The Story of Tabasco Sauce

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Forum Host
Joined
May 12, 2010
Location
Now Florida but always a Kentuckian
Tabasco Pepper Sauce is " a condiment that is a spicy hot sauce made from Tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt. The hot peppers are picked by hand as soon as they ripen to the perfect shade of bright red. The same day the peppers are picked, they are mashed, mixed with a small amount of Avery Island salt, placed in white oak wooden barrels, and allowed to ferment and then age up to three years. When deemed ready by a member of the McIlhenny family, the approved, fully aged mash is then blended with all natural, high grain vinegar. Numerous stirrings and about four weeks later, the pepper skins and seeds are strained out. The finished sauce is then bottled."

Avery Island is not really an Island. It is a huge dome of rock salt. It is three miles long and a half mile wide. It is only 152 feet above sea level at its highest point. It is seven miles south of New Iberia, Louisiana and surrounded by wet marsh and the Bayou Peiti Anse.

Avery Island was discovered by Indians. They discovered the salt and the Indians boiled the Island's briny spring water to extract the salt, which they traded to other tribes.

The founder of Tabasco Sauce was Edmund McIlhenny (1815-1890) who was a New Orleans banker. In 1850s he was given some dried peppers that were acquired in Mexico during the Mexican American War. A soldier gave them to him and said to try them in his food. McIlhenny saved the seeds and planted them in his wife's garden on Avery Island.

In April of 1863 Edmund McIlhenny fled with his wife from New Orleans when the Union Army entered the city. They went to Avery Island where her family owned a salt-mining business. Later the Union forces invaded the Island because of the salt and captured the mines in 1863. The McIlhenny's fled to Texas. They finally came back at the end of the war but found their plantation ruined and their mansion plundered. However, the crop of capasium hot peppers remained.

In 1868, McIlhenny devised a spicy sauce using vinegar, Avery Island salt, and chopped capasicium peppers. He packaged his sauce in 350 used cologne bottles and gave them as samples to wholesalers. He also gave some to General Hazard who was the Federal administrator in the area. The General sent some to his brother in New York. The brother was the largest wholesale grocer in New York. The sauce was a hit. So in 1868, Edmund McIlhenny began his commerical operation.

He called the sauce "Tabasco". It is said to be a Central American Indian name meaning "land where the soil is hot and humid" or "place of the coral or oyster shell".

In 1870 McIlhenny secured a patent for the sauce. In 1872 he opened an office in London to sell to the European markets.

Tabasco Sauce is still made on Avery Island, Louisiana. At least half of the company's employees live on Avery Island with many whose descendants worked for the company. Paul McIlhenny is the current Chairman of the Board and CEO. He is the sixth McIlhenny who have run the company.

From History of Tabasco Pepper Sauce and the Tabasco Sauce Home Page. The home page site is http://www.tabasco.com

There are some great recipes on the Tabasco site.

.
 
Tabasco Pepper Sauce is " a condiment that is a spicy hot sauce made from Tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt. The hot peppers are picked by hand as soon as they ripen to the perfect shade of bright red. The same day the peppers are picked, they are mashed, mixed with a small amount of Avery Island salt, placed in white oak wooden barrels, and allowed to ferment and then age up to three years. When deemed ready by a member of the McIlhenny family, the approved, fully aged mash is then blended with all natural, high grain vinegar. Numerous stirrings and about four weeks later, the pepper skins and seeds are strained out. The finished sauce is then bottled."

Avery Island is not really an Island. It is a huge dome of rock salt. It is three miles long and a half mile wide. It is only 152 feet above sea level at its highest point. It is seven miles south of New Iberia, Louisiana and surrounded by wet marsh and the Bayou Peiti Anse.

Avery Island was discovered by Indians. They discovered the salt and the Indians boiled the Island's briny spring water to extract the salt, which they traded to other tribes.

The founder of Tabasco Sauce was Edmund McIlhenny (1815-1890) who was a New Orleans banker. In 1850s he was given some dried peppers that were acquired in Mexico during the Mexican American War. A soldier gave them to him and said to try them in his food. McIlhenny saved the seeds and planted them in his wife's garden on Avery Island.

In April of 1863 Edmund McIlhenny fled with his wife from New Orleans when the Union Army entered the city. They went to Avery Island where her family owned a salt-mining business. Later the Union forces invaded the Island because of the salt and captured the mines in 1863. The McIlhenny's fled to Texas. They finally came back at the end of the war but found their plantation ruined and their mansion plundered. However, the crop of capasium hot peppers remained.

In 1868, McIlhenny devised a spicy sauce using vinegar, Avery Island salt, and chopped capasicium peppers. He packaged his sauce in 350 used cologne bottles and gave them as samples to wholesalers. He also gave some to General Hazard who was the Federal administrator in the area. The General sent some to his brother in New York. The brother was the largest wholesale grocer in New York. The sauce was a hit. So in 1868, Edmund McIlhenny began his commerical operation.

He called the sauce "Tabasco". It is said to be a Central American Indian name meaning "land where the soil is hot and humid" or "place of the coral or oyster shell".

In 1870 McIlhenny secured a patent for the sauce. In 1872 he opened an office in London to sell to the European markets.

Tabasco Sauce is still made on Avery Island, Louisiana. At least half of the company's employees live on Avery Island with many whose descendants worked for the company. Paul McIlhenny is the current Chairman of the Board and CEO. He is the sixth McIlhenny who have run the company.

From History of Tabasco Pepper Sauce and the Tabasco Sauce Home Page. The home page site is http://www.tabasco.com

There are some great recipes on the Tabasco site.

