Hot sauce, contrary to what most people think, is more than just adding heat to dishes, but it is also about adding the spicy taste of pepper. This is evidenced by a lot of the most popular hot sauces sold in America only having anywhere from 450 to 3,750 SHU on the Scoville scale. Those numbers translated means that those sauces are only as hot as a poblano pepper or mild jalapeno pepper. The main ingredients in hot sauce are salt, chili peppers, and vinegar.
Hot Sauce Trivia
- The first commercially produced hot sauce appeared in 1807 but the only surviving early period hot sauce (and one of the most recognizable ones) is Tabasco, which was established in 1868 and is recognized as the oldest commercial hot sauce brand.
- One of the most popular hot sauces in the United States is called Texas Pete, which unlike the name states, isn’t from Texas but North Carolina, and using a Louisiana-style recipe.
- In the early 8th century, the Mayans mixed hot peppers and water to make a sauce, making this the earliest prototype of a hot sauce we’ve seen.