Hot as the red-hot cauldrons in the underworld, the legendary Tabasco sauce has become iconic not only within the kitchens of housewives, but also on the shelves of the best bar counters. Today I want to tell you about this ambrosia, without which it is impossible to prepare a decent Bloody Mary and a huge number of other cocktails and drinks.

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The sharp contents of tiny jars of Tabasco can lift a dead man to his feet; a couple of drops of it will have an antiseptic effect on the entire body and will have a positive effect on the efficiency of the digestive system. Today it is the most recognizable sauce in the world - the label has been translated into 22 languages, and products from Louisiana are sold in 160 countries of the world. Where did he come from and why did he become cult? Let's figure it out.

As Vicky says, Tabasco sauce is the trade name for hot sauces, which are made on the basis of the pulp of cayenne pepper (commonly called Tabasco peppers), salt and vinegar. They are prepared by the method of lactofermentation, that is, fermentation, when starch and sugar are converted into other beneficial substances by the action of bacteria. So preparing, or. True, Tabasco is kept in barrels of white Limousin oak for three years, and in this it is, perhaps, truly unique. The production process is extremely simple: the fruits of cayenne pepper are ground in puree and mixed with salt, and then left in barrels for a specified period, and this is no less than 3 years for the classics. After that, the fermented mixture is diluted with vinegar, filtered and poured into small bottles.

Each 2 ounce Tabasco bottle (about 60 ml) contains at least 720 drops.

The story of Tabasco is interesting. For the first time, Irishman Edmund MacAilenny began to prepare it, who with his family moved to Louisiana in the distant 1840th year. At first, he cooked his favorite sauce only for his family and friends, pouring it into small bottles of cologne. The success of his work was sold out around the district, and Edmund decided to reach the national scale, for which in 1868 he ordered thousands of small bottles at a glass factory in New Orleans.

Diamond Tabasco bottles with diamond labels are among the most recognizable in the world, along with traditional Coca-Cola bottles. Their design has not changed the last 100 years.

The production of Tabasco is still carried out in Louisiana, and to the small estate of Avery Island, which belongs to the MacIilleni family (now the heir to the company of Edmund in the sixth generation). The estate stands on the salt mines of Louisiana, from which salt is taken for the sauce. Initially, all cayenne pepper for Tabasco was grown exclusively on Avery Island, but it lasted only until 1960. Currently, raw materials for Tabasco come from Colombia, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Ecuador. Pepper harvesting is strictly controlled by McIlhenny technologists - Tabasco peppers are collected entirely by hand, and its ripeness is determined using a special indicator that every employee has.

McIlhenny is the official supplier of the sauce for NASA - Tabasco regularly happens in space. Hot sauce is included in the official ration by the astronaut from the Space Shuttle program.

Under the Tabasco brand, 7 different sauces are made, which differ in taste, composition and hotness. Three years of exposure only subjected to classic, real red Tabasco Original sauce. The softest is Tabasco Sweet’n’Spicy, a sweet-hot sauce, followed by Buffalo sauce for chicken wings and a green jalapeno-based Tabasco Green pepper sauce (no cayenne pepper). The strongest garlic sauce is Tabasco Garlic (a mixture of three peppers), then smoked Tabasco Chipotle (based on pepper chipotle). The hottest is Tabasco Habanero sauce.

The hotness of sauces is determined on the Scoville scale, which is based on determining the content of capsaicins in the composition of the sauce - a component that is “responsible” for spiciness. In the case of Tabasco, the situation is as follows:

• Tabasco Sweet’n’Spicy - 100-600 units
• Tabasco Buffalo - 300-900 units.
• Tabasco Green - 600-1200 units.
• Tabasco Garlic - 1200–2400 units.
• Tabasco Chipotle - 1500–2500 units.
• Tabasco Original - 2500-5000 units.
• Tabasco Habanero -\u003e 7000 units.

