Miraculous Uses for Tabasco Pepper Sauce

During 1862 while in New Orleans Union troops stormed in Edmund McIlhenny fled with his wife, Mary Avery McIlhenny, to Baton Rouge where they later fled to Avery Island. This was an island of solid salt that was located west of New Orleans and also where America's first sale mine was located. By 1863, Union forces had invaded Avery Island and destroyed the salt mines, so once again the McIlhenny's had to flee and this time it was to Texas.

Edmund McIlhenny had decided to return to Avery Island after the Civil War to find his wife's family plantation destroyed but some hot peppers were still left. Edmund was determined to make money with the remaining peppers, so he made a pepper sauce by mixing crushed peppers and salt in crockery jars. After this, he had then let them age for thirty days and then added the best French wine vinegar he had before letting the mixture age for another thirty days. He then strained the sauce, and filled several small cologne bottles before sending them to friends. McIlhenny had sent 350 bottles of his pepper sauce, under the trademark name Tabasco, to a selected group of wholesalers, in 1868. A year later, he had sold several thousand bottles at a dollar each, and to this day, the company has remained within the family.