In the 52 months since Bon Appétit declared Sriracha "Ingredient of the Year," much has changed in the world of Sriracha, and of spicy food in general. Back in late 2009, Sriracha—meaning, of course, Huy Fong Foods brand Sriracha, the bright-red chili sauce in the green-capped squeeze bottle—was still, in many ways, a novelty. Though Americans had been squirting it on noodles, eggs, and pizza for roughly 30 years, it was hardly a mainstream condiment, and the idea that high-end restaurant chefs would incorporate it into their cooking was essentially revolutionary.

Today, however, Sriracha is ubiquitous. Never mind its presence in Asian restaurants and hip diners—you've got Brooklyn chefs cooking up artisanal batches, BusinessWeek publishing in-depth features on its maker , and giants like Lays and Subway adding it to their unquestionably mainstream products, never mind that the word "sriracha" does not always roll smoothly off the tongues of English speakers.

Which is why last year BonAppetit.com inaugurated—invented, really—Sriracha Week . We were fascinated by Sriracha's origins , by the panoply of "other" Sriracha sauces , by the way that familiar bottle had wormed its way inside American visual culture . Oh, and we had a ton of fun ways to cook with it! Thus, a theme week was born.

But as we approached the anniversary of that, uh, monumental week, and began brainstorming what a second Sriracha Week might hold, we faced a dilemma: Was there anything left to say about Huy Fong's iconic rooster sauce? With Sriracha in Subway sandwiches, had it jumped the shark? Shouldn't we be out there finding other amazing hot sauces—the next Srirachas?

What we quickly realized, however, is that the very meaning of Sriracha has evolved. Yes, it still refers to a particular style of chili-garlic sauce with origins in the Thai city of Si Racha , but it's grown beyond that. When we think of Sriracha nowadays, we think of all the spicy things we love—the serranos we slice into salads and the dried chiles we throw by the handful into once-sedate stews, the scotch bonnets we blend in to Jamaican jerk marinades and the Sichuan chili oil that goes on, well, just about everything we cook these days. It's not just "us," of course—it's everyone in America, where hot sauce is the eighth fastest-growing industry , where growers race to breed the next spiciest chile in the world, and where the legal wrangling over odors (allegedly) emanating from Huy Fong Foods' new <del>Rosemead</del> Irwindale, California, manufacturing facility are national news.

And so, this week will cover everything spicy, from the history of chile science to how to get kids to enjoy the burn. We'll look at the other hot sauces our test kitchen staff love, and experiment with different methods for cooling your mouth down after too many Thai bird chiles. We'll ask chefs about their first time eating spicy food, and gawk at the coolest Sriracha swag we can find on Etsy. Oh, and recipes: We've got original cocktails with varying levels of heat , we'll be giving you the absolute best methods for deploying Sriracha in your cooking, and, to finish, we've got a fiery dessert we're sure you'll love. And even though Sriracha qua Sriracha won't dominate our coverage, we're still calling this thing Sriracha Week—because just the name makes our mouths water.