Specifically, I'm looking at horseradish sauce. I love to make my own, and would like to be able to can some up and make it shelf stable for later use. However, horseradish loses it's heat after a (not too long) time, and the heat required to pressure can it would ruin the taste and heat.

So how do they do it with the stuff they sell in the stores? I've looked at the ingredients, and many don't list any preservatives. Additionally, there does seem to be some suction when opening them the first time, so obviously they are pressure canned somehow. But how?

Is it only a $200K type machine that'll do it, or is it a process that I can replicate at home?

The non refrigerated types do have preservatives such as sodium benzoate I believe, it’s the refrigerated kinds that don’t have preservatives?

There are some ways of packaging sterilized food that have less impact on the food than pressure canning.

If cooking horseradish kills the heat, and the jarred horseradish is using the same horseradish with nothing else added and still has the heat, they must be doing something else.

I am far from an expert, but based on my limited familiarity, I think the main commercial processing method for heat-sensitive foods is “aseptic processing,” which is basically like ultra-high temperature pasteurized milk - in a commercially sterile environment, you superheat the food for a short period of time and seal it in pre-sterilized containers. It can range from heating the food basically the same way pressure canning does to spraying pressurized steam through the food to heat it to 300 degrees for 2 seconds and flash chilling it (weirdly, super high heat for super short durations can cause less change to the food than lower temperatures for longer).

It isn’t something you can easily do at home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aseptic_processing

Most of the other commercial food processing methods I am aware of are functionally equivalent to canning or pressure canning but done differently to achieve higher processing volume.

Radiation?

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Radiation?

Absolutely a viable option for large companies. Gamma irradiation sterilization is used in food and bio pharmaceuticals.

I like horseradish and will very occasionally eat it, but I don't regularly eat the foods that it goes well on (at least I don't regularly eat roast beef.)

So, my comments are more towards condiments in general. I've got packets of them...as in hundreds. From years ago.

I got in the habit of saving them, mostly for hunting, camping, backpacking trips, but also...my waste not, want not philosophy.

Unfortunately, some condiments do go bad over time. Last year I sorted through a few hundred stored in buckets, unrefrigerated. The ones that contained vinegar were the worst affected. Mostly mustards, hot sauces, salsas. Ketchup will last much longer, but will eventually separate and go bad. Soy sauce, jellies/ jams, syrups, seem to last a long time.

I've since switched to storing some of my packets in the refrigerator and, so far, they seemed to last much longer.

I've got packets of honey from probably ten years or more that has gotten very hard, but putting it into hot water I've liquefied it to the point where I can squeeze it into a cup of tea or hot chocolate or coffee. It isn't quite the same consistency or taste, a little like toffee, but still more than good enough for an occasional sweetener.

I always assumed that either the superheating process described by maladat or some sort of vacuum sealing machine was used for food preservation in sealed jars.

It's amazing what we don't know about how the foods we eat are packaged or preserved.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
I've got packets of them...as in hundreds. From years ago.

Interestingly, if the condiments were sealed in metal cans or glass jars, they’d probably still be fine.

I have a friend who is a chemical engineer that works for a company that (among other things) makes plastic food packaging. One of the primary concerns with plastic food packaging is the rate at which oxygen diffuses through the plastic.

Assuming the processing is done right, what is in the packaging should be sterile (no live microbes), and no microbes should be able to make it through the packaging. However, as oxygen makes it through the packaging, chemical oxidation reactions will occur and break down stuff in the food.

Cans and jars have essentially no oxygen transport through the packaging, and have effectively unlimited shelf life as long as the packaging isn’t damaged.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
I've got packets of honey from probably ten years or more that has gotten very hard, but putting it into hot water I've liquefied it to the point where I can squeeze it into a cup of tea or hot chocolate or coffee. It isn't quite the same consistency or taste, a little like toffee, but still more than good enough for an occasional sweetener.

Honey - actual honey with nothing added or done to it - does not ever go bad. The consistency can change, but it doesn’t ever go unsafe.

Archaeologists have found honey sealed in Egyptian tombs for thousands of years that is still fine.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com...-shelf-life-1218690/

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
some sort of vacuum sealing

Vacuum sealing, by itself, is not generally a viable way to make food shelf-stable.

Lack of oxygen will prevent some harmful molds and bacteria from growing, but others ONLY cause problems in an oxygen-free environment.

Of particular concern is the bacteria Clostridium botulinum, which doesn’t really do anything in the presence of oxygen, but in an oxygen-free environment produces botulinum toxin (the cause of botulism), the single most potent neurotoxin known.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
I like horseradish and will very occasionally eat it, but I don't regularly eat the foods that it goes well on (at least I don't regularly eat roast beef.)

You need to broaden your horizons a bit with respect to horseradish.

It's great on rib eye, hot dogs, brats, essentially every tubular sausage, deviled eggs, bloody marys, the list is endless.