Avery Island Part II: Tabasco Pepper Sauce
Berwick, LA
In our last post we told you a little about the history of Avery Island and about how Edmund McIlhenny married into the Avery family. After the Civil War, someone (possibly a Civil War veteran who was passing through the area) gave Edmund some chile pepper seeds he said were from Mexico. Edmund was an avid gardener, so he planted the seeds. It is uncertain how he ended up with his final pepper sauce concoction, but because it was such a hit with his friends, he began to sell it in 1868.
Tabasco is the name of a region in Mexico, and since the original pepper seeds were thought to have come from Mexico, Edmund used that name for his pepper sauce.
McIlhenny Company offers factory tours 7 days a week, except major holidays. Tours start outside the factory visitor entrance.
The tour begins with an excellent video detailing how Tabasco sauce is made starting with growing the peppers. In 1965, the McIlhenny Company ran out of room on Avery Island to grow all the peppers they needed for their production, so they began growing peppers in Central and South America. All the seed peppers are still grown on Avery Island, and a member of the McIlhenny family personally selects only the best plants from which to save seed. Most of the peppers for the sauce, however, are now grown in other locations. A big advantage to growing in more than one location is the supply is assured in the event of hurricane, insects or disease at any one place.
According to company tradition, all peppers are picked by hand at the peak of ripeness because that's the best way to assure they are at their best flavor and maximum juiciness. As the peppers ripen, they turn from green to yellow to orange and finally to red, and they don't all ripen at the same time. In case there is any question about which peppers to pick, employees are given "le petit baton rouge" - a little red stick, which is a dowel painted the preferred shade of red for picking.
The peppers are mashed and mixed with a small amount of salt mined right there on Avery Island. The mash is placed into barrels that have been used to age bourbon whiskey, after which a thick layer of Avery Island salt is placed on top of the lid. The layer of salt doesn't directly affect the flavor of the peppers, but it acts as a natural barrier to protect the barrel contents while allowing gasses to escape during the fermentation and aging process. The mash is aged for up to three years.
After aging, the mash is inspected by a member of the McIlhenny family then blended with white vinegar. After the mixture is stirred intermittently for up to 30 days, the seeds and skins are strained out, and the sauce is bottled.
The caked salt from the lids of the aging barrels is put out around the island as salt licks for the deer. That way, their venison is pre-seasoned. ;-)
Seeds strained out from the mash-vinegar mixture are sold to be used to extract capsaicin to make analgesic rubs like Bengay and to make pepper spray.
After we watched the video, we walked along a glass window where we could see various bottling and packaging operations. Mixing and aging take place in other areas of the plant that are not part of the tour.
McIlhenny bottles an average of 720,000 bottles of sauce a day. The photo below shows the mid-day count for the day we were there. They needed to step it up if they were going to get close to their average that day.
There was a stack of labels by the window marked with the names of various countries - Uruguay, Czechoslovakia, Ivory Coast, Greece, Saudi Arabia and more. Tabasco is labeled in 22 languages and dialects and sold in over 160 countries.
At the end of the tour, there was a small Tabasco museum that had examples of old bottles and equipment. There was also a scale model of Avery Island. You can see how high the island sits above the surrounding landscape. The salt mine is located on the other side of the island. The red and gray buildings toward the right are the McIlhenny factory. Rows of pepper plants stretch out to the left.
After the tour, we took time to check out the Tabasco products in the company store.
In case you're hungry, there is also a lunch stand outside where they sell local dishes such as jambalaya, crawfish etoufee, seafood gumbo, red beans and rice, and more.
In the store, you can sample all the Tabasco sauces. We like a little heat, but we're not real crazy about Tabasco because of the sour nature of the sauce that comes from the fact vinegar is such an important ingredient. However, they have a new Sweet & Spicy sauce that Paul loved.
In addition to being able to sample all the sauces, they also had Tabasco soda and Tabasco ice cream. In the photo below, Paul is sampling jalapeño ice cream. It was delish - sweet with a definite jalapeño flavor and with a little bit of a kick.
In the next photo, Margery is checking out Tabasco hot pepper jelly.
By the time we finished visiting Jungle Gardens, taking the Tabasco factory tour and visiting the company store, we were kind of hungry. Rather than try something from the lunch stand outside the company store, we decided to continue our 2011 Zeller Foodie Tour by going back to Duffy's for a late lunch/early supper (lupper). Margery also had her heart set on a chocolate soda ever since we were too full the last time we were at Duffy's.
Margery had a barbecued brisket po' boy (in the background), and Paul had roast beef. This time, we each ordered only a half plus an order of onion rings to share. In New Orleans and the surrounding areas, Po' boys (no matter what kind), are traditionally served "dressed," which means they have lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise on them. Like the shrimp po' boys we had the other day at Duffy's, the meat was overflowing the bread. Everything was great.
Even with only half a po' boy we still got plenty to eat, but not so much that Margery didn't have room for her chocolate soda. It was gooood.
After lupper, we made our way back to the motor home. We still have more planned for Cajun Country, so look for our next post.
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