Let me remind you that for alcohol experiments it is best to use the original sauce, which is subjected to a three-year aging - Tabasco Original. It is he who goes to Bloody Mary and the chasers I wrote about. If suddenly you do not find Tabasco sauce in your city, try cooking it at home.

Homemade Tabasco Recipes

To get the product most similar to the Tabasco sauce, you will have to get the eponymous pepper (cayenne pepper). Fortunately, now you can grow Tabasco at home - you can buy seeds of overseas hot pepper in numerous online stores for a penny. Of course, instead of Tabasco you can take any other hot red pepper. You should also carefully consider the choice of other ingredients. In particular, you should refuse from iodized salt, which is not the best way to affect the flavor of the sauce. A good result is obtained with kosher salt (originally used for kosherovaniye meat, not what you thought), which is very common in the United States. It is even more important to use high-quality vinegar, which is better on its own, from apple or white grape wine, for example.

Tobasco Fast Sauce by Pat Stockett, 1947

Recipe from The Blue Blue Book Vol. X, 1947 edition, by Pat Stockett.

• 36 pieces of Tabasco pepper
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 teaspoon of horseradish
• 250 ml of vinegar
• 250 ml of water

Pepper wash, remove the stems, shift into the pot, add garlic and water. Cook until the pepper softens, then strain the liquid through a tight sieve. Add the remaining ingredients and stew for 15-20 minutes. Pour the prepared sauce into sterilized jars and tightly close the lid. Homemade Tabasco can be diluted with vinegar or salad oil just before serving, or used in its pure form for the preparation of cocktails. Keep refrigerated.

This sharp classic American sauce is divided into 5 types, but the main, classic, unlike the others, passes three-month aging in barrels of wood. Fermentation of this kind helps to achieve a much more subtle taste of the product, to develop sourness and enhance the sharpness.

The composition of the Tabasco sauce has not been disclosed, but it is known that it consists of cayenne pepper, salt and vinegar. Knowing this, home cooks from all over the world rushed to adapt the recipe to cooking in the conditions of ordinary cuisine. We will describe some of these recipes below.

Classic Tabasco Sauce Recipe

This simplest and most basic recipe allows you to achieve maximum similarity with the original sauce. As part of the recipe, you can use cayenne pepper, as in the original recipe, or chili pepper, which is much more accessible in our area.

Ingredients:

• hot pepper (chili or cayenne) - 1.7 kg;
• salt - 35 g;
• water - 475 ml;
• vinegar - 920 ml.

Cooking

To make a Tabasco sauce with your own hands, it’s enough to arm yourself with a powerful blender and put all the ingredients in the list in its bowl. Please note that if you want to get a not too hot sauce, you can extract seeds from the peppers before chopping. Whisk all the ingredients of the sauce together until you get a mass of puree-like consistency. Pour the sauce over clean cans and leave to warm for about a week. During this time, the sauce will begin to ferment, therefore it will be necessary to give the output to the gas formed. To do this, at least once a day, open the lid on the banks. Over time, the finished sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three months.

Tabasco sauce recipe at home

For lovers of spicy sauce with a slightly richer taste, we suggest implementing this variation of the sauce with garlic and horseradish in the composition. This recipe is ranked among the classic recipes produced in 1947.

Ingredients:

• cayenne pepper - 36 pcs .;
• garlic - 1 tooth;
• sugar - 15 g;
• a pinch of salt;
• water - 235 ml;
• vinegar - 235 ml;
•   - 1 tsp.

Cooking

Mix the water with the vinegar and place the mixture over medium heat. Let the mixture boil, put a clove of garlic, cayenne pepper and grated horseradish. Leave everything to cook until the garlic and horseradish are softened, and then remove the mixture from the heat, fold to a sieve and mash well. Return the sauce back to the stove, add sugar and salt, and then, after re-boiling, pour on clean cans. Ready Tabasco better stored in the refrigerator.

Tabasco Hot Sauce

Maximum spice can be achieved by reducing the amount of liquid in the recipe, so this recipe is designed for fans of extreme spice.

