Tabasco

Tabasco the trade name of a bottled hot chilli sauce made since 1868 from ripe red peppers of the species Capsicum frutescens v. tabasco. The variety name comes from the state in Mexico from which seeds originally came to Avery Island, Louisiana, where the McIlhenny family have cultivated the plants to make the sauce. The island is the peak of a subterranean mountain of salt. A special fermentation process carried out there gives the special flavour to the sauce. Interesting features of the sauce’s history have been described by Naj (1992), but an official history of this fascinating phenomenon in the annals of food production has still to be written.