We all love sriracha sauce, but can you recreate that Huy Fong flavor at home? Joshua Bousel of Serious Eats came up with a recipe, and that is a story in itself. He did the research, bought pounds of red jalapeños and Fresno peppers to compare, fermented them with different types of sugar, and went through several methods of pureeing and straining them to get just the right consistency. All those attempts, and only the successes made it into the final recipe. Fermenting the peppers with garlic, salt, and sugar takes about a week.
Is the hassle worth it? It depends. The finished product has a fresher taste than the sriracha you would buy at a grocery store, but that alone would not be worth the time involved. This is a project you do because you love doing projects like this. Serving homemade sriracha to guests with a homemade label on it might add to your culinary reputation, too. Read about the experimentation, and get the final recipe at Serious Eats.
(Image credit: Serious Eats/Qi Ai)