Ingredients:

• tabasco peppers - 12 pcs .;
• garlic - 1 tooth;
• vinegar - 115 ml;
• salt, sugar - ½ tsp.

Cooking

You can previously remove the seeds from the peppers or leave them whole. Put the peppers in vinegar with the chives and cook until tender. When the peppers are ready, wipe everything through a sieve, and season the pureed mash and dilute to the consistency of heavy cream with additional vinegar if necessary.

For the purpose of long-term storage, the sauce is additionally boiled and poured into sterile bottles.

Tabasco - one of the most famous spicy sauces. For its preparation using only three uncomplicated ingredients: hot pepper, and vinegar. But this does not prevent Tabasco from being one of the most delicious hot sauces in the world. A limited set of ingredients and small portions of product use are the reason why it should not be considered as a source of vitamins and minerals. But this does not mean that Tabasco does not have health benefits.

What is tabasco sauce

Tabasco is the trade name for hot sauces. In the original recipe of this product there are only three ingredients: (also known as Tabasco), salt and vinegar. 1868 is the year of birth of the world famous sauce. His recipe was developed by Edmund Macailenny from American Louisiana. Unlike many popular dishes today, Tabasco did not appear by chance. Edmund Macaylenny worked on it for a long time. As a result, he opted for Tabasco pepper, salt from a local mine and high-quality white vinegar. By the way, the first batch of the product was not called Tabasco, but ... The sauce prepared by Mr. McIlenny. But soon the creator came up with a spectacular name for his brainchild, which from the language of the North American Indians translates as "the land of wet land."

For the future sauce, only very ripe juicy pods of pepper are taken, which are ground to a puree and, together with salt, kept in white oak barrels for 3 years. This type of wood gives the sauce a special sweet-sour flavor. Then, vinegar is added to the fermented pepper pulp and the mixture is bottled.

The finished product can be stored for about 3 months at room temperature, and in the refrigerator even longer. The product from cayenne pepper is quite spicy, so adding it to the dishes (especially if you decided to try Tabasco for the first time) needs a few drops.

But not all tabasco sauces are equally spicy. The original product comes in seven variations of sharpness. The hottest option is Habanero, the degree of severity of which is measured in 7000-9000 units on the Scoville scale. Less acute is the so-called “real red” with a classic burning capacity of 2500-5000 units. In addition to those already mentioned, there are:

• smoked tabasco (from pepper chipotle, sharpness of 1500-2500 units);
• garlic (burning capacity of 1200-2400 units, made from a mixture of hot peppers and);
• green (from jalapeno pepper, sizzling capacity of 600-1200 units);
• buffalo (specially designed for chicken wings, 300–900 Scoville units);
• sweet and spicy (the most delicate of the hot sauces, zhguchestyu just 100-600 units).

But the difference between different types of Tabasco is not only in the degree of stinginess, but also in the production process. Only classic Tabasco is exposed to 3 years of aging. But for the green sauce instead of pepper Tabasco use another pepper - jalapeno.

The sweet and sour taste of green Tabasco goes well with fish and salads. Garlic sauce option is usually added to pizza, soups, used when frying meat. Aromatic smoked tabasco, according to many gourmets, is an ideal addition to grilled meat and kebabs. The sauce, cooked according to the classic recipe with a 3-year aging, is considered the most versatile and suitable for almost any snack and hot dishes. But not everyone will dare to try the Tabasco Habanero. This incredibly hot sauce goes well with Mexican, Caribbean and African dishes. Some connoisseurs of Tabasco maximally stingy say that it perfectly complements the taste. A drop of habanero added to a glass turns ordinary vodka into a hot pepper vodka.

Nutritional characteristics

A teaspoon of this Tabasco sauce does not contain any calories and. This product contains as well as some minerals (,). But these substances are represented in the sauce in very small quantities, especially if we recall that they use only a few drops of Tabasco. This product also has almost none. But the sauce based on cayenne pepper contains good stocks of capsaicin (responsible for the burning of the product). And this substance is known for many beneficial properties. In particular, research data indicates that capsaicin has an analgesic effect, improves digestion and relieves the symptoms of indigestion. In addition, it is believed that this chemical helps to lose weight, and is also useful in skin diseases.

