Sriracha

Fat spreads the burn across the whole tongue. The default sandwich upgrade.

Yolk fat holds the capsaicin so the heat arrives slowly, not all at once.

Squeezed in at the table for the vinegar and sugar, not only for the heat.

Bottle sugar caramelises on the skin before the chilli has a chance to scorch.

Citric acid sharpens the fermented acid and thins it out to a dressing.

Sweet shellfish against sweet chilli, with the garlic doing all the arguing.

Neutral starch takes the sugar and buffers the heat. Breakfast in Bangkok.

Water and cold against fermented burn. The cheapest cooling trick there is.

Roast fat coats the tongue first, so the chilli has to work through it.

Push the sugar and it lacquers wings instead of merely wetting them.

Dairy fat binds capsaicin. A spoonful turns the bottle into a pasta sauce.

Bromelain, sugar and chilli: the glaze cooks the pork while it seasons it.

A drop instead of mignonette. Fermented acid is gentler on iodine than vinegar.

Ripe lactones under fermented heat. The Thai fruit-and-chilli-salt idea, bottled.

Fermented bean and fermented chilli; the vinegar keeps the cocoa from drying.