Homemade sauces make great holiday gifts. If you have a great recipe for marinara, barbeque or any other sauce, why not cook a batch, place them in jars and send them to friends and loved ones. Leakages, broken jars and other shipping nightmares can be avoided if you follow proper packing techniques. Here are some helpful tips on how to pack and ship homemade sauces.
Place your homemade sauce into jars or containers with air-tight lids. The sauce should be completely cooled down before putting the lids on to prevent condensation that can cause bacterial growth and spoilage.
Use jars that are made of thick glass as these can handle stress more than fragile thin ones.
Once the lids are tightly in place, use tape to completely seal the container and prevent any leakage.
For short distance shipping, wrap the sealed jar in a couple of layers of bubble wrap and secure with tape. Place the jar in a sturdy shipping box with packing peanuts in the bottom, then fill the box with more packaging material until there is no more space for the jar to move around.
If packing multiple bottles in one package, arrange the bubble-wrapped jars in a shipping box with spaces in between them to allow for packing materials. Fill the empty spaces with packing peanuts. It should be well-packed to restrict the jars from moving and hitting each other during transit.
When shipping long distances, packing in an insulated cooler is the best option to ensure that the sauces remain fresh. Place ice packs inside the package and fill empty spaces with packing materials.
Close the cooler and seal with packaging tape. Place the cooler in a slightly larger shipping box and fill the spaces in between the two boxes with packing materials. Close and seal the box with packaging tape.
Address and label the box and take to a shipping company immediately. Choose overnight delivery or the quickest option available to keep the sauce fresh.
When you ship homemade sauces, don’t forget to inform the recipient about the incoming package so someone is around to receive it when it arrives.