Great Taste In A Flash

By John Troy “Taste Wizard”


When it comes to processing organic salad dressings, sauces and condiments, there’s an easy way and there’s a right way. Because this organic food category always involves some combination of herbs and spices, bacteria and microbial content coming in on raw material is a constant concern.

For conventional processors that’s not a problem. A hardy dose of irradiation or post-harvest fumigants (methyl bromide, ethylene dibromide, and ethylene oxide) will wipe out most nasty microbes lurking on the surface of the spice. In further processing, they can use preservative like Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate.

For organic processors, wiping out the bacterial count on spices, which are known to carry high bacterial counts, is a lot more challenging. Artificial chemicals, preservatives and fumigants are forbidden forcing them to find alternative methods to battle bacteria.

Fortunately the acidity in ingredients such as vinegar and lemon juice, which are common to condiments, sauces and dressings, lowers the pH levels of a recipe to inhibit bacterial growth, reducing the risk of food borne illness – if they are added correctly. However, the presence of certain bacteria creates challenges. They lower the quality of the product, shorten the shelf life, and can even cause expansion in the bottle.

To ensure bacteria is eliminated from organic sauces, condiments and dressings, many organic processors take the easy way out by hot packing the product at the end of the process cycle. Through this simple method they mix and cook the product then cook the finished bottles to kill any remaining microbes. It’s an effective technique to sanitize the product, but it also sanitizes the flavor. Long exposure to heat leaches the taste out of these products, which were designed to add flavor to a meal. It over-cooks ingredients not intended to be cooked, softens the texture, and erases the flavor punch from an original recipe.

The alternative is a flash pasteurization/ cooling process using a heat exchanger system that rapidly brings a batch up to high temperatures then drops it down to a safe cool status. This limited high heat exposure kills the bacteria while preserving the flavor, texture, color and shelf life of a product. It’s just as effective as hot packing, but it’s not as easy to do.

It’s Got to Be Fast and Hot
At the Wizard’s Cauldron, two automated manufacturing lines provide hot-fill and cold-fill capabilities in glass or PET containers. Two small and three large kettles anchor the processing end of the production area, where batch sizes are as little as 100 gallons and up to more than 700 gallons in the two larger kettles. Each line batching operation is monitored continuously for time, temperature, weight of ingredients and other critical data under strict guidelines.

In every recipe formulation the acidic ingredients are added first, ensuring the pH levels in the formula will be kept low at all times. This is especially critical when you are rehydrating spices, which can have bacteria harbored within them. During the hydrating phase, the ingredient plumps up creating a boundary around that bacteria that gives it time to grow in a high pH environment. By the time the acidic ingredient penetrates that spice’s core, the bacteria may already being growing out of control, and it can take longer to balance the pH, which impacts the taste and adds potential risk to the product.

Once the aqueous phase ingredients are added and blended in special steam jacketed kettles, steam lines running into the kettles rapidly heat the product to just below boiling. After 10 minutes the steam is stopped and a valve is opened flushing 33 degree water through the bottom of the kettle. The water comes from coils surrounded by ice in a building adjacent to the processing area. The ice cold water rapidly cools the product as mixers push the liquid down to the kettle bottom, ensuring all of the product is equally cooled as quickly as possible. Using this system, a 600-gallon kettle can be cooled in as little as 15 minutes, which is fast enough to ensure pasteurization without impacting the flavor or quality of the product.

Avoiding the Thick and Thin
Another benefit of this process is that it brings the formula back to an appropriate temperature to add finishing ingredients, such as egg yolks and oil, which are adversely effected by high heat. If you add oil to a hot liquid it increases peroxide levels and shortens shelf life, while egg yolks will begin to cook and gel, causing an inconsistent texture in the product, making it more difficult to emulsify.

Proper emulsifying for a smooth finished texture can be difficult in an organic product. At Wizard’s Cauldron, we use sweep blades and high-sheer mixers that reduce the oil droplet size to as little as two microns to produce the exact emulsions needed for a variety of applications. The shearing needs to be performed during a cool aqueous phase or the product will reseperate, causing it to be runny.

Some processors accept the runniness and counteract it with thickening agents, such as corn starch or locust bean gum, but that can have the opposing effect of creating a goopy or overly thick product.