For many years, vegetables containing capsaicin (including cayenne pepper) have been used in different countries to fight infectious diseases and as an anesthetic. Capsaicin, which is also found in Tabasco sauce, is added to an ointment against muscle and joint pain (including arthritis).

Useful properties of Tabasco

Spicy taste and spicy aroma, which is advantageously combined with many dishes, these are not all the advantages of Tabasco sauce. Here are some of his most famous beneficial properties.

Responsible for thermogenesis

This term suggests that, against the background of the consumption of hot sauce, body temperature rises slightly. That is, Tabasco has a warming effect, which is always accompanied by the additional burning of calories and fat cells. By the way, this process continues for some time after a meal with Tabasco sauce. And this is good news for those who want to lose weight. It turns out that the joke about "what to eat to lose weight" is not really a joke.

Accelerates Metabolism

Data from scientific experiments indicate that capsaicin helps speed up metabolism and also makes its contribution to the process of losing weight. In addition, contained in the product is also useful for accelerating the metabolism of fats. Well, speaking of the benefits of Tabasco for losing weight, one can not forget about almost zero product, which makes it one of the most useful sauces for obese people.

Improves mood

Researchers from New York have found that, against the backdrop of eating spicy food, the concentration of endorphins, the so-called joy hormones, increases in the body. So, the next time you feel a lack of happiness, you can try to cheer yourself up with a portion of your favorite meat with Tabasco sauce.

Improves blood circulation

Many studies indicate that eating hot pepper can improve the condition of the cardiovascular system and blood circulation. In addition, scientists have discovered that capsaicin is able to lower levels, prevent hypertension and excessive blood clots.

The influence of acute on the stomach: myths and truth

Probably, many had heard, they say, a passion for spicy food - a direct path to a stomach ulcer. Today, researchers are increasingly finding evidence of the opposite. If you believe the latest discoveries of scientists, then sauces based on hot pepper types, including those containing Tabasco cayenne pepper, are in fact beneficial to the stomach.

Proponents of this theory claim that spicy sauce, getting into the digestive system, kills bacteria harmful to the body and thus regulates the intestinal microflora. In addition, it is believed that as soon as the hot sauce enters the stomach, it does not corrode the mucous membrane, but rather stimulates the secretion of juice, which protects the stomach walls from acid, which breaks food.

But the benefits of the hot sauce can only be felt by an absolutely healthy digestive system. In the presence of a stomach ulcer or duodenal ulcer, the use of Tabasco sauce will be a rather painful test. In addition, a sharp product will exacerbate the problem. Reflux disease, accompanied by heartburn, is also a cause of rejection of spicy foods. The use of cayenne pepper sauce will further increase the acidity of the gastric environment. You should not look at the bright bottle with a spicy Tabasco sauce for people with irritable bowel syndrome or suffering from atrophic gastritis (accompanied by thinning of the stomach wall). In such cases, Tabasco can cause exacerbations of the disease.

Dangerous properties of Tabasco

This is a very hot sauce that can be harmful in large quantities. This is especially true of people who have not previously used Tabasco. But even those who are used to spicy food should be careful with this hot product. Excessive portions of capsaicin can cause bloating, severe diarrhea, disrupt the blood clotting process and even cause shock. Regular consumption of hot sauce in too large quantities can cause damage to the kidneys and liver.

How to cook at home

Of course, homemade tabasco will be noticeably different from the original, but you can try to prepare a sauce a la tabasco. Plus a homemade recipe is that you can do without barrels of white oak and a three-year exposure of cayenne pepper. But in return, you will have to expand the list of ingredients of a sharp product.

