple cidar vinegar and lemon juice. Perhaps it is one or both of these along with 3 #10 cans of ketchup and other spices and simple ingredients that prevent fermentation. The ph is 3.5.

Maybe this'll help you...but I am not knowledgeable of why it doesn't ferment.

Hi Cap'n Pete
Do you think that it is the vinegar and lemon that helps it from fermentation? do you cook yours for any length of time? Thanks Cook17

Cook17...

Doesn't make sense to me why you're getting fermentaion after you refrigerate...perhaps you're getting some sort of contamination!!??!!

Even the lemon juice I use in my sauce should ferment but doesn't, probably because of how much ketchup I use and the vinegar!

Perhaps you can get it tested for ph. A bottler I may use will not bottle if the ph is out of a range.

Let me know what you conclude if you ever do!

Good luck

Do you have any problems with other products. Perhaps it is a refrigeration temperature issue or maybe the sauce sits out at room temp more than you think. Since you are making the sauce yourself it probably doesn't have any preservatives in it (except for ketchup or do you use tomato sauce?). Therefore it would be much more likely to ferment if you brought it in and out of the cooler alot. Just a thought.

cooler temp 34-36 degrees,tomato sauce, I started to put vinegar back into my sauce and so far ok. Thanks Cook17

I use 1 kg of turbinado sugar per gallon of ketchup, 1/2 cup of prepared mustard, and 3 cups of worcestershire, 1 cup red wine vinegar, cumin, pepper, garlic powder and salt. Never had a fermentation problem.

The first thing I would look at is how you are cooling your sauce before it hits the refrigeration - what you're describing is probably spoilage caused by bacterial growth rather than fermentation due to yeast. Just like soups, sauces need to be cooled very quickly after cooking to get it out of the temperature danger zone (straight from the pot to the cooler or even a freezer doesn't do it, and in fact can endanger other foods.) Are you using cooling paddles like a Rapi-Kool (big long water filled paddles you fill with water and freeze and then stick in your sauce pot to cool it down before refrigerating it.) If not, definitely do so (and monitor those temps religiously) if you can't afford a blast freezer.

Baudtender

If you don't can it with waterbath or pressure, stick it in the refrigerator in small amounts. Cool it quickly, freeze it if you aren't going to use it right away, although freezing changes the taste and texture. The higher the acid level, the safer you are without processing. Any sugar will lead itself to fermentation when you combine it with warm temperatures. Maybe you don't need to make so much at a time.
Peggy
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!

i agree with the lemon and vinegar. they help tremendously. another thing is to add about a 16 ounces of a bland (or not) pre-made sauce. this will add preservatives that the big boys use.