Condiment

Briefly cooking the tomatoes is key—the finished sauce should still be very fresh-tasting.

Sick of salsa verde? Meet salsa roja.

This sauce goes with pretty much any grilled meat; stir leftovers into yogurt to make a dip.

Thinly sliced–but not too thin. Pickling will soften the onions, so cut them with just enough thickness to make them hold up.

Add all, some, or none of the jalapeño’s seeds and ribs in order to control the salsa’s heat.

A very hot cast-iron pan will get the tomatillos charred quickly without overcooking them. Make a big batch for a great dipping salsa.

Next to fried shallots, these are the single greatest condiment of all time. They’re an ideal counterbalance to rich, fatty, or spiced foods, or as a zingy garnish for a cold noodle salad.

This ubiquitous and essential Vietnamese condiment is a bright and spicy mix of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter flavors.

These crisp, fresh pickles are often offered along with fresh herbs at the table. Tuck them into a lettuce-leaf wrapper or use them to doctor brothy soup.

“I love peppery radishes with cooling yogurt—so good on grilled chicken or fish.” –Dawn Perry, senior food editor

“You always want to give the option of adding heat at the table,” says chef and author David Tanis. These shallots deliver acidity and fire in one shot.

From sea to shining sea, we've rounded up hot sauces from every state in the Union (plus D.C., minus N.D.). Which one represents your home?

The BA Test Kitchen shares their favorite hot sauces.

The best, worst and weirdest hot sauce paraphernalia we could find on the Internet

A sambal-style hot sauce to please all kinds of heat seekers.

This is a sambal-style hot sauce named after its creator, senior associate food editor Alison Roman.

Adding Guinness to a mustard recipe? Brilliance. Bring on the pretzels.

This versatile oil is a great way to bring heat to just about any dish.

A favorite, try this versatile crunchy peanut mixture with braised-chicken-thigh lettuce wraps.

On the sweeter end of the spectrum, this granita is a great foil for the briniest oysters.

If you have a metal loaf pan, use it; it will conduct cold more efficiently than glass, reducing the time it takes to freeze this mixture.

Kumquats are completely edible, skins and all. They lend a unique bittersweet flavor to this granita, and peak during the winter citrus season.