Tabasco sauce has been a favorite among many of us for years. It adds a kick to our favorite meals, it comes in a variety of flavors, and our lives are basically incomplete without it. Though we may love it, there are probably a lot of things you can stand to learn about this well-loved sauce.
Tabasco was invented back in 1868 and it was the first of its kind to be commercially sold. Since the 1800s, the sauce has made its way to grocery store shelves in over 150 countries and even has websites for different parts of the world like Poland, Germany, Brazil, and Switzerland. The reason for this is so that people all over the world can “learn more about Tabasco brand products in your part of the world,” as their website states.
Of course, the aging process has changed significantly since the sauce was first manufactured. Serious Eats reported that back in the day, Tabasco was aged for 30 days in stone jars, whereas now it sits for three years in bourbon barrels.
They also reported that only one pepper is used to make the sauce and it’s the Capsicum frutescens pepper.
One of the coolest things about Tabasco is that the original flavor only uses three ingredients: vinegar, salt, and pepper. The reason why you need to shake it before serving is that there aren’t any preservatives so the sauce might separate.
There are currently eight flavors of Tabasco sauce. The habanero is the spiciest and it’s ranked highest on the Scoville scale. (The Scoville scale is a measurement used to determine the spiciness of chili peppers and anything derived from them.) The original flavor is the second hottest and the chipotle flavor is third. If you’re looking for that classic Tabasco taste without burning your mouth then you’d be best off with the sweet and sour sauce, which is the least spicy.
Those in the nineteenth century would have been shocked, to say the least, if a big ol’ glob of hot sauce dumped onto their food. So, the company needed to think of ways to package the sauce so it wouldn’t dump out all in one go. In an interview with NPR, Paul McIlhenny said, “I think [Ed] found cologne bottles that had stoppers with sprinkler fitments in them. The sprinkler would allow something to be dispensed by the drop or the dash rather than poured on and his sauce was so concentrated that it was practical, so the legend is that he found old cologne bottles and filled them with Tabasco sauce.”
Tabasco sauce contains about 720 drops, which might take you a while to plow through, but fear not because its shelf life is that of about five years. AOL explained that you might want to keep it in a cool place to really make the best of it. Also, don’t place it in direct sunlight because that’s no good either.
They also reported that Tabasco caters to a lot of different dietary restrictions. It’s kosher and gluten-free! Every single flavor offers these restrictions, so go ahead and indulge in whichever one you’d like!
Sheesh, as if you didn’t like Tabasco enough before…
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