For more than 140 years, the McIlhenny family has manufactured and sold that little bottle of fiery red sauce under its Tabasco brand. Sprinkle a couple drops onto a bowl of chili to make the mouth tingle. Although Tabasco may seem synonymous with hot sauce, there are quite a few other hot sauce varieties.
Tabasco Sauce
Combine hot red peppers, vinegar and salt to create a pungent spicy addition to seafood, chicken, rice, eggs, chili or baked beans. The traditional Tabasco sauce comes from Avery Island in Louisiana with peppers grown in Latin America. In addition to the traditional red sauce, Tabasco also makes a number of other flavors including green jalapeno and Buffalo wing sauce. Visit their website for history, recipes and an introduction to Cajun music.
American Sauces
Besides Tabasco, there are a variety of other hot sauces used in American cooking. Other varieties of Louisiana red sauces vary in strength and taste but still rely on cayenne peppers and vinegar to give them the same familiar bite. Chili sauces rely more on tomato and onion and are used as condiments instead of ketchup on hot dogs, hamburgers or eggs. Pepper-flavored cooking oils, vinegars and alcohols are also used when a little more spice is needed.
Salsa and Picante Sauces
Blend peppers, tomatoes, onions, other vegetables and spices together to create a variety of tasty sauces. Usually focusing on flavor over heat, Mexican salsas are used as condiments or dipping sauces, served with Mexican foods, such as tacos, enchiladas, burritos, salads, seafoods, eggs and almost anything else. Jalapeño, chipotle (smoked, dried jalapenos), cayenne, habanero and bell peppers are commonly blended for a variety of flavors. Sauces can be red, green, smooth or chunky and vary from very mild to flaming hot.
Around the World
Hot sauces with many different tastes and strength appear throughout the world. Asia offers curries, pastes and sauces from pungent Thai and eye-watering Japanese wasabi to China's milder sweet and sour sauce. The Caribbean varies from Cajun with jerked chicken and pork sauces from Jamaica. Every part of the world has some combination of peppers, spices, mustard or roots dried or ground into wonderful hot sauces.
Novelty Sauces
Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, a new market segment has appeared focusing on extreme, and outrageous combinations of peppery sauces. Sauces with names such as "You Can't Handle this Hot Sauce," "Mad Dog 357 Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce" and "Toad Sweat Lemon Vanilla Dessert Hot Sauce" are sold by stores specializing in these items.
Tags: peppers vinegar, sauces from, used condiments