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Please try again. Congrats, you're signed up! * [ ] * * Get fresh recipes, cooking tips, deal alerts, and more! Email Address [ ] There was an error. Please try again. * + About Us + Contact Us * Hot Sauces * Jalapenos Homemade Sriracha This version hits the right notes, but with a brighter, fresher flavor. By Joshua Bousel a photo of Joshua Bousel, a Contributing Writer at Serious Eats Joshua Bousel * * * * Joshua Bousel is a Serious Eats old-timer, having started sharing his passion for grilling and barbecue recipes on the site back in 2008. He continues to develop grilling and barbecue recipes on his own site, The Meatwave, out of his home base of Durham, North Carolina. Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process Updated September 06, 2023 (5) 0 print 20120129-190369-sriracha.jpg 20120129-190369-sriracha.jpg * * * In This Recipe Expand * Brief History of the Bottle * Fresno vs. Red Jalapenos Peppers * Fermentation, aka the Long, Long Wait for Sriracha * How to Make (and Not Make) Sriracha * Decoding Sriracha * Is It Worth Making From Scratch? Why This Recipe Works * Red jalapenos provide the best flavor and right amount of heat to the sauce. * Brown sugar adds sweetness and depth of flavor with notes of molasses. * Reducing the sauce after straining helps thicken the consistency. Setting out to recreate Huy Fong's ubiquitous sauce, I ended up with something that hit the right notes, but with a brighter, fresher flavor that makes homemade sriracha something special. Brief History of the Bottle Close-up of a bottle of sriracha. First off: The sriracha in the green-topped rooster bottle we all know and love is not, in fact, made in Asia. True sriracha is a Thai sauce named after the city of Si Racha where it hails from and is used mainly as a sauce for seafood. It tends to be thinner, less spicy, and sweeter than the Huy Fong brand rooster sauce that commands the U.S. market. Over in Vietnam, it's more frequently seen as a condiment for bowls of pho or other soups and sauces. So what's up with the emblematic rooster? It's the astrological sign of the brand's creator, David Tran. Originally from Vietnam, he started honing his hot sauce-making skills there before immigrating to the United States aboard the freighter Huy Fong--which became the namesake of his company. In the early 1980s, David Tran, with his industrious American spirit, set off to make a hot sauce that would satisfy the cravings of nostalgic Vietnamese immigrants who wanted the right complement to their bowls of pho. So was born the sriracha that would eventually hold the patriotic ranks of ketchup and mustard. The green-capped bottle includes ingredients in five different languages, and proudly states it's good for everything from soups to pizza to hot dogs and hamburgers. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement, which is why I was pleased to take on the homemade sriracha challenge. Fresno vs. Red Jalapenos Peppers A side by side comparison of Fresno and jalapeno chiles. There are many variables to test with this sriracha recipe. I knew I wanted red jalapenos--the fully vine-ripened peppers used by Huy Fong as the base of sriracha. Little did I know how incredibly frustrating it would be to find them. A full-on red jalapeno hunt ensued across New York City, only to end weeks later in failure. So I came up with a Plan B: to find its closest cousin, the Fresno. The Fresno is fairly similar to a red jalapeno, with comparable size, flavor, and heat, but it has much thinner walls and a more conical shape. Once I opened up my pepper search to this second variety, I found tons of Fresno chiles at Whole Foods; I promptly loaded up with five pounds' worth. I split that batch of Fresnos into four different recipes, but never gave up hope on the red jalapeno. Another few days (and about 10 to 15 shopping excursions later), there they were, a hot red beacon of success. I went through all of the red jalapenos, taking my pick of the litter, and returned home triumphant and happy to start an entire second batch of recipes using the proper pepper this time around. Fermentation, aka the Long, Long Wait for Sriracha Six jars of sriracha testing varying amount of garlic, salt, and sugar. I took some fermentation pointers from the sriracha recipe in The Sriracha Cookbook by Randy Clemens. The process starts with pureeing the chiles with garlic, salt, and sugar, then transferring that mixture into jars and waiting patiently. This is when I started testing some variables. With 3/4 pound of chiles, I tried varying amounts and types of sugar--palm, light brown, and white--and the same with garlic--raw versus blanched. Each day I checked on my jars to mark their progress, finally seeing some signs of life on the third day. Sriracha jar #3 started to have little bubbles around the bottom, the first signs of fermentation. Within two days, three of the first four bottles seemed to fully ferment. During the fermentation process, I unscrewed the lids to release some pressure and give the chiles a little stir. While the three jars were done at around the same point--five days--the last jar from that batch took an extra two days to start fermenting, then an extra day to complete. How to Make (and Not Make) Sriracha After fermentation was complete, I looked again to Randy Clemens' recipe, where the fermented chiles are boiled with vinegar, pureed again, then strained. On first try, this produced a sauce that tasted pretty good but was much thinner than what comes