• Recipes
• Sauces, marinades and dressings
• Hot sauces
• Homemade sriracha

I began experimenting with homemade Sriracha two summers ago after discovering Joshua Bousel's recipe on Serious Eats (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/02/sriracha-recipe-from-scratch.html). The first batch, while tasty in its own right, was bright and in-your-face hot, and missing the earthiness of the beloved Huy Fong version. I spent the rest of my summer on a quest for an earthier, more complex sauce. By fall, I’d found it. <br /> <br />The keys to this much improved homemade Sriracha were the following: A longer fermentation, achieved by increasing the amount of sugar. Using smoked sea salt in addition to regular kosher salt. Thickening with xanthan gum instead of reducing the sauce over heat. And the change that made the biggest difference: mixing in some green jalapeños and serranos. The milder green peppers mellowed out the up-front heat that was present in earlier versions, bringing balance to the sauce. <br /> <br />The result is a sauce that is a bit hotter than the Huy Fong version, but with all the earthy complexities that make it so darn tasty. And while this is a recipe, it should also be considered a framework. Feel free to experiment with different peppers. Adjust the type and amount of sugar. Try other vinegars. Let it become your obsession too. <br /> <br />Also, a few tips: Wear food-safe gloves when working with the hot pepper mash. Some sort of eye protection doesn’t hurt either. (I didn’t bother with this for a while, but then I had a rogue bit of hot pepper juice splash right into my eye this summer. So yeah, eye gear.) And covering your face with something when you’re washing the food processor bowl and fermentation jar is also a good idea, otherwise you’ll be breathing in hot pepper vapor.

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