Comments on: Artisanal DIY Sriracha: HOWTO homebrew "rooster sauce," without the chemical preservatives

By: Sparg

Sparg — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:03:00 +0000

I recommend the El Yucateco Salsa Kutbil-ik de Chile Habanero. Killer flavor and heat!

By: Tim Westbrook

Tim Westbrook — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 01:23:00 +0000

I Think CliffordS might be talking about this other cock sauce, which is very yummy on chicken bbq, but not really sriracha. http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/garlic.htm

By: Aurvondel

Aurvondel — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:17:00 +0000

Huh, do you have an actual brand in mind?
Almost all of the Thai sriracha brands (like Shark Brand, Por Kwan, or Sriracha Panich) I’ve bad are actually runnier than the US-made Huy Fong. They’re also almost always smooth and without chunks.

By: Gyrofrog

Gyrofrog — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:53:00 +0000

On the opposite side of the coin, watch out where you daub that mentholatum.

By: blueelm

blueelm — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:10:00 +0000

TBF I think the Rooster brand could slap a gluten free on there. Believe it or not though, sauces are often assumed to be gluten free when they’re not so I can’t really say I’m surprised that it is stated explicitly.

By: kringlebertfistyebuns

kringlebertfistyebuns — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:58:00 +0000

I’m all for people learning how to prepare and preserve foods, and very much for people taking an interest in where their food comes from. But this is fetishization of food. Sriracha is excellent stuff, but at the end of the day, it’s just…chili sauce.

Every time I read about this kind of stuff, I am always reminded of Garrison Keillor’s “95 Theses 95″:

“I pour a round of Lowenbrau, being careful not to pour along the side but straight down so the beer can express itself, and they say, ‘Did you ever try Dockendorf?’ It’s made by the Dockendorf family from hand-pumped water in their ancient original family brewery in an unspoiled Pennsylvania village where the barley is hauled in by Amish families who use wagons with oak beds. Those oak beds give Dockendorf its famous flavor. These beer bores, plus the renovators of Victorian houses, the singer-songwriters, the runners, the connoisseurs of northern Bengali cuisine, the collectors of everything Louis Armstrong recorded between August 1925 and June 1928, his seminal period–they are driving me inexorably toward life as a fat man in a bungalow swooning over sweet-and-sour pork. You drove me toward them.“

By: kringlebertfistyebuns

kringlebertfistyebuns — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:48:00 +0000

“Gluten-free” sriracha? Seriously?

If that isn’t emblematic of the triumph of marketing over substance, I dunno what is.

As for the regular stuff, the preservatives in it are pretty minimal. A little potassium sorbate (mold/fermentation inhibitor), and a little sodium bisulfite (oxidation preventer). Similar things are in many commercially-prepared juices, wines, and hard ciders.

By: TripleE78

TripleE78 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:47:00 +0000

My wife and I buy El Yucateco by the case from the latin market. It is that good.

By: Jim Nelson

Jim Nelson — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:07:00 +0000

You have to go online to find anything except in a few places – here in Richmond, nobody stocks the good stuff. larger cities are better – my parents came back from Oregon with a gift for me from one of the hot sauce specialty stores. It holds place of pride in my kitchen now.

By: Dorkomatic

Dorkomatic — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:15:00 +0000

Artisanal? Yes, I know what it means; but the word still troubles me.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 08:51:00 +0000

But… it was 96° here less than a week ago. I’m not sure that those rules apply.

By: PKMousie

PKMousie — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:09:00 +0000

we call it bird squirt

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:10:00 +0000

It’s not REAL asparagus. That is only around in the (local) Springtime. (Sorry, just a bit of food-snobbery).

By: Marc Mielke

Marc Mielke — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:05:00 +0000

Meh. The pain only lasts a little while, and it feels SO GOOD when it stops! (Had a bit of an Icy Hot accident myself last night.)

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:48:00 +0000

Where is there not asparagus? The supermarket has it. Trader Joe’s has it.

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:41:00 +0000

Tell me where you get aparagus this time of year. Do you live south of the equator? :)

By: Guest

Guest — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:03:00 +0000

Seriously, someone please ask them how they can handle peppers all day long without gloves and not get second degree burns.

By: cstatman

cstatman — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 02:28:00 +0000

and? the Oatmeal link – http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha

By: cstatman

cstatman — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 02:27:00 +0000

great. thank you Xeni. thank you for introducing me to something I never knew existed; artisan Sriracha, that I very much want right NOW. Sriracha, makes EVERYTHING better. (but don’t use it as lube!)

By: Cary Allen

Cary Allen — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 01:49:00 +0000

I never quite got the cult following with Sriracha, considering the variety of peppers in the world and the concoctions made with them that thickly populate the shelves of Asian and other specialty stores. There is no ‘perfect,’ best for all occasions hot sauce as far as I’m concerned. Let a thousand fires burn.

By: scatterfingers

scatterfingers — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:54:00 +0000

I do like Frank’s, except that it’s pretty mild.

By: rrh

rrh — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:10:00 +0000

Well, someone’s doing it themselves. My disappointment was the all caps HOW TO apparently goes:
1) Develop your own proprietary recipe after months of experimentation
2) Follow that recipe

By: John Verne

John Verne — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:01:00 +0000

I knew a guy, took a bet to eat it on pie: http://www.zuckervati.com/archives/2005/12/the-sriracha-in.html.

By: ethicalcannibal

ethicalcannibal — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:45:00 +0000

I love Cholula for soups. Not to make it spicy, but to give it a boost in flavor.

By: devophill

devophill — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:41:00 +0000

“Ninja sriracha master”. It’s funny, because Asians are ninjas.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:38:00 +0000

And looking at three adult New Yorkers with bandannas over their faces made you expect….. what?

By: E T

E T — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:54:00 +0000

Are bandanas considered clean enough for commercial food production?

By: blueelm

blueelm — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:27:00 +0000

Oh man, now I have something I need to try…

By: blueelm

blueelm — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:25:00 +0000

I put it in my bloody mary. I put on celery. I put it in my soup. Sriracha is heaven.

By: blueelm

blueelm — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:24:00 +0000

I have some “organic” gluten free sriracha that I am pretty happy about, and which also comes in a squirt bottle. Sky Valley I think is the name?

And if you’re wondering I bought it because I thought… maybe it’ll taste good! I’m not sure really whether the amount of preservatives in the normal cock sauce are that significant. What I do know is the stuff tastes pretty good.