bottling a BBQ sauce

[Larry Evers]

I want to bottle a bbq sauce for family and friends but don't have a clue on how to do it. I'm sure there is more to it than putting it into a bottle and screwing a cap on. Can anyone help? I pocked around on Google awhile but came up with nothing.

 

[Chris Allingham]

The term to search for is "co-packer" and "co-packing."

Here's a link to get you started:

http://www.fiery-foods.com/zine-industry/choose.html

Regards,
Chris

 

[Jim C]

Larry,

Bottling your own would be rather easy.
I guess I should say, canning your own.
Amazon.com has a nice canning
kit for about ten bucks.
BBQ Sauce has a very high acid content
so you wouldn't need a pressure cooker.
Just a hot water bath.
If you don't like those Kerr or Ball
canning jars, you can get some nice
flip top bottles from home brewing
supplies. I use these for my marinades
and salad dressings.
Then you will want to put a fancy lable
on it.
You can download some Freeware lable
making software.
But first off, check out this site.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/clay53.html

Jim

 

[Konrad Haskins]

If you don't ship across state lines there is less to worry about than if you do, like federal regulations. If you don't find a co-packer in California drop me a line I have a great one here in Washington.

The other thing is to get a scale good to 0.1 grams and weigh everything so your recipe is easy to scale. I ended up with two from ebay as the 0.1g resolution is very capacity limited.

Drop me an email if you have any questions.

 

[Theresa L]

One word of caution re: bottling bbq sauce. BBQ sauce in general has a high enough acid content not to have to worry about botulism; however, when it comes to giving sauce away, you need to be absolutely SURE it's safe. I could possibly imagine someone coming up with a recipe for a glaze or sauce where the pH isn't low enough.

More information on canning/food preserving is in the Ball Blue Book of canning; it's usually sold where canning supplies are sold. I see it at the local Ace hardware all the time. It's a great book for beginning canners and it has recipes that give you an idea of how much acidity is necessary for safe preservation.

I've played around with canning in the past and have purchased pH test paper with high sensitivity around the necessary range and have found it useful, at the very least, for my own peace of mind.

Theresa