
Sriracha Hot Sauce Catches Fire - sharkweek
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-21/sriracha-hot-sauce-catches-fire-with-only-one-rooster#p1
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robomartin
People who are not into hot sauces don't understand the idea that a hot sauce
can actually have great flavor. In most cases they think it just burns. Huy
Fong Sriracha is a great example of a great hot sauce with good flavor. At the
extreme there's "Dave's Insanity", a sauce that is probably able to send you
to the hospital yet, if used in moderation, has great flavor.

Tabasco? Really? Yuk. I can't understand why any self-respecting restaurant
would even offer it.

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jlgreco
As worthless as Tabasco is as a hot sauce (very), I think it works decently as
a ketchup replacement. On french-fries, chicken nuggets, that sort of thing.

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homosaur
Yeah it's not great on it's own but it's a great ingredient. It also makes
ketchup quite a bit better the twice a year I want it on something.

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c4urself
I read about halfway through the article before I realized they weren't
talking about sriracha literally catching fire. Good read nonetheless.

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mutagen
Yes, and I'm disappointed that they didn't share the photo of the astronauts
with Sriracha that they kept talking about, I assume this is it:
[http://meflyrocket.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/dinnerontheis...](http://meflyrocket.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/dinnerontheiss.jpg)

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jlgreco
Wow, I was under the impression that they had to use special packaging for all
of their food to keep crumbs/droplets at bay. That almost looks like a normal
food setup, besides all the velcro.

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derekp7
I read an article recently about "space cuisine", which dispelled this myth --
it used to be that way, but what they go for now is more sticky stuff --
crumbs are still bad, but something like meatloaf with gravy would be fine.

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mindcrime
Most hot-sauce (especially the hotter kinds) don't taste good at all. I
attribute that to the heavy use of Habanero pepper, which is pretty damn hot,
but Habaneros don't actually taste very good.

I've discovered a nice combination, however, that can be both hotter and taste
better. Scotch Bonnet peppers[1] are widely used in the Caribbean Islands, and
are _almost_ , but not quite, as hot as as Habaneros, but they taste MUCH
better. OTOH, Naga Jolokia "Ghost Pepper" peppers[2] are much hotter than
Habaneros, and taste, well... not any _worse_ than Habaneros, at worst. So, if
you want to jazz something up to nuclear hot levels and keep it tasting good,
load it down with Scotch Bonnet and then add just a few drips of Naga Jolokia
pepper sauce.

This has become my "go to" combination for making really hot tex-mex type
dishes, curries, etc. Yumm....

FWIW, my favorite brand for both (at least partly because it's available
retail locally) is the "Tropical Pepper Co. brand)[3][4].

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_bonnet_%28pepper%29>

[2]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naga_Bhut_Jolokia>

[3]: <http://tropicalpepper.com/product.asp?idProduct=94>

[4]: <http://tropicalpepper.com/product.asp?idProduct=135>

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mgcross
I think habanero peppers have a great flavor, but the heat usually overpowers
them. Removing the seeds and gills, and adding vinegar and/or carrots can tame
the heat.

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JoshTriplett
You'd probably really enjoy Secret Aardvark, then:
<http://www.secretaardvark.com/>

Reasonable heat level, really good flavor. They're not kidding when they say
"dump on everything". Not the kind of hot sauce where you put a few drops for
heat; this is the kind you can use several tablespoons of at a sitting.

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vinhboy
"Tran’s only supplier for the past 20 years has been Underwood Family Farms,
an hour north of L.A" -- This is a pretty cool little factoid. I would have
never guessed. A successful, locally made product, that does not need to sell
itself as a "Whole Foods" type of ingredient.

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parsnips
Amazing that good products sell on their own, and don't need incessant
moralizing about buying local.

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ahmadss
or massive, multi-million dollar ad buys and "agency of records" to promote
the product.

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autarch
I live in Minneapolis, which has a ridiculous large number of Vietnamese
restaurants. Pretty much every one of them has Huy Fong sriracha on the table.

I don't know how long it's been common here, but it's been a long time.
Honestly, it never occurred to me that there are places where people don't
know about sriracha. It'd be like not knowing about soy sauce.

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jawngee
Weird, I grew up in Minneapolis, but now am in NYC and live half the year in
Vietnam. No Huy Fong brand sriracha in Vietnam though.

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wildgift
It was created in the US by a Chinese Vietnamese American. It's jalapeno
chiles. They don't have it in Vietnam.

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autarch
It's actually a Thai sauce, so I'm not sure you'd expect to find it in
Vietnam. It's just really common in Vietnamese restaurants in Minneapolis
here.

See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha_sauce>

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stuff4ben
First, I've never heard it referred to as "Rooster Sauce", it's always been
"Cock Sauce". Maybe I need to hang out with some higher class folks.

Second, while it's great on lots of Asian foods (Korean BBQ comes to mind
along with Pho), I tend to prefer stuff like Texas Pete or Tabasco. I live in
the South, so maybe that's why. A little Texas Pete on some pulled pork
(vinegar-based) and collards makes it just right.

