Tabasco is a cultivar of Capsicum frutescens, best known for the Louisiana hot sauce of the same name that the McIlhenny Company has made since 1868. Its small pods grow upright on the bush, pointing skywards.
| Species | Capsicum frutescens, cultivar ‚Tabasco‘ |
|---|---|
| Heat | 30,000–50,000 SHU |
| Name | after the Mexican state of Tabasco |
| Plant | branched, erect shrub 4–6 ft (1.2–1.8 m) tall, white to greenish-white flowers |
| Fruit | small, upright, ellipsoid, about 1–2 cm (some sources say up to about 4 cm), turning from green through yellow and orange to red |
| Use | mainly fermented sauces |
Capsicum frutescens
Capsicum frutescens is one of the five domesticated species of Capsicum. According to North Carolina State University its native range is Bolivia and west-central Brazil, from where it spread throughout the tropics. Where exactly it was domesticated is uncertain: Central America or the Amazon basin. Besides Tabasco, the species includes Brazil’s Malagueta, African piri piri and the Philippine siling labuyo.
The name and the road to Louisiana
According to an Auburn University bulletin, seeds reached Louisiana around 1848, probably from the Mexican state of Tabasco, after which the pepper was named. The word Tabasco itself is of Native Mexican origin and, according to the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, means “place where the soil is humid”. Edmund McIlhenny is said to have received the pods from a former Confederate soldier returning from Mexico.
Tabasco sauce
Edmund McIlhenny founded the company on Avery Island, Louisiana, in 1868. He sent out his first 658 bottles at a dollar apiece and secured a patent in 1870. The process has changed little: ripe peppers are crushed with salt into a mash that ages for up to three years in white oak barrels before being blended with vinegar. The peppers are still grown from the same seed stock as in 1868, and the company ships seed to small farms around the world. According to press reports, the peppers are now grown mainly in Latin America (Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia) and Africa; only part of the fields on Avery Island are cultivated.
The virus that threatened the sauce
In the mid-20th century Tabasco growing was threatened by tobacco etch virus, spread by aphids, which caused severe wilting. Auburn University therefore bred the resistant ‚Greenleaf Tabasco‘ (1970), taking the resistance from two Peruvian C. chinense accessions. The new cultivar also resisted ripe rot and had darker red, more pungent fruit. Tabasco itself carries the L2 resistance gene against a different virus group, the tobamoviruses, which includes the well-known tobacco mosaic virus.
Growing
Only bright red, fully ripe pods are picked for the sauce. Heat in peppers generally varies with growing conditions; Wilbur Scoville noticed this as early as 1912, remarking that “the Tabasco species may not always come up to its reputation”.
In the kitchen
Tabasco is the classic pepper for fermented sauces. You will also find it in Sakay No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, where it is paired with the hotter Moruga Scorpion.
Related
Habanero · Trinidad Moruga Scorpion · Scoville scale · History of chilli
Sources
- NC State Extension: Capsicum frutescens
- UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions: Peppers by Scoville units
- McIlhenny Company: Tabasco history; Avery Island pepper harvest update
- 64 Parishes (Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities): Tabasco
- Greenleaf W. H. et al. (1970): Greenleaf Tabasco: a new tobacco etch virus resistant tabasco pepper variety. Auburn University Agricultural Experiment Station
- Christian Science Monitor: 1983, 2006
- van Zonneveld M. et al. (2015): Screening Genetic Resources of Capsicum Peppers in Their Primary Center of Diversity in Bolivia and Peru. PLoS ONE 10(9): e0134663. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134663
- University of Santo Tomas: Chili (siling labuyo)
- Scoville W. L. (1912): Note on Capsicums. J. Am. Pharm. Assoc. 1(5): 453–454. PDF