Tabasco Was Invented On This Historic Island In Louisiana In The 1800s
By Jackie Ann|Published August 08, 2022
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Jackie Ann
Author
Louisiana native and LSU Alum (Geaux Tigers!), Jackie has lived in Louisiana for over three decades and currently lives in New Orleans. She's been writing for OnlyInYourState since 2016 and can often be found with a coffee at her side, dreaming of her next adventure.
Tabasco. Everyone knows that famous little red bottle. It’s sold in almost 200 countries around the globe, packaged in 36 languages and dialects, and found on countless tables and pantries. You may even have a bottle in your bag to carry with you everywhere because you never know when you need to spice things up. This famous pepper sauce has been flavoring everything from Bloody Mary’s to burgers for over a century, and it might just be the best invention in Louisiana. It’s undoubtedly the spiciest! Let’s look at how this tiny little pepper found its roots in the Pelican State.
Everyone knows this famous bottle. But not everyone knows the history behind how this spicy sauce came to be.
It starts with Edmund McIlhenny, a Maryland native who moved to Louisiana around 1840. Edmund had a passion for food and was an avid gardener, and he was given some pepper seeds that had come from either Mexico or Central America.
McIlhenny grew his first commercial pepper crop in 1868.
He bottled them in old cologne bottles and distributed 658 bottles across the Gulf Coast, focusing on New Orleans. It didn’t take long for the spicy pepper sauce to catch on, and by the end of the 1870s, it was already being sold across the United States and even in Europe.
His first-born son, John Avery McIlhenny took over the business for a few years, but then resigned so he could join Theodore Roosevelt’s Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, the Rough Riders. The business then went to Edward Avery McIlhenny, a naturalist who was fresh off the boat from an Arctic expedition and ran the business from 1898 until his death in 1949.
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Today, the Tabasco brand is still run by the same family, keeping many of the same traditions the brand was built on.
The little red stick in the man’s hand, also known as "le petit bâton rouge," is how they measure the ripeness of the peppers. Edmund started testing the peppers with this method in the early years of the business and, staying true to tradition, it's still used today.
There have been a few tweaks to the process over the years, but for the most part, it’s stayed the same.
The basic recipe hasn’t changed, but now they use a higher quality distilled vinegar. Another difference is the aging process, which now takes up to three years.
It takes a long time to go from the vine to your table.
Once the peppers are ripe, they are picked by hand and then mashed on the same day. The pepper mash goes into oak barrels, which are then sealed with salt and left to age for up to three years. Then, the mash is drained to remove the skins and seeds. The remaining liquid is then mixed with vinegar, and then has another month in the warehouse before it's ready to be bottled and shipped to stores near you. That's a lot of work!
Fun fact: the warehouse can hold up to 25,000 barrels at a time!
In addition to the original red pepper sauce, Tabasco makes several different hot sauces to spice up your life.
From sweet and spicy to buffalo-style, they have several different flavor combos you should try, including their hottest sauce ever made, the Scorpion Sauce.
Oysters? Bloody Marys? Gumbo? The possibilities are endless.
Check out the Tabasco website for recipes, tour information, and so much more. Avery Island is also home to Bird City and the Jungle Gardens, both worthy of an adventure while you’re visiting.
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