The History Of Tabasco Sauce

I was waiting for my car to be serviced, trying to read a book while the three men in the waiting room were laughing hysterically  at an episode of America's Funniest Videos.  I did not find it funny.  The next show that came on was interesting to me.  It was a short documentary about the history of Tabasco Sauce.  I came and did a little more research, and here's what I found out.

Edmond McIlhenny, a Maryland born banker, who moved to Avery Island in Louisiana in 1840, is credited with creating Tabasco Sauce.  His creation finally hit the market in 1868.  Research by food historians creates doubt about McIlhenny actually creating the hot sauce, though.  It may have been developed by a plantation owner years before McIlhenny created it.

"The story actually begins in the pre-Civil War era with a New Orleans plantation owner named Maunsel White, who was famous for the food served at his sumptuous dinner parties. Mr. White's table no doubt groaned with the region's varied fare — drawing inspiration from European, Caribbean and Cajun sources — but one of his favorite sauces was of his own devising, made from a pepper named for its origins in the Mexican state of Tabasco. White added the sauce to various dishes and bottled it for his guests. Although the McIlhennys have tried to dismiss the possibility,^[2] it seems clear now that in 1849, a full two decades before Edmund McIlhenny professed to discover the Tabasco pepper, White was already growing Tabasco chilies on his plantation."<sup>[3]

Regardless of who actually created it, Tabasco Sauce continues to be one of the most popular hot sauces.  The tabasco peppers were originally grown on Avery Island.  Today, the peppers grown there are used to produce seed stock, and the peppers are produced around the world.  The peppers are still picked by hand, a company tradition.  The peppers are ripe and ready to pick when their color matches a red stick.  Then, the peppers are aged up to three years, in wooden barrels that were once used to produce whiskey.  After aging the peppers, they are mixed with vinegar and bottled one month later.  Through the years, other sauces have been created by the McIlhenny company, using a longer aging process and different types of vinegars.

Through the years, the company is still controlled by descendents of Edmund McIlhenny, and dispite who actually created the hot sauce originally, it remains one of the most popular sauces on supermarket shelves today.</sup>