Hot sauce has been around a long time, although its popularity is booming now more than ever. While people around the world have been enjoying hot sauce since they first discovered the tastiness of chili peppers thousands of years ago, the first commercial sauce hit the United States in Massachusetts in 1807 and featured cayenne peppers.
Many of the first-available hot sauces no longer exist. Their history and ingredients are mostly understood through old newspaper advertisem*nts. The first recording of a tabasco chili crop is listed as 1849 and was grown by Louisiana legislator and banker Colonel Maunsell White. White began manufacturing the first official tabasco chili hot sauce and selling it commercially.
In 1869, Edmund McIlhenny, a friend of Colonel White’s, began selling his world-famous Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce. The rise of commercial hot sauces is mostly centered in the Cajun country of Louisiana, where Tabasco is still being made today on Avery Island.
Cajun cooking with fragrant spices and spicy flavors has been keeping the hot sauce market alive and well. Following Tabasco, other hot sauce entrepreneurs made their living producing equally-known products like Crystal Hot Sauces and Frank’s Red Hot® Cayenne Pepper Sauce.
In the hot sauce market, makers are constantly striving to make a better, hotter, more inspired sauce than before. A century ago, most hot sauces were made of ingredients readily available only in their geographic location.
In the 1900’s, hot sauces were being made beyond the United States in places like the Caribbean. Many of these products were not commercially available, but rather family recipes passed down from one generation to the next, except for the Pickapeppa Company. This company, based in Jamaica, began manufacturing a commercial hot sauce in 1941 that is still a popular brand today.
In the 1940’s, La Victoria Salsa Brava created more innovative hot sauces, including red and green sauces and enchilada sauces, for the first time in the United States. In 1947, David Pace mastered a picante sauce while working out of the back of his San Antonio liquor store.
In 1979, Dan Jardine started a commercial salsa factory in Austin, Texas and proclaimed Austin as the ‘Hot Sauce Capital of the World’. While many dispute this, there is still an annual Hot Sauce Festival held there.
Until 1988, most hot sauces were sold through gourmet shops or specialty food stores. During that time, Lisa Lamme started La Saucier in Boston, known to be the first store solely dedicated to hot sauces.
Later that same year, Dave DeWitt, known as the ‘Pope of Peppers’, started the National Fiery Foods Show in El Paso, Texas, an event still held each year, which has since moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. During this show, the Scovie Awards are held, one of the most prestigious hot sauce awards available. Scovie refers to the Scoville Unit, the measurement of heat in each sauce. Named after Wilbur Scoville, the test measures the heat of a pepper and it ranks peppers on a scale of zero to several million Scoville units. Pure capsaicin ranks on the scale at 16 million while common bell peppers can rank between 0-100.
In 1989, a man from New Jersey developed the ‘Death Sauce’, a range of hot sauces that included some of the world’s hottest peppers in its recipe. His 6AM sauce ranks over 10 million on the Scoville scale.
In 1993, Dave Hirschkop created an ‘insanity sauce’ that was actually banned at the National Fiery Food Show. In most other situations, being banned would be a bad thing. In Dave’s case, it was actually a dream come true, garnering him more attention than winning any award.
The sauce’s heat caused a problem for a man with respiratory issues and since then, Dave’s hot sauce bottles, and many others, now contain a disclaimer to ‘use one drop at a time’ and warns people with heart or respiratory problems to avoid using the sauces.
It was because of this event that hot sauce makers from around the world now strive to create the hottest, most insane sauce possible, combining exotic ingredients from all over the world. The market continues to grow, achieving billions of dollars in profits each year.
Hot sauce makers are also becoming more and more inventive, creating hot sauce bottles that feature hilarious sauce names (i.e. Slap Your Mama hot sauce) and equally-hilarious and innovative marketing visuals to attract consumer attention. Hot sauce entrepreneurs are stepping up their game to achieve recognition in the ever-growing hot sauce industry.
https://www.chilliworld.com/factfile/the-history-of-hot-sauce
http://www.hotsauce101.com/history-lesson.html
As a passionate hot sauce enthusiast with a deep understanding of the subject, I can attest to the rich and diverse history that hot sauce has woven throughout the culinary landscape. The information provided in the article aligns with my extensive knowledge, gained through years of exploring and studying the evolution of hot sauces.
The narrative begins by acknowledging the ancient origins of hot sauce, dating back thousands of years when people first discovered the delightful taste of chili peppers. The article then delves into the commercialization of hot sauce in the United States, citing Massachusetts in 1807 as the site of the first commercial sauce featuring cayenne peppers. It highlights the role of Colonel Maunsell White, a Louisiana legislator and banker, who in 1849 grew the first tabasco chili crop, laying the foundation for the iconic Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce by Edmund McIlhenny in 1869.
The Cajun influence on hot sauce production is emphasized, particularly in Louisiana, where the market has thrived with spicy flavors and fragrant spices. Tabasco, Crystal Hot Sauces, and Frank’s Red Hot® Cayenne Pepper Sauce are mentioned as prominent players in the Cajun hot sauce scene.
The article then explores the global expansion of hot sauce in the 1900s, with Caribbean and Jamaican influences contributing to family recipes and commercial products like the one from the Pickapeppa Company in 1941. The 1940s see innovations in the United States with La Victoria Salsa Brava introducing red and green sauces, and David Pace mastering picante sauce in San Antonio.
A pivotal moment in the hot sauce timeline is marked by the establishment of the National Fiery Foods Show in 1988 by Dave DeWitt, also known as the 'Pope of Peppers'. This event, held annually in Albuquerque, New Mexico, features the prestigious Scovie Awards, measuring the heat of sauces in Scoville Units named after Wilbur Scoville.
The narrative continues to the late 20th century, where hot sauce enthusiasts pushed the boundaries of heat, leading to the development of extremely spicy sauces like the 'Death Sauce' in 1989 and an 'insanity sauce' in 1993. The mention of the Scoville scale, measuring heat levels from 0 to several million Scoville units, adds a scientific dimension to the discussion of spiciness.
The article concludes by highlighting the continued growth of the hot sauce market, reaching billions of dollars in profits annually. Hot sauce makers are described as becoming increasingly inventive, not only in the creation of extremely hot sauces but also in branding and marketing strategies to capture consumer attention.
In summary, the history of hot sauce is a fascinating journey encompassing ancient origins, commercialization, global influences, innovations, and a relentless pursuit of spiciness, all contributing to the dynamic and thriving hot sauce industry we see today.
