Stuck at home during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, a whopping 70% of Americans began cooking for themselves—a 50% jump over the prior year. For the sake of those whose culinary acumen didn’t rise above scrambled eggs and turkey sandwiches, New York Times Cooking editor Sam Sifton penned a piece that recommended a new brand of Sichuan chili sauce that, he said, you could confidently spoon over anything—a sauce so complex and robust that “you could spread that concoction on a mitten and be very happy with your meal.”