Quote:
Originally Posted by Shazam
I think you're overthinking it. I would say the ratio of green/red jalapenos is the main differentiator. They're probably using more green jalapenos since ripening them to red takes longer.
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Possibly. There's more than one way to adjust taste beyond tinkering with ingredients. That was just my prediction in that I think there was a modification to the fermentation process to push it out faster. I'm paralleling that theory with similar concepts I am aware of where Scotch avoided age statements and did a lot of blending with younger stuff to address those supply issues while still sending out lots of product as demand increased.
My grandfather was a chef and my dad has quite an accurate sense of taste. He's always tinkering with recipes and asking me to figure out what he did to tweak flavors ranging from the entire initial taste to final after taste of his cooking or his sauces. I always have almost a dozen hot sauce options at my home and I love matching flavor profiles to food + matching spice levels to spice tolerances for guests.
I'm only mentioning the complex stuff because WO403 mentioned he might spend $30 on a bottle.
I personally would prefer dropping $30 on ingredients for a DIY sriracha vs buying a bottle on ebay. It won't taste identical to Huy Fong, but I get to play with the flavors to get to what I like, plus I'd have much more than a single bottle of the stuff, but that's just me.
I'm coming from a POV where I've made hot sauce before, my dad makes XO and sauce occasionally, my sister in law is ultra picky about chili oil vs chili sauce and occasionally brings her own hot sauce if the restaurants we go to have a hot sauce with a flavor profile she dislikes (Sambal disliked. Prefer taste more similar to Sriracha), my friend's parents makes a chili oil that's basically tastes like a hybrid of a chili crisp and fermented chili sauce (Papa Ng's famous chili oil).
In Singapore, I knew a guy who loved discussing hot sauces. Sambal Oelek is enjoyed because it's considered a more "fresh" chili sauce and it's more grainy/rough because it's seemingly more crushed chilis than blended. Sambal style in his mind was the only appropriate hot sauce for "hot skate" (Skate covered in sambal and grilled) because it was fresher chili sauce with fresh fish as an ingredient. Fermented chili sauce worked best with foods that were also fermented, more complex/processed.
Most Sriracha DIY recipes call for a little bit of fermentation and it's blended into a slurry. When I experimented with it a few years ago, I did find the spice mellowed out a lot and/or disappeared after a few days of fermentation. My buddy explained something similar and showed me an excerpt from the "Noma guide to fermentation" when he made his own fermented Caribbean inspired hot sauce. He fermented a clove/all spice mixture than when added to his habanero/reaper hot sauce, created an aftertaste that made that #### ultra addicting. My buddies and I were eating that #### like salsa even though it was pretty fricken spicy. It almost looked like we were spreading vegemite on bread when we ate it that way. It was so damn good.
If I were WO403, I'd consider mixing the LKK and the Tabasco Sriracha together with a little bit of sugar (to address vinegar taste) and possibly a little bit of extra garlic paste. This so that he can see if he can get a flavor profile that he is happy with. It's probably far easier to do that than make his own Sriracha replacement from scratch. (Generally speaking, Sriracha is characteristically more garlicy and sweet than Sambal which is typically more firey, earthy and vinegary).
I've tried the LKK Sriracha he mentioned before so I have an idea what he's complaining about. IMO there's an almost chemically artificial or awful chlorophyll/botanical aftertaste at the end instead of the typical mellow sweetness of Huy Fong. I have no idea about the Tabasco Sriracha though, but I know Tabasco's style so I assume it's a fermented mellow one. His comments about it not being spicy enough also make me conclude that way even though I've never tried it and I only based on his comments did I even find out Tabasco offered a Sriracha type of product.