out of the rooster bottle. The second time, I let the chiles pureed for longer, then put some extra muscle into straining to extract more pulp, but the sauce was still too thin. Switching things up, I first pureed the chiles with vinegar until the mixture was as smooth as can be, strained that into a small saucepan, and boiled it down until it had that lightly thickened consistency of the real stuff--success! I repeated this over a few days, letting each batch of chiles ferment at its own pace. Finally, after nearly a month of research, I had six jars of sriracha samples. Decoding Sriracha Small bowls of sriracha line up for a taste test. Using a new set of tasting spoons (a Christmas gift from my wife--thanks, dear!), I went back and forth between the samples and the real sriracha bottle, noting observations for each. First off, none of my from-scratch samples tasted exactly like the bottled sriracha. All of mine had a brighter, fresher flavor compared to Huy Fong's, which has an earthier undertone I couldn't match. The homemade stuff wasn't bad, just different. That being said, there were some discernible similarities that helped me get to the final recipe. * Chiles: Red jalapenos. I had no doubt this would be the pepper for the job, and it was. The jalapeno really delivered on the right flavor more so than the Fresnos, which were hotter and brighter-tasting. Also, snipping off just the stem but leaving the rest of the green tops in place resulted in a flavor that was closer to the bottled version. Letting the peppers sit longer after fermentation seemed to make no difference. * Garlic: While the blanched garlic had a smoother taste, it was the larger chunks of raw garlic that packed the garlic bite you want in sriracha. * Sugar: This was the hardest to discern of all the variables, but the palm sugar seemed a little weaker in flavor and sweetness, while brown sugar added more depth with its heavier hit of molasses. This is what edged out the others in the sugar department, so that's what I put in the final recipe (though you won't go wrong with palm or white sugar here). Is It Worth Making From Scratch? Two jalapeno peppers lay next to a small bowl of sriracha on a wooden surface. Adapted from The Sriracha Cookbook by Randy Clemens. Weeks of work for only about four cups of hot sauce--was it all worth it? If I had ended up with an exact replica, I'd probably say no, but the devil is in the details. The final sriracha recipe has a similar balance of flavors overall, but with a fresher taste. There are times I'd definitely prefer this homemade version. Plus, you can vary ingredients to play up your favorite aspects of the sauce. For mellower garlic, try blanching it first. Like it spicier? Use Fresnos. Want a thinner or thicker sauce? Boil it for more or less time. So hats off to David Tran for making a sauce that has become so ingrained in our culture that it has left you reading a way-too-long post about trying to re-create sriracha at home. Think you'll attempt it? February 2012 Recipe Details Homemade Sriracha Active 15 mins Total 120 hrs Serves 24 servings Makes 1 1/2 cups This version hits the right notes, but with a brighter, fresher flavor. Save Print Ingredients * 1 1/2 pounds red jalapenos, stems snipped off, leaving green tops intact (see notes) * 6 cloves garlic, peeled * 4 tablespoons light brown sugar * 1 tablespoon kosher salt * 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar Directions 1. Place jalapenos, garlic, sugar, and salt in bowl of a food processor fitting with steel blade. Pulse until chiles are very finely chopped, stopping to scrape sides of bowl as necessary. Transfer mixture to a clean jar, seal, and let sit at room temperature in a cool, dark place. Finely chopped chiles in the bowl of a food processor. 2. Check jar each day for fermentation, when little bubbles start forming at bottom of jar, about 3-5 days. Open jars, stir, and reseal jars daily to let ferment until chiles are no longer rising in volume, an additional 2-3 days. A jar of fermented chile. 3. Transfer chiles to jar of a blender, add in white vinegar, and puree until completely smooth, 1-3 minutes. Transfer to a mesh strainer set atop a medium saucepan. Strain mixture into saucepan, using a rubber spatula to push through as much pulp as possible, only seeded and larger pieces of chiles should remain in strainer. Straining homemade sriracha in a mesh strainer. 4. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until sauce thickens and clings to a spoon, 5 or 10 minutes. Transfer to an airtight container and store in refrigerator for up to 6 months. Reducing homemade sriracha in a saucepan. Notes For a spicier sauce, use Fresno chiles. Nutrition Facts (per serving) 17 Calories 0g Fat 4g Carbs 0g Protein Show Full Nutrition Label x Nutrition Facts Servings: 24 Amount per serving Calories 17 % Daily Value* Total Fat 0g 0% Saturated Fat 0g 0% Cholesterol 0mg 0% Sodium 159mg 7% Total Carbohydrate 4g 1% Dietary Fiber 1g 3% Total Sugars 3g Protein 0g Vitamin C 34mg 169% Calcium 7mg 1% Iron 0mg 1% Potassium 76mg 2% *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. (Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.) More Serious Eats Recipes Four toasted burger buns open on a baking sheet, each one with three lines of homemade Shack Sauce on the top half of the bun, and lettuce and tomato on the bottom half of the bun. 32 Standout Sauce Recipes for Burgers Three jars of fermenting hot sauces with airlocks in the top. 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