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Tabasco
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A Brief History of Tabasco Sauce
In the 1850's Edmund McIlhenny, a New Orleans banker, was given some dried peppers that were acquired by a soldier in Mexico during the US-Mexican War (1846-1848). He used one or two and liked them, so he saved the seeds from the remaining peppers and planted them. He grew them in his wife’s garden at Avery Island. McIlhenny did not raise them commercially for another twenty years.
In 1863, during the Civil War Edmund McIlhenny fled with his wife when the Union Army entered the city. They took refuge on Avery Island in rural Iberia Parish, where her family owned a salt-mining business. Avery Island is a huge dome of rock salt, three miles long and two and a half miles wide. At it's highest point it is only 152 feet above sea level. It is located seven miles south of New Iberia, surrounded by wet marsh and the Bayou Peiti Anse. It was formed when an ancient seabed evaporated, depositing pure salt, which rose up in large chunks and pushed the ground into a hill.
Because of the salt on the island, the Union forces invaded the island and captured the mines in 1863. The McIlhennys fled to Texas and didn’t return until the end of the war. When the McIlhenny family came back, they found their plantation ruined and their mansion plundered. One possession remained, a crop of capsicum hot peppers.
In 1868, McIlhenny created a spicy sauce using vinegar, Avery Island salt, and chopped capsicum peppers. McIlhenny packaged his aged sauce in 350 used cologne bottles and sent them as samples to likely wholesalers. He passed some of his sauce onto General Hazard, the federal administrator in the region, whose brother happened to be the largest wholesale grocer in the US. On the strength of the purchase orders that followed, Edmund McIlhenny began a commercial production. In 1870 McIlhenny secured a patent Pepper Sauce and two years later he opened an office in London to handle the European market. Bottles with metal tops replaced the corked bottles sealed with green wax as the increasing demand for Tabasco sauce caused changes in the packaging.
Some Tabasco Trivia
• Some historians say "Tabasco" is a Central American Indian word that means “land where the soil is hot and humid.” This certainly describes the climate of Avery Island. Other historians have put forth that it actually means “place of coral or oyster shell.”
• Each 2-ounce bottle of Tabasco Sauce contains at least 720 drops.
• In 1921, an American bartender in Paris, Fernand "Pete" Petiot, mixed up some vodka and tomato juice. According to legend, Petiot said, “It was suggested we call the drink 'Bloody Mary' because it reminded him of the Bucket of Blood Club in Chicago, and a girl there named Mary." In 1934, Petiot brought the drink to the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel in New York. It was in New York that he added pepper, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, lemon, lime and horseradish. Petiot pushed his tomato-based drink as a hangover cure. Born the Bucket of Blood, the drink was later called Red Snapper and Morning Glory before finally being christened Bloody Mary, supposedly after American entertainer George Jessel accidentally spilled one of the crimson beverages over a young woman named Mary.
• When the British government began an isolationist “Buy British” campaign in 1832, Parliament banned the purchases of Tabasco Pepper Sauce, popular in England since 1868 and available in the House of Commons dining rooms. The result protest from members of Parliament was dubbed “The Tabasco Tempest,” and inevitably Tabasco pepper sauce returned to parliamentary tables. It is said, that to this day, Queen Elizabeth uses Tabasco pepper sauce on her lobster cocktail.
• Two companies competed with sauces called "Tabasco" for 31 years. B. F. Trappey and Sons (Trappey was a former McIlhenny employee) and the McIlhenny sauce. In 1829 the McIlhenny family won a trademark infringement suit and all competitors could only include tabasco chiles in their list of ingredients
• The U.S. Territory of Guam is the world's largest per capita consumer of Tabasco sauce, according to the McIlhenny Company. Some people say that Guamanians acquire a passion for hot sauce in the cradle, when mothers lace their babies' bottles with Tabasco. True or not, that story started because those Pacific islanders consume the equivalent of almost two 2-ounce bottles of Tabasco sauce per person each year, a feat unmatched in any other country on Earth.
• During the Vietnam War, the McIlhenny company sent thousands of copies of the Charley Ration Cookbook, filled with recipes for spicing up C-rations with Tabasco pepper sauce, wrapped around two-ounce bottles of Tabasco pepper sauce in waterproof canisters.
Tabasco Recipes
Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya
Ingredients:
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 pound andouille or other smoked sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 small red or green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup diced fresh or canned tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon Original TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 3/4 cup uncooked rice
• 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut in half lengthwise
Directions:
Heat oil in a large heavy saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sausage, celery, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring frequently.
Stir in broth, tomatoes, bay leaf, TABASCO® Sauce, oregano, thyme, and allspice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in rice; cover and simmer 15 minutes. Add shrimp; cover and simmer 5 minutes longer or until rice is tender and shrimp turn pink. Let stand, covered, 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf before serving.