Cleanliness Is Everything
Because the heat exchange occurs at mid-formulation, you still run the risk of introducing bacteria downstream in the production process. For this reason, it is critical to keep the facility clean and sanitized at all times. An exhaustive cleaning, sanitation and sterile technique program has to be followed to ensure the safety and quality of any organic product. Organic production lines have to be cleaner than conventional facilities because we can’t rely on artificial preservative and chemicals to protect us.

In organic facilities, chemical sanitization is limited. Hydrogen peroxide is an allowable and an effective method for cleaning and purging production lines. At Wizard’s Cauldron, we wash the equipment and production lines and then sanitize with a hydrogen peroxide mix followed by a clean-water rinse to meet organic certification requirements, and occasionally conduct a chlorine bleach wash down cycle to ensure no bacteria are able to build up a resistance to the cleaning and sanitation process.

It may be easier to hot pack a bottled product at the end of the production cycle, avoiding the need for complicated pasteurization techniques and rigorous sanitization protocols, but easier isn’t always better. If you are going to take a perfect organic ingredient and make it the foundation of a product that you put your customer’s name on, it is your job to protect that ingredient. Don’t destroy its flavor and quality by cooking it to death. A true food artisan shelters the natural goodness of every ingredient to create a product that not only tastes better but is better for you, too.

The Latest Hot Ingredients
There are some ingredients whose unique flavor profile is the basis for an entire product, which means protecting their color, texture, and taste, is critical for the success of the brand. Every few years new ingredients win the hearts and palettes of finicky consumers, creating flavor fads that launch a host of new brands.

Consumer demand always has to be balanced with supply, which can be slow to come for uncommon organic ingredients. However, steady demand has pushed the following new ingredients into the organic condiment and dressing spotlight.

Pomegranates Add Punch: The rich ruby seeds from this leathery fruit add a tart flavor that is not as bitter as cranberry, but does have drying tannins that may need to be balanced by sweeteners. It adds a deep red color and sweet/sour taste, making it a hit for vinaigrettes and light fragrant sauces. While not readily available as a whole fruit, there are organic pomegranate concentrates on the market that impart the quality, color and flavor that is winning the hearts of consumers on the trail for the next big taste.

Chipotle Peppers Have Smokey Sex Appeal: These chocolate amber peppers are actually smoked jalapenos, but the smoking process creates a flavor profile almost unrelated to the original pepper. This chili has a wrinkled dark skin and a smoky, sweet flavor that wakes up the taste of barbecue sauces, wrap dressings and salad dressings; and is a good juxtaposition against sweet tastes, such as mangoes and raspberries.

White Balsamic Vinegar is the Clear Choice: Made in Modena Italy, like it’s red counterpart, white balsamic vinegar is made from reductions of white wines and imparts fruitier sweetness and lighter color to products. It is made with white grapes aged in special wood to take on a sweet, complex profile.

All Balsamic vinegar has the same acidic value as other vinegars – which is critical to balance the pH levels in a dressing or condiment – but they have less of the sour vinegar notes making them perfect for products with sweeter flavor profiles or those that don’t include oils.

Soy and Miso Fight Cancer and Add Flavor: Always popular flavors in Asian cooking, these traditionally-aged soy-derived ingredients are now commonly found in everything from barbecue sauces to Green Goddess dressing. These are some of the richest nutraceutical ingredients available and they blend perfectly into most sauces and condiments, combining great taste and health benefits in a single product.

Whether you are using an exotic hot pepper, or a condensed tomato paste, your goal should be to create great-tasting products rich in the things the earth offers and free of the contaminants that pollute conventional foods. If you have the integrity to produce an organic product, make sure it’s the best tasting product it can be.

John Troy “Taste Wizard” is CEO and organic taste wizard at The Wizard’s Cauldron, where his team creates winning recipes and produces more than 150 different products for customers who supply the organic food trade. His client list includes Whole Foods Market, Albert’s Organics, Charlie Trotter, Simply Delicious, Moosewood, Redbone and Melissa's. Contact The Wizard at johntroy@wizardscauldron.com, or visit www.wizardscauldron.com.