For homemade hot sauce you will need: 6 dried pods, ripe (4 large), onion (one large), bunch of green, garlic (2-3 cloves), (about 50 ml), wine vinegar (20 ml), to taste salt, and sugar.

Now that you have sorted out the list of ingredients (as you can see, all the products are quite accessible), you can start preparing the sauce itself. To do this, the pepper should be cut into 2 parts, cleaned from seeds and peduncles, cut into small pieces and pour boiling water for half an hour. During this time, you can prepare the remaining ingredients: wash, clean, chop in a blender. Then in the mashed potatoes add the swollen chili and grind again. Puree shift into the pan, add olive oil, herbs, sugar, salt, vinegar and ground black pepper. Cook all together until thick.

In the world of cooking there are many sauces based on hot peppers. But if there is a king in this group of products, then this is undoubtedly Tabasco, a sauce that was invented a century and a half ago and became the main one on the tables of all lovers of spicy dishes.

The name Tabasco, contrary to popular belief, is by no means the national sauce of any Spanish-speaking country, but a trademark for the recipe for the hottest American sauce! Based on the name and composition, it can be assumed that the origin of this recipe lies somewhere in Mexico, however, it is known for the first time that they began to produce sauce in the United States. The inventor of this product is Edmund MacAilenny, who gave the sauce world renown. He also organized mass production, creating a company named after itself. The McIlhenny Company is still working on the same Ivory island as 128 years ago. The affairs of the company successfully manage the heirs of MacAilenny. An incredible amount of Tabasco sauce is produced on the island every day: more than 700 thousand 60 ml bottles leave the assembly line every day! This is equivalent to 42 thousand liters per day. It would seem, where so much? But there is hardly a country in the world where they have never heard of Tabasco sauce - it is delivered to more than 160 countries of the world and almost everywhere - in huge volumes.

Important: carefully check the label for consistency, color and texture before buying tabasco sauce.

How do

To this day, the MacAilenny family follows family traditions in the production of tabasco sauce. The recipe is used exactly the same as 120 years ago. The composition is as simple as all ingenious: the flesh of cayenne peppers growing on Ivory Island, sea salt extracted there and distilled vinegar. The hottest pepper is cleaned from seeds, turned into puree, mixed with salt and left to stand in white oak barrels for three whole years. The top of the barrel is filled with a large layer of salt, for sealing. After three years, the barrels are opened, the contents are checked for taste, color and smell and mixed with vinegar in perfect proportion. All ingredients are mixed in huge oak tanks of 7 thousand liters for 4 weeks. After that, the consistency, composition and taste of each batch are carefully checked in a special laboratory, and the tabasco sauce is finally poured into 60 ml classical containers.

Production volumes are really huge, and even variations of the sauce, there are several dozen. The first and most popular type of sauce: Tabasco Pepper Sauce. It is his recipe production method described above, the rest are significantly different from the main recipe and not only proportions.

Important: The persistence of pepper is measured on the Scoville scale, in the same unit of measurement. For example, the burning of sweet peppers ranges from 0 to 100 skovillov, and the usual allspice - about 500.

The table shows not all types of Tabasco, only the most popular. But these sauces can meet the needs of the most exquisite gourmets. Often, a dish with the addition of Tabasco sauce acquires a completely different taste and special piquancy. Also, the product is an important component of many original recipes, such as the famous Bloody Mary cocktail. In many cities of Russia, it is not so easy to buy a cherished bottle, so it will not hurt to learn how to cook it at home. Accurate reproduction of the recipe will not work, but to achieve the same taste, you can easily!

