Nothing against Underwood or Siracha in general, so buy what you want but $12 dollars per bottle is crazy, unless this is your favorite thing ever. So many other flavors to discover, and they wont be warehoused for months.

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theshrike79 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I used to be all-in on Sriracha, used it on everything.

Then, can't remember where, I found out about Gochujang[0] and now it's my go-to fermented chili for everything

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang

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NitpickLawyer 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> $12 dollars per bottle is crazy

Hot sauce is pretty easy to make if you're inclined to go that route. You only need a scale and a blender, and some basic kitchen skills. You get to explore a lot and control for flavour / heat with adding stuff to the mix. Plenty of good content on yt you can get inspiration from.

It's also something you can make into a hobby. You can go as low effort as buying fresh peppers from a market when in season, or start growing yourself. Growing can be anywhere from extremely low maintenance (i.e. just water them from time to time and leave them on a window sill) or get into advanced stuff like pruning, soil ph, cross pollination and all that stuff. Some peppers are prolific growers, and you get fresh peppers, pepper paste, chili flakes and sauce from a potentially low effort hobby. And they make some nice gifts as well.

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stef25 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Planted a few Jalapeno seeds in the soil in mom's greenhouse once and harvested buckets of chilies, more than I knew what to do with. Super rewarding.

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Barbing 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>leave them on a window sill

Ooooh anybody have a rec for the most idiot-proof hot thing to try to grow?

	▲	throwaway902984 5 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Rainbow tabasco required nothing but water, ime - if you have decent sun or a grow light. These things: https://seedsbeeblooming.com/shop/ols/products/rainbow-tabas... Can't vouch for that merchant though
	▲	relaxing 33 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Pepper plants are really easy to grow. Pick seeds that sound like they’ll yield the flavor you’re looking for.

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pnt12 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Counter-argument: we're talking about saving a handful of bucks for something that lasts months. Do it if you find it fun - I tried it and didn't like the work nor spice under my fingernails, at all.

My preferences in cooking are like software: high level is fun (cooking dishes), low level is annoying (growing or producing ingredients).

I also like making cocktails. A brief try with homemade coffee licqueurs was disappointing - knowing a couple of good brands, I can buy and enjoy them, no hassle. Closest to preparing ingredients I do is occasionally doing batches of "super juice", where you squeeze a bunch of limes and add some conservatives and enhancers (and water), that increase the yield, flavor and shelf life by a lot. Then it's really practical to just use the juice like a normal ingredient, versus having the cytrus available having to squeeze them and having more stuff to clean.

	▲	hermitcrab an hour ago \| parent [-]
		>nor spice under my fingernails, at all. Definitely wear gloves when chopping chillis!

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duttish 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I've tried getting started with this but my first attempt a habanero/mango sauce was _horrible_, must've used a slop recipe or something. Do you have a good base to recommend?

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cyberrock 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

AFAIK physical supermarkets and Costco that carry these usually sell them for $4-5 per 17oz/500g. This is just the classic distribution problem with ethnic foods.

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alfanick 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Depends on purchasing power, how much sauce you consume, value added/quality - $12 is often not much, cost of two sandwiches, or 4-pack of beer, half price of one lunch meal, 1/3rd of Netflix subscription, etc... What's crazy is $200 plain cotton white t-shirt, but i.e. $150 merino t-shirt isn't that crazy anymore.

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hinkley 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That’s twice the price of a similar sized bottle of fancy ketchup and will last you four times as long.