the process. Prior to 1941, when vinegar was standardized, fermentation was the primary method of pickling. By fermenting the pepper mash, the McIlhennys improved the flavor. And as anybody who has ever closely examined a Tabasco sauce bottle in a roadside diner can attest, fermented pepper mash thinned with vinegar will keep somewhere close to forever.
Of course, part of the success of Tabasco was an early focus on marketing. Edmund McIlhenny was an energetic promoter; he handed out flyers and gave away tiny bottles of Tabasco wherever he went. He hired drummers to take his product door to door. A New York grocery wholesaler,E. C. Hazzard, made Tabasco sauce popular on the East Coast.
A sales office in London opened in 1872. In 1895, British troops carried Tabasco sauce with them on their invasion of Khartoum. Over several decades, Tabasco became one of the most recognizable brands in the English-speaking world.
In 1898, a former Tabasco employee namedB. F. Trappey opened a competing hot sauce company and began selling Trappey’s Tabasco sauce.Ed Bulliard’s Evangeline Tabasco Sauce, Gebhardt’s Eagle Brand Tabasco Sauce, and several others were also marketed in the 1920s.
The Tabasco brand was trademarked by the McIlhenny family in 1906, but competitors argued that Tabasco was a kind of pepper, like cayenne, so the name couldn’t be legally limited. For several decades, the McIlhennys tried to assert their exclusive right to the name. Finally in 1929, a court ruled in favor of their claim and other companies were ordered to stop using “Tabasco.” The name was protected, but to this day competitors still sell fermented pepper sauces made in the same style under a variety of labels.
In 1918,Jacob Frank of the Frank Spice and Tea Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, contracted a Louisiana farmer namedAdam Estilette to grow cayenne peppers to make a hot sauce according to a secret recipe he had purchased. Frank and Estilette became partners and worked on a new recipe that combined peppers, garlic, and spices. This blend was first marketed in 1920 asFrank’s RedHot. In 1935,Teressa Bellissimo of the Anchor Bar and Grill in Buffalo, New York, used Frank’s RedHot as the secret ingredient in the sauce she created for the first Buffalo chicken wings—its most famous use.
Today Frank’s RedHot is made from peppers aged in New Mexico. Frank’s extremely popular television commercials star a white-haired old lady named Ethel who tells Catholic priests, the Queen of England, and everyone else she meets that the secret of her recipes is Frank’s RedHot, to which she adds, “I put that (expletive) on everything.” The offending word is bleeped out. Frank’s RedHot is currently the number-one best-selling pepper sauce in America. In a 2010 story in Businessweek , it was ranked number twelve on the list of the nation’s most popular condiments, one rank ahead of Tabasco sauce and one behind Grey Poupon.
The third part of the American pepper sauce trinity isTexas Pete, a cayenne pepper and vinegar sauce from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is the most popular hot sauce in the Southeast and the third best-selling pepper sauce in the United States, after Frank’s RedHot and Tabasco. With more vinegar than most pepper sauces, Texas Pete is a favorite in Southeastern barbecue joints.
It was invented by theGarner family. In 1929, at the age of sixteen, Thad Garner bought a barbecue stand called the Dixie Pig in Winston-Salem. With the restaurant came a hand-written recipe for barbecue sauce. When the rail yard of the Norfolk & Western Railroad expanded, the Dixie Pig lost its location. While Garner looked for a new building, the Dixie Pig’s old customers kept asking for the restaurant’s famous barbecue sauce, and so the Garner family started a barbecue sauce business in their farmhouse kitchen. In response to requests for a hotter barbecue sauce, the Garner family introduced Texas Pete. They reportedly chose the name
Of course, part of the success of Tabasco was an early focus on marketing. Edmund McIlhenny was an energetic promoter; he handed out flyers and gave away tiny bottles of Tabasco wherever he went. He hired drummers to take his product door to door. A New York grocery wholesaler,E. C. Hazzard, made Tabasco sauce popular on the East Coast.
A sales office in London opened in 1872. In 1895, British troops carried Tabasco sauce with them on their invasion of Khartoum. Over several decades, Tabasco became one of the most recognizable brands in the English-speaking world.
In 1898, a former Tabasco employee namedB. F. Trappey opened a competing hot sauce company and began selling Trappey’s Tabasco sauce.Ed Bulliard’s Evangeline Tabasco Sauce, Gebhardt’s Eagle Brand Tabasco Sauce, and several others were also marketed in the 1920s.
The Tabasco brand was trademarked by the McIlhenny family in 1906, but competitors argued that Tabasco was a kind of pepper, like cayenne, so the name couldn’t be legally limited. For several decades, the McIlhennys tried to assert their exclusive right to the name. Finally in 1929, a court ruled in favor of their claim and other companies were ordered to stop using “Tabasco.” The name was protected, but to this day competitors still sell fermented pepper sauces made in the same style under a variety of labels.
In 1918,Jacob Frank of the Frank Spice and Tea Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, contracted a Louisiana farmer namedAdam Estilette to grow cayenne peppers to make a hot sauce according to a secret recipe he had purchased. Frank and Estilette became partners and worked on a new recipe that combined peppers, garlic, and spices. This blend was first marketed in 1920 asFrank’s RedHot. In 1935,Teressa Bellissimo of the Anchor Bar and Grill in Buffalo, New York, used Frank’s RedHot as the secret ingredient in the sauce she created for the first Buffalo chicken wings—its most famous use.
Today Frank’s RedHot is made from peppers aged in New Mexico. Frank’s extremely popular television commercials star a white-haired old lady named Ethel who tells Catholic priests, the Queen of England, and everyone else she meets that the secret of her recipes is Frank’s RedHot, to which she adds, “I put that (expletive) on everything.” The offending word is bleeped out. Frank’s RedHot is currently the number-one best-selling pepper sauce in America. In a 2010 story in Businessweek , it was ranked number twelve on the list of the nation’s most popular condiments, one rank ahead of Tabasco sauce and one behind Grey Poupon.
The third part of the American pepper sauce trinity isTexas Pete, a cayenne pepper and vinegar sauce from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is the most popular hot sauce in the Southeast and the third best-selling pepper sauce in the United States, after Frank’s RedHot and Tabasco. With more vinegar than most pepper sauces, Texas Pete is a favorite in Southeastern barbecue joints.
It was invented by theGarner family. In 1929, at the age of sixteen, Thad Garner bought a barbecue stand called the Dixie Pig in Winston-Salem. With the restaurant came a hand-written recipe for barbecue sauce. When the rail yard of the Norfolk & Western Railroad expanded, the Dixie Pig lost its location. While Garner looked for a new building, the Dixie Pig’s old customers kept asking for the restaurant’s famous barbecue sauce, and so the Garner family started a barbecue sauce business in their farmhouse kitchen. In response to requests for a hotter barbecue sauce, the Garner family introduced Texas Pete. They reportedly chose the name
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