Todo el tabasco del mundo se produce en Avery Island, una pequeña isla de sal en la costa de Luisiana, cerca de Nueva Orleans. ¿La receta? La de siempre, la de 1868.
Katheleen Cornford
Edmund McIlhenny first started selling Tabasco sauce from his plantation on Avery Island, Louisiana in 1868. Today his hot pepper sauce, which is a key ingredient in the Bloody Mary cocktail, is sold in 195 countries and territories.
THE STORY
In the 1840s, there was a war between Mexico and the United States, and there were two battles in the Mexican province of Tabasco. After the war, an American soldier took some capsicum peppers from Tabasco back home and he gave them to his friend, Edmund McIlhenny, who decided to plant the seeds on Avery Island.
THE CIVIl WAR
In the 1860s, there was another war: the American Civil War. Union forces invaded Avery Island, which also had important salt mines. The McIlhenny family fled to Texas. When they returned, the plantation was in ruins: there was nothing, except for the crop of Tabasco peppers. Edmund McIlhenny needed to make money and so he started producing ‘Tabasco Sauce’.
THE PRODUCTION PROCESS
All of the world’s Tabasco is still produced on Avery Island today. The peppers are picked by hand. They are then macerated in wooden barrels which already contain Tabasco sauce. These barrels are protected from the air by a layer of salt. Three years later, McIlhenny company employees open the barrels and add vinegar. The sauce is mixed again and placed in bottles.
RECYCLING
The McIlhenny company saves money and resources by using second-hand barrels. Some of them are provided by another famous Southern firm: the Jack Daniels whiskey distillery in Tennessee. This certainly adds to the taste! After production, the barrels are used a third time, as firewood.
Tabasco Facts And Tips
Tabasco Pepper Sauce is packaged in 36 different languages and dialects and is distributed in 195 countries and territories worldwide.
Japan is the the second largest Tabasco Pepper Sauce consumer in the world (after the USA). The most common usage there is for pizza and spaghetti.
According to some doctors, a bit of Tabasco Sauce in your tomato juice or soup may help alleviate congestion if you’re not feeling very well.
Make sure you take a mini bottle when flying. There is nothing like Tabasco Sauce for improving airline food!
if you go…
Avery Island isn’t really an island: it is a ‘salt dome’ on the Louisiana gulf Coast, 225 km west of New Orleans. Here you will find the world’s only Tabasco factory and bottling plant.
Avery Island is also a natural paradise with exotic plants and a bird sanctuary. But please be careful: it is also home to a few alligators!
GLOSSARY
sauce: salsahot pepper: pimiento picante, guindillakey: claveseeds: semillassalt mines: salinasto flee: huircrop: cosechaall of the world’s: de todo el mundoto pick: recogerwooden barrels: barriles de maderalayer: capaemployees: empleados, trabajadoresto save: ahorrarto provide: suministrarfirm: compañía, empresafirewood: leñasalt dome: mina de sal
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