Recipe Sifter

Red devil pepper sauce blends Scotch bonnet chiles with allspice, onion, vinegar, and Pickapeppa for a fiery Caribbean-style hot sauce that keeps for months. A few drops go a long way.

Beef Brisket with Barbecue Sauce: a hands-off crockpot brisket cooked low for 10 hours in a Worcestershire-vinegar braise, finished with a separate ketchup-brown-sugar sauce.

Pineapple chicken with a homemade sweet and sour sauce - vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, and sherry - ready in 25 minutes. Serve over rice or chow mein noodles for an easy weeknight dinner.

Hot Mexican blender salsa with canned tomatoes, green chilies, fresh cilantro, garlic, and cayenne. Chunky, spicy, and ready in 5 minutes flat.

Sweet and sour lentils with brown rice simmer in a tangy honey-tamari-ginger sauce with sauteed onion and celery. A hearty vegetarian one-bowl dinner with plant-protein backbone.

Raw broccoli and cauliflower salad tossed in a sweet vinegar-mayonnaise dressing with onion rings, topped with crumbled bacon. No cooking, make-ahead friendly.

Old-school saloon pickled eggs and beets in a spiced brown sugar-vinegar brine with cinnamon and cloves. Brine the beets a week, add eggs, wait three days.

Sauerbraten with Coke uses cola in the vinegar marinade for a sweeter, more caramelized take on the classic German pot roast. Marinated 2 to 4 days, braised until fork-tender, and finished with gingersnap gravy.

Smoker pork ribs marinated overnight in a tomato, vinegar, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce, then smoked low for 2 to 3 hours. Sticky, tender backyard barbecue.

Old-fashioned cabbage salad with a tangy cream dressing made from heavy cream, vinegar, and sugar. Six ingredients, no mayo, and ready in 20 minutes flat.

Homemade curry pickles with thin-sliced cucumbers, vinegar, mustard, and celery seed. A tangy, spiced twist on classic canning pickles. Makes 3 pints.

Six-ingredient pickled jalapenos packed whole into jars and sealed in a vinegar-olive oil brine with pickling spice. Simple Texas-style pickled peppers ready in 30 days.

Barbecued beef brisket rubbed and marinated overnight, then baked low and slow in a tangy-sweet homemade sauce until fork-tender. No smoker needed, just sliced brisket for piled-high barbecue sandwiches.

Steamed salmon fillets served chilled with a butter-sauteed cucumber and sour cream sauce with dill. An elegant cold fish dish for warm-weather entertaining.

Texan fried pies stuffed with spiced dried apricot filling in a flaky, vinegar-laced pastry. Hand-held, golden-fried, and dusted with sugar. A classic Southern dessert from scratch.

Sauerbraten meatballs: cooked beef meatballs simmered in a tangy-sweet German-style gravy thickened with crushed gingersnaps. A 30-minute weeknight riff on the slow-braised classic.