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Comment by bambax | Hacker News Reader

> In this way, Clostridium Botulinum shapes our modern food system. It is why (...) jarred sauces can sometimes have a harsh acidic note, particularly creamy sauces that are not naturally acidic.

Yes, I have noticed this many times. Tomato sauce is naturally acidic, but ready-made, bottled tomato sauce is much more acidic than what you can make from scratch.

Acidity can be fought by adding just a little baking soda.

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I've once gotten the advice of boiling it for at least fifteen minutes since the citric acid commonly used will break down at normal cooking temperatures.

Wikipedia lists its breakdown temperature at 175C so it's plausible but I don't know the temperatures at which tomato sauce boils.

Baking soda is fine too, but it can bring its own minerally flavor into your foods. So I'd use it sparingly.

Tomato sauce being mostly water it probably boils at around 100°C? I don't think you can have tomato sauce reach 175°C in a normal kitchen (the inside of a pressure cooker is about 120°C). In a deep fryer the oil goes to much higher temps but you can't keep anything watery inside (that's one of the points of deep frying: to remove water).

Or is it 175°F, which would be ~80°C?

In my experience just boiling a sauce doesn't reduce its acidity much; letting it simmer for hours can work wonders but it's a whole different approach.

Yes baking soda is very effective at small doses so just a pinch in a big pan of sauce is usually enough.

If boiling for a few minutes broke down the acid, wouldn’t it be pretty ineffective for use in canning? They boil it during canning.

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