Preserving Syrups And Sauces In Bottles

[Seagrape]

I assume that homemade syrups and sauces--such as chocolate, berry syrups and ketchup and pepper sauces--can be preserved by home canning methods. I want to make chocolate and elderberry syrups and tomato ketchup and hot sauces this year and preserve them in glass bottles such as the ones shown at this site http://www.ebottles.com/showbottles.asp?familyid=334 not Mason jars. Some of these bottles (e.g. the barbecue sauce bottle) are available with metal lids and some (e.g. the Woozy bottle) have plastic lids and shrink wraps to cover the lids.

 

All the syrup instructions I have found say to keep it in the fridge but I have not found any info anywhere about safe methods to preserve using glass bottles. Will the sugar re-crystalize? Has anyone on this forum ever preserved sauces and syrups using glass bottles? Does anyone know how to do it safely? Is it possible to home preserve safely using the plastic lids and shrink wrap?

 

I know these are a lot of questions but I haven't found any info on preserving this way and I was thinking that sauces and syrups in bottles would be a nice change for gifts other than salsa and jellies in the traditional Mason jars.

[Canned Nerd]

There is no safe method to home 'can' in other than mason jars and the 2-piece lids. You cannot duplicate the expensive equipment and procedures used by companies making commercial bottled products.

 

Yet there will always be people who like to defy the rules and try such things anyway, and to heck with safety and potential poisoning, etc. That decision is up to you.

 

You can make anything you want an store it in the refrigerator, which is what I do when I make my own condiments, or I preserve them in canning jars for long storage and refill smaller containers in the frig.

 

 

[susie]

Originally Posted By: Canned Nerd

There is no safe method to home 'can' in other than mason jars and the 2-piece lids. You cannot duplicate the expensive equipment and procedures used by companies making commercial bottled products.

Yet there will always be people who like to defy the rules and try such things anyway, and to heck with safety and potential poisoning, etc. That decision is up to you.

You can make anything you want an store it in the refrigerator, which is what I do when I make my own condiments, or I preserve them in canning jars for long storage and refill smaller containers in the frig.

I beg to differ. I have spent hours with several local canned goods producers, and now I use the same jars and procedures as they do....which is way cheaper, to say the least.

[Canned Nerd]

You of course are free to differ and since you are in France more power to you, but here in the United States I study and most abide by the USDA standards and the guidelines of the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

 

What you can do and what you should do are not always the same.

 

 

 

[Aint2nuts]

I agree CN -- there are often many ways to do something, some ways having more risk associated with them that others.

 

I will stick to approved methods of water bath canning and leave dangerous stuff to Susie. *grin*

[Violet]

There aren't any safe chocolate sauces to can other than one that is mixed with raspberries. The raspberries make it acidic enough. Just plain chocolate sauce is not safe to can, it must be frozen for long term storage.

Also, there is no way to process and get a seal with the bottles and plastic lids.

Here in the USA, as mentioned, only the regular canning jars with the 2 piece lids are considered safe to use. The bottles you are looking at are for the commercial industry to be used with their equipment and chemical additives in their foods.

 

 

[Seagrape]

I'm not trying to be argumentative--just trying to get the straight skinny on safe food preservation, so please don't be exasperated with me for asking this question. It is my understanding that a high sugar content (as well as a low pH) will prevent, or at least, inhibit, the growth of the botulinum bacterium . Thus, why would it not be safe to can a high sugar chocolate syrup?

[Violet]

Sugar is only a preservative in concentrations at least approx. 50 percent or more, like in a jam. (It is more like 65 percent sugar) Plus, it must be a high acid fruit. Chocolate is very high in ph. It is a not a low acid food, by any means. Way to high in ph to be canned by itself.

 

Canning Chocolate Sauces Unsafe

Brian A. Nummer, Ph.D.

National Center for Home Food Preservation

July 2003

 

Numerous recipes for chocolate sauces circulate on the internet and in newsgroups. Chocolate sauces are low acid recipes and are a risk for botulism food poisoning. Therefore any recipes that use the boiling water canning process are especially at risk. Furthermore, there are no science-based, tested recipes for chocolate sauces utilizing the pressure canning process in either the “USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning” (1994), the University of Georgia’s “So Easy to Preserve” (1999), or in publications from land grant University partners in the Cooperative Extension System.

 

Instead of canning, freeze your chocolate sauce recipe

 

Freezer Chocolate Fudge Sauce

½ cup margarine or butter

2 ½ cups sugar

3 squares (3 ounces) unsweetened chocolate

12 oz. can evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt margarine in the top of a double boiler. Add chocolate and melt, while constantly stirring. Add sugar gradually, ¼ cup at a time, while stirring. Then add salt. Next, stir milk in gradually and finally add the vanilla. Cook until desired thickness – approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

 

Pour sauce into a clean, warm, wide-mouth quart jar or similar freezer-safe container(s). Allow the sauce to cool at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours. Seal and freeze.

 

The sauce should remain soft enough to spoon out portions while frozen.

 

Works Cited

Cooperative Extension Service. 1999. "So Easy To Preserve," 4th ed. Bulletin 989. The University of Georgia.

 

USDA. 1994. Complete guide to home canning. Agriculture Information Bulletin No.539. Washington, DC: CSREES-U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

 

 

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This material is based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 00-51110-9762.

 

Document Use:

 

Permission is granted to reproduce these materials in whole or in part for educational purposes only (not for profit beyond the cost of reproduction) provided the authors and the University of Georgia receive acknowledgment and this notice is included:

 

 

[Violet]

I was going to add that the high sugar in jams binds up the available water for bacteria growth. Called "water activity". In a chocolate syrup, you would also have to much water, so the bacteria would grow in that high ph condition.