It isn't hard to make your own hot sauce to your own tastes. I grow my own chillis, lacto ferment them with shop bought pineapple and add mango and vinegar. Tastes far better than most shop bought sauces IMHO.
There is a place for simple hot sauces, because you don't want to add additional flavours. Sometimes all you want is straight up chilis.
More complex hot sauces might include dried shrimp, fermented soy, lemon grass, dried mushrooms, but those flavours might not be desirable in some dishes. And some dishes require specific hot sauces because they are an integral part of the flavour profile (Mapo tofu, Tom Yum).
I would just like to interject for a moment. Mapo tofu does not use 'hot sauce' as understood in the common parlance. It uses doubanjiang, a very specific fermented paste of chilis and broad beans. It is not saucy; it's very thick like gochujang. I take issue with calling doubanjiang hot sauce and I really don't want anyone to try to make mapo tofu with normal hot sauce.
> I don't know why people like Sriracha anyway. It just tastes of "hot" and vinegar.
Nope, also of garlic.
"I don't like $PopularThing" is always a boring take. Other people clearly like it if it's popular.
It is known since ancient times, De gustibus non est disputandum (1): Tastes differ, so it's pointless to dispute matters of taste as if there's a correct answer.
> "I don't like $PopularThing" is always a boring take. Other people clearly like it if it's popular.
So because something is popular, saying you don't like it is somehow incorrect?
Do you also like McDonalds? It's popular, so you should like it, right? You should think that McDonalds is good, high-quality food, because it's popular, get it?
Except it's not. It's objectively terrible food. Sugary greasy insipid crap, and these days it's not even cheap or quick.
I feel like Rooster Sriracha is the McDonalds of hot sauces.
> It is known since ancient times, De gustibus non est disputandum (1): Tastes differ, so it's pointless to dispute matters of taste
For reference, de gustibus non est disputandum translates as "tastes shouldn't be discussed". Don't be confused by the etymological relationship to dispute.
I’ve never really been a fan of it as a direct condiment so I’m inclined to agree.
I think the first time I tried it was about 15 years ago. Out to lunch at a bahn mi spot with coworkers and all the guys were drenching their sandwiches in the stuff. I think in that context it’s overpowering and awful and ruins a good sandwich. Preferentially, I love the Three Mountain Yellow Sriracha as a condiment for a lettuce wrap or a sandwich.
Where I feel red sriracha is a staple item is making sauces and marinades. Whenever I’m making vaguely Thai peanut sauces at home for a pad Thai or a satay it’s the #2 ingredient after the peanut butter itself and often at a 1:1 ratio. Combined with all the other ingredients it mellows out the harsh flavors and makes a wonderful layered sauce.
Ketchup only being made from tomatoes is a comparatively recent thing.
In the UK in the 1500s or so the most common condiment was mushroom ketchup, which you pretty much have to make from scratch these days and that's a bit of a pity. You cook the mushrooms off with mace, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, maybe some tamarind (that's the stuff that gives Worcester sauce its sour flavour - it's got the same thing in it as sorrel which I guess you could also use but that's better for like a pesto), brown sugar, and some red wine, and just keep going until it reduces down into a thick sticky paste.
It's quite a strong flavour, probably a bit full on for the average American palate, although I know people over there who make it and apparently enjoy it.
Tomato ketchup is like a cross between a pickle and a jam, where (at least in theory) the sugar and vinegar act as preservatives and the pectin from the tomatoes makes it set up into a sticky jelly.
People also made walnut ketchup, which is difficult to do where I am because you need green unripe walnuts and there aren't a lot of walnut trees here. If you live near a walnut grower see if you can get a bag of unripe ones and have a go at it. The unripe walnut juice will stain the hell out of everything it comes near - it'll stain Pyrex, ffs - but it's good stuff that goes nicely with a bit of venison.
They have a spicy ketchup product that I liked, tho it has disappeared from my local stores. At the time I first noticed it at the store it was the hottest one that also matched the thick consistency I expect from ketchup.
There are far better hot sauces out there, available at your local Chinese, Pakistani, or Iranian supermarket.