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Well, of course I couldn’t leave well enough alone and go for only ONE chile pepper can jam contribution. That’s just too low maintenance.

And as B will tell you, I am ANYTHING but low maintenance.

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You may remember our household obsession with sriracha sauce? Oh you don’t? At our house, I use it on shrimp, and on brisket, and even on lentils. We LOVE us some sriracha. I’m pretty much ready to get that rooster tattooed on my rear end, I love sriracha so much. It’s like, a heavenly god-send for your potato hash and your burritos, except it arrives in the form of a fire-red, death-by-chile-pepper, sell-your-soul-to-the-Devil-for-a-glass-of-milk package.

I somehow got it in my head that I wanted to make a homemade sriracha. It’s not that I don’t like buying the commercial stuff (see declarations of love above), but I guess I just wanted to see if I could do it myself. And honestly, if I can make a homegrown version of the sauce using locally-grown peppers, well, I’ll have a little more bounce in my step tomorrow. This is just the chile-sauce version of the argument for capitalistic domesticity that we talked about the other day.

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Once I finally found my inspiration in this recipe from Food52, I found a comparable chiles-only sauce for “Singapore Chili Sauce” in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. My theory was, if I keep the proportions of vinegar and chile peppers as called for in the Ball recipe, but strip out the extra ingredients that Ball used in their recipe and keep the prep method similar to Food52′s recipe… then I would be in business with an acceptable sriracha substitute.

When comparing to the Official Sriracha currently residing in my fridge, I think the flavors are extremely similar (although my version is definitely more vinegar-y, as to be expected since I had to up the vinegar to keep the chile peppers safe to can.) I think the commercial version might be a tad sweeter, or maybe it’s just that my version is hotter? I mean, I ate it straight from the bottle (I’ll take I’M FREAKING HARDCORE FOR 100, ALEX) instead of eating it on something. So maybe if I try it over fried potatoes then I’ll be able to tell the difference a little bit easier. The biggest difference is the texture – mine is a lot more thin, due to the higher amounts of vinegar, than the commercial version. I have hope that it will set up a little more firmly in the fridge, though.

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Also, I canned this in super-tiny jelly jars, because this fresh recipe won’t stay good for as long as the commercial version. So make sure you can yours using jar amounts that you’ll use in a month or so. Don’t forget that you can use whichever combination of chile peppers you want – so if you’re not so into hot sauce, use 80% bell peppers and a few Fresno chiles for heat. If you like surface-of-the-sun levels of spicy, then use all Fresno chiles or a similar hot chile.

Whatever you do, make sure you pick up an extra quart of milk when you’re shopping for peppers!

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Homemade Sriracha

Adapted from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and Food52
Yields 10 4-oz jars

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Feel free to use whichever chiles you want. Refer to the Theory of Chile-tivity – the bigger the chiles used, the less spicy the sauce will be.

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Gather:
1 pound various chile peppers (your preference depending on heat desired), coursely chopped
8 garlic cloves, smashed
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups white distilled vinegar
4 tablespoons sugar

Prepare:
The night before you plan to can the sriracha, add the peppers, garlic, and salt to a large bowl. Cover with the vinegar. Let stand overnight or at least 8 hours.

The next day, prepare canner, jars, and lids. Add the entire mixture to a medium saucepan. Add the sugar to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Blend in a food processor or blender until mixture is smooth.

Pour into jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Process for 10 minutes at a rolling boil (adjusting for altitude), turn off heat, and let stand in canner for an additional 5 minutes. Remove and let cool before storing.

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The Black Keys / Remember When (Side B)

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