- 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.
.
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.
.