.

Great post and info, l just love the stuff, especially the garlic Tabasco. Just between
you, me and the forum, many many years ago l got a little bit drunk and one of the
friends l was with dared me to drink a whole large bottle of it. Needless to say l did and
my friend could not believe it. l am glad that l am much older and wiser now, l hope.
 
Some interesting information on Tabasco Sauce:

In 1921 an American bartender in Paris, named Fernand "Pete" Petiot, mixed up some vodka and tomato juice. He suggested to call the drink "Bloody mary". In 1934 Petiot brought the drink to the King Cole Bar in New York at the St. Regis Hotel. It was there he added pepper Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, lemon , lime and horseradish to the drink. He pushed his drink as an hangover cure. and finally christened it the Bloody Mary.

Another interesting story is that in 2002, archaeologists were digging in a black-owned saloon in the mining town of Virginia City and unearthed a 130 year old bottle of Tabasco brand sauce. It was the Boston Saloon run between 1864-1875 and was among the first eateries to introduce the new popular pepper sauce.

Also during the Vietnam War, the McIlhenny company sent thousands of copies of the Charley Ration Cookbook, filed with recipes for spicing up C-rations with Tabasco pepper sauce, wrapped around two-ounce bottles of Tabasco pepper sauce in waterproof containers. That would be a cookbook to have for my collection.
 
Or there's my story when I was a small lad - wait when I'm not looking then my brother would take the pepperonis off my pizza, place Tabasco sauce there and put the pepperoni back on. Then I would come back, completely oblivious and eat it only to be running for the faucet.

I still haven't forgiven him for the dozens of times he's done this to me. I prey he never does it to his kid.
 
Also during the Vietnam War, the McIlhenny company sent thousands of copies of the Charley Ration Cookbook, filed with recipes for spicing up C-rations with Tabasco pepper sauce, wrapped around two-ounce bottles of Tabasco pepper sauce in waterproof containers. That would be a cookbook to have for my collection.

Wonder what the recipes were?

Open C-ration.
Sprinkle Tabasco sauce.
Eat.

(last step optional) :wink:
 
Great post and info, l just love the stuff, especially the garlic Tabasco. Just between
you, me and the forum, many many years ago l got a little bit drunk and one of the
friends l was with dared me to drink a whole large bottle of it. Needless to say l did and
my friend could not believe it. l am glad that l am much older and wiser now, l hope.

I love Tobasco sauce too, but not even in my crazy days in the navy and college would I have drank a whole bottle of the stuff – I can only stand back in amazement and awe of your daring deed.:hungry:

“While I am able for service I intend to stand by the cause while a banner floats to tell where freedom’s sons still supports her cause.”

Major Walter Clark of the North Carolina Junior Reserve Brigade in a letter to his mother
 
I love Tobasco sauce too, but not even in my crazy days in the navy and college would I have drank a whole bottle of the stuff – I can only stand back in amazement and awe of your daring deed.:hungry:

“While I am able for service I intend to stand by the cause while a banner floats to tell where freedom’s sons still supports her cause.”

Major Walter Clark of the North Carolina Junior Reserve Brigade in a letter to his mother

l don't know about daring, l would say probably bloody nuts. But l do like the stuff and it did not
make me sick, but it was pretty damm hot. The things we do when we are young, oh well you live
and learn l guess.
 
Also during the Vietnam War, the McIlhenny company sent thousands of copies of the Charley Ration Cookbook, filed with recipes for spicing up C-rations with Tabasco pepper sauce, wrapped around two-ounce bottles of Tabasco pepper sauce in waterproof containers. That would be a cookbook to have for my collection.

Wonder what the recipes were?

Open C-ration.
Sprinkle Tabasco sauce.
Eat.

(last step optional) :wink:

My pal the Vietnam vet uses Tabasco and a number of other hot sauces on everything from eggs to ice cream. (Yes, he claims vanilla ice cream was made for Tabasco.) It was a habit he picked up in Vietnam as the rations they were given were so unappetizing drowning them in hot sauce was the only way to get them down!
 
I used to be a really big Tabasco fan, especially when I learned it had been around for so long...and then I tried 'Franks'. Kinda feel like a bit of a traitor for using Franks now, :eek: but, I gotta go with what my tastebuds tell me...
 
I think most southern boy are taught to eat Tobasco Sauce from birth. I'm a big fan, but not as crazy as one of my coworkers. He literally soaks everything in Tobasco. I've seen him put away an entire bottle while earing a tuna fish sandwhich. He dips his sandwhich in the stuff. Great post, Donna.

Your work mate sounds like me with Tobasco Charlie, CRAZY & COMPLETLY NUTS.
 
prroh Thanks for mentioning the garden.

The Jungle Garden is a 170 acre botanical garden and bird sanctuary. It was started in 1890s by Edward Avery McIlhenny, second son of Edward McIlhenny. The bird part is called Bird City. In 1895 E.A. McIlhenny or "Mr. Ned" as he was called, founded the colony after plume hunters slaughtered egrets by the thousands for feathers for ladies' hats. He got eight egrets, raised them in cavtivity on the island, and released them in the fall to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico. The following spring, the birds returned with others, a migration that continues to this day, as thousands of snowy white egrets and other water birds return to Bird City.

In the Botanical part of garden are many rare plants and numerous varieties of azaleas, Japanese camellias, Egyptian papyrus and other treasures. It is important to note that when oil was discovered on the Island in 1942, he made sure production crews bypassed live oak trees, buried pipelines and took other steps to preserve the Island's beauty and continue its role as a wildlife refuge.
 
Back
Top