Makes 4 servings.
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Cajun Chicken and Andouille Gumbo
Ingredients:
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1/2 pound andouille or other smoked sausage, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 1 (2 1/2- to 3-pound) chicken, cut up
• 1 1/2 quarts water
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped green pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons Original TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• Hot cooked rice
Directions:
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add sausage and cook until browned, about 7 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside. Add chicken pieces to pot and cook until golden brown, about 10 minutes, turning occasionally. Add water and bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to simmer, and cook until chicken is tender, about 30 minutes. Remove chicken from pot and cool slightly. Remove meat from bones, discarding skin and bones; cut meat into 1/2-inch cubes and set aside.
In a skillet over medium heat, mix remaining 3 tablespoons oil with flour and cook, stirring constantly, until roux turns dark brown, about 30 minutes. Add onion, celery, green pepper, and garlic and cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender; add mixture to Dutch oven along with bay leaves, thyme, TABASCO® Sauce, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Add chicken and sausage and simmer 15 minutes longer.
Remove from heat and stir in green onion and parsley; adjust seasoning if needed. Let gumbo stand 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, mound about 1/3 cup rice in each soup bowl, then ladle about 1 cup gumbo around rice.
Makes 8 servings.
From THE TABASCO COOKBOOK© 1993 by Paul McIlhenny with Barbara Hunter
Eula Mae's Cajun Seafood Gumbo
Ingredients:
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil, divided
• 2 pounds fresh okra, or 2 (16-ounce) packages frozen okra, thawed and thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 4 quarts water
• 2 pounds cubed cooked ham (about 6 cups)
• 3 large onions, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 head garlic, cloves peeled but left whole
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 4 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 pounds lump crab meat, picked over
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Original TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce
• 6 cups cooked rice
Directions:
Heat 1/2 cup of the oil in a large skillet (not cast iron) over medium heat. Add okra and cook, stirring frequently, until no longer ropy, about 30 minutes. Add vinegar; cook and stir another 10 minutes, until okra takes on a brownish color and is reduced to about a quarter of its original volume. Spoon okra into a bowl and set aside.
Bring water to a boil in a large stockpot over high heat. Meanwhile, add remaining 1/4 cup oil to skillet over medium-high heat; add ham and sauté 10 minutes or until lightly browned. With slotted spoon, remove ham to stockpot. In same skillet, combine onions, celery, garlic, and green pepper and cook, 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring constantly; add to stockpot along with okra and tomatoes. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to very low, add shrimp, and simmer 10 minutes. Add crab meat and TABASCO® Sauce; simmer 5 to 10 minutes longer. Serve gumbo in soup bowls with mounds of rice.
Makes 12 to 16 servings.
From THE TABASCO COOKBOOK© 1993 by Paul McIlhenny with Barbara Hunter.
Nutritional information per serving: 597 Calories, 58g protein, 42g carbohydrate, 21g fat, 244mg cholesterol, 1799mg sodium
Louisiana Chicken Gumbo
Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (3-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped green onion
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons Original TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce
• 1 (10-ounce) package frozen whole okra
• Hot cooked rice
Directions:
Combine flour and salt in a plastic or paper bag; add chicken pieces, close bag, and shake to coat well.
Heat oil in a large, heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Shake excess flour from chicken and place in hot oil; cook until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove chicken from pot and set aside. Add onion, celery, green onion, and garlic to pot and cook 5 minutes, stirring often.
Return chicken to pot. Stir in broth, tomatoes, bay leaf, and TABASCO® Sauce and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add okra and cook 10 minutes longer. Serve in bowls and top each serving with a scoop of rice.
Makes 8 servings.
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Chicken, Ham and Oyster Gumbo
Ingredients:
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 green bell peppers, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 cups sliced fresh okra
• 2 cups water
• 3 pounds chicken, boned and cut into large chunks
• 1 pound boneless smoked ham, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon Original TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 pint shucked oysters and their liquid
• 3 cups hot cooked rice
Directions:
Heat oil in a 5-quart Dutch oven or saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and cook about 30 minutes, stirring constantly, until roux turns dark brown and develops a nutty aroma. Add green peppers, celery, onion and garlic; cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Add tomatoes, okra, water, chicken, ham, parsley, TABASCO® Sauce, salt and bay leaf. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium, and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in oysters and simmer 10 minutes longer. Discard bay leaf. Serve over rice.
Makes 8 servings.
Nutritional information per serving: 404 calories, 36g protein, 35g carbohydrate, 13g fat, 113mg cholesterol, 1207mg sodium
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