How to make at home

First and foremost, to start culinary experiences need to stock up on ingredients. In the original recipe there are only 3 of them: the flesh of fresh cayenne pepper, salt, preferably sea salt and a little wine red vinegar. Vinegar is added at the last stage of preparation, so its presence is not necessary immediately. Number of incidents: 6 peppers, 4-5 teaspoons of salt, 4 teaspoons of vinegar. Cut the cayenne peppers of medium size in half, be sure to length along and clean the seed. The resulting slices are carefully ground in a blender, after adding two thirds of the total weight of pepper, the amount of salt. The resulting mixture should be of a homogeneous consistency, without pieces of pepper and lumps of salt - like tomato paste, for example. Further, the burning puree is tamped to the bottom of the glass jar, which will replace us with an oak barrel. From above we fill in with a small amount of the salted cold water - only to cover mix from above. We close the bank and remove it in a dark place for at least a week. Store fermented pepper at room temperature or ideally at 26-28 degrees.

Important: if cayenne pepper is not found, you can use another. However, if it is less spicy than cayenne, it should be ground along with the seeds, and if more, add a little more vinegar.

The longer the fermentation of pepper in the jar takes place - the better and fuller the taste will be, however, it is important not to overdo it. It makes sense to keep future Tabasco at home for more than two months only if a huge amount of sauce is prepared, for example, more than 50 liters! At the end of the aging period, add 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar to every three peppers used in the initial mixture, mix well and put into the fridge for a couple of hours! The sauce is ready, it remains only to mix it again until a perfectly homogeneous consistency is obtained.

Many can be skeptical about this method of preparation, because at the factory the mixture wanders in oak barrels, and even three years! However, such conditions are due to the volume of production and have almost no effect on the quality of the product. And in general, there is a perception that oak barrels and fermentation for a long time are only a marketing ploy of the MacAilenny family, with the help of which they cause such a high price for such a cheap product at a cost. So at home, after a certain number of attempts, it is possible to prepare a perfect tabasco sauce in terms of taste and recipe.

How to use?

What kind of dishes can add tabasco sauce? Yes, almost everything! Almost any recipe can be slightly improved with the help of any kind of sauce, give it a piquancy and completely different flavors. The versatility of Tabasco is a clear reason to always keep a couple of bottles in the fridge. But there are many recipes where this sauce is almost key. There are countless such recipes, thanks to the mad popularity of sauce around the world. It is time to consider two popular recipes with this sauce:

Devilish chicken

Ingredients:

• 1.5-2 kg chicken or chicken;
• juice of two lemons;
• 100 grams of olive oil;
• three teaspoons of Tabasco Pepper Sauce;
• a teaspoon of salt;
• teaspoon black pepper.

Divide the chicken with kitchen scissors into two parts, so that they are fastened with the spine or split in half. Stir the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Lubricate the chicken marinade and leave in the refrigerator for several hours. No need to spend the marinade all at once, he still needed. After the chicken is marinated, put the chicken on a baking sheet, skin down and put it in the oven, preheated to 180-200 degrees. While chicken in the oven, every 10 minutes should be watered with the remains of marinade. It is desirable that the marinade is enough for the entire cooking process. After 30 minutes, the chicken should be turned upside down and left for another 20 minutes. The main thing - do not forget to moisten the marinade from time to time. It remains only to chop the chicken and you can serve the dish with any side dish!

Cocktail "Bloody Mary"

Ingredients:

• 100 ml of Reposado tequila;
• 150 ml of tomato juice;
• 75 ml of mollusk juice;
• 3 teaspoons lime juice;
• tablespoon finely chopped celery;
• half tablespoon finely chopped cilantro / parsley;
• half a teaspoon of minced garlic;
• a teaspoon of Tabasco Pepper Sauce;
• half a teaspoon of salt;
• half a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce;

The number of ingredients is calculated on two servings of the Bloody Mary cocktail. Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Fill in highball glasses. Moisten the edge of the glass and sprinkle with salt, serve with celery sticks and lime wedge, cooled.

Finally

The above recipes for Tabasco sauce are taken from the official site of the Mcilhenny Company, where they are stored countless, including from ordinary people. Do not be afraid to dream of cooking and use Tabasco sauce, even where it would seem, is not at all necessary. The main feature of this wonderful sauce is that it is difficult for them to spoil any dish! And most importantly, remember: an excessive amount of spicy food is contraindicated for people with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.