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snarfy
Sriracha is for asian food. Tapatio is for mexican food.

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desigooner
Try mixing some Sriracha in Mayonaise and slather it on a sandwich or have it
with fries. Great combo IMO

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gareim
That's actually how a lot of sushi restaurants make their spicy mayo sauce.
Learned it from a chef and I tried it at home to great success!

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hudibras
I love this article from 2009, especially the description of the drunks
dialing the phone number on the front of the bottle to leave slurred messages
of love.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html?pagew...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html?pagewanted=all)

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jmeekr
Does anyone else experience that Businessweek has a 'laggy' site? In chrome -
every once in a while my page fails to completely load and scrolling is
frozen.

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quasse
I think they must have some broken Javascript or CSS on the page, I had to
resize my window to get the scroll bar to show up, despite the article
extending well below the bottom of the window.

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chrismealy
And it's vegan: <http://www.isitvegan.com/2010/10/09/is-sriracha-sauce-vegan/>

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bane
My wife makes some kind of super addicting baked chicken thighs using a sauce
mixed partially of Sriracha and Korean Gochujang [1]

I don't know what it is in that mix, but you pretty much can't stop eating
once you start it. I have relative, 3 or 4 years after trying a single piece
of it, ask if they can have it when they come visit.

[1] - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang>

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lucasjans
I've been living in Vietnam for 3 months. At first when eating phở I noticed
something was off. It took a few weeks to place the problem: no sriracha! Here
they serve tương ớt that tastes more sweet than spicy and has the consistency
similar to jello.

So a few weeks ago I found an import store that supplies a sriracha sauce from
Thailand. Quite similar to Huy Fong's version... And enough to my
"international" phở taste the way i like it.

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BryantD
Also, suits are making a comeback! See also
<http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html>. On the other hand, we like
sriracha more than suits, for the most part.

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Scramblejams
Single page version here:

[http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/98238-sriracha-...](http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/98238-sriracha-
hot-sauce-catches-fire-yet-theres-only-one-rooster)

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cmckay
I'm surprised they didn't mention the best tribute to sriracha of all:
<http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha>

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hudibras
Uh, they did. There were a couple paragraphs on it.

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mattmaroon
I love how this article mentions that sriracha is shelf stable without the
fact that it's due to the addition of Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Bisulfite.
If you're willing to add that you can probably make anything last on a
countertop, but alas they've removed it from my diet as a result.

Anyone know of a respectable all-natural version?

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jlgreco
The concern should not be with "naturalness" but rather with toxicology. There
are plenty of substances found in nature that will have you on the floor, and
many substances which are not that are perfectly safe. "Is it found in nature"
is a _really_ bad heuristic for assessing toxicology, I'm actually having
trouble thinking of a worse way to do it.

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mattmaroon
This comment is silly and representative of why HN sucks these days. The
natural ingredients of sriracha are peppers, sugar, garlic, vinegar, and salt.
I'm fairly confident of their non-toxicity. Any heurestics other than not
eating the two ingredients I mentioned were entirely of your own imagining.

I am reasonably certain that Potassium Sorbate is bad for me, and 100% certain
it isn't beneficial.

~~~
jlgreco
If your concern is with those particular substances, for reasons other than
the fact that they are not natural, that is fine, but that was not my take-
away from _"Anyone know of a respectable all-natural version?"_. Apologies if
I misunderstood your concern, but I don't think my misunderstanding was
particularly unreasonable.

~~~
mattmaroon
I am concerned generally with all non-natural substances, such as
preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, etc. You didn't misread that
part, and I don't think that's a bad heuristic. It's a very different thing to
say that all non-natural substances are possibly unhealthy (and that it's
practically impossible to determine which are and which aren't) than to say
that all natural substances are healthy.

Sadly one could simply remove the preservatives from sriracha as long as
refrigeration isn't a concern.

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greggman
Stupid me thought this was a Vietnamese sauce since I always saw in it
Vietnamese restaurants in the OC. It wasn't until I was outside the USA that I
found it Vietnamese have never heard of the stuff and that it comes from
Thailand. doh!

Good stuff though.

~~~
jpatokal
Even more confusingly, the Thai original is only vaguely related to Huy Fong's
version. The ingredients are roughly the same, but the Thai version is runnier
and more vinegary/sweet.

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doktrin
Having practically grown up with this stuff, it's definitely been interesting
to see its popularity skyrocket in recent years.

There's certainly a valid lesson in market adoption & product incubation to be
had here.

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Poiesis
Could we just get a petition going or something to get this sauce in condiment
packets? Last time I asked they didn't do this. No idea what the impediments
would be (supply constraints? Fermentation?)

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mark_l_watson
My wife and I ran out of sriracha sauce a few months ago; panic ensued :-)

Seriously we use it all the time (and several recipes on my cookingspace.com
site use it). Highly recommended!

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joycer
JoJo's is the only Sriracha...

<https://www.facebook.com/loveofjojo>

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sbi
I love spicy food, but I find Sriracha almost sickly-sweet. Anyone else prefer
El Yucateco or Salsa Valentina?

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wildgift
91770 in the house

