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I saw in the answers to this question that acid (like vinegar) is necessary to properly preserve hot sauce, and many other answers here similarly say that a low pH is necessary for safe canning of other things. But what if I'm pressure canning hot sauce, or anything else? Do I still need acid? Are there any pH requirements, or is proper pressure canning simply always safe?
Related question: how can I determine canning processing times?
No, additional acid is not absolutely required for pressure canning, as is demonstrated by this recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preserving for green beans. Similarly, the existence of low acid commercial canned products such as chicken broth demonstrates that acid is not absolutely required when pressure-canning.
Processing for a sufficient time at a high enough temperature/pressure will render the food safe for storage.
However, as a practical matter for home canning, I re-iterate the standard advise to only use trusted recipes from highly reputable sources.
