American cuisine is famous for its features: hamburgers, cola, french fries, Caesar salad - all these dishes came to us from the USA. Separately, it is worth mentioning sauces, which are also often borrowed from the Americans. Ketchup, barbecue, sweet mustard are part of the cuisine of this nation. And not so long ago, another product from the USA appeared on the shelves of our stores - spicy Tabasco sauce .
This is the general name for a number of seasonings created using cayenne pepper with various additives. The production of such sauces is the only company involved - the Macailenney family contract - for more than a century and a half. The history of Tabasco began in 1868 when a representative of the family, Edward, began
his own production of universal spicy seasoning, the recipe of which he created as a result of lengthy experiments with pepper and other additives. So Tabasco sauce was born, the recipe of which remains unchanged. What is included in it?
The basis is the fruit of fresh cayenne pepper - one of the sharpest varieties of peppers. In addition, salt, vinegar, water appear in the classic recipe. And in variations can also be found horseradish, garlic, jalapenos, habanero and other spices. To soak a liquid seasoning such as Tabasco sauce, the recipe of which we now describe, use barrels from Limousin oak. In them, the finished product is stored for three years for complete fermentation.
Tabasco is used almost everywhere: marinades for meat, poultry and fish are created on its basis, it is added to other sauces, flavored with soups and side dishes. Even in some alcoholic cocktails, it is included as an ingredient.
For example, the classic Bloody Mary recipe also contains this sauce. Or the “Red Dog” cocktail, so named because rusty droplets of Tabasco bite on the tongue when you drink it. But in any case, it should be remembered that this sauce is very spicy, and therefore it is used literally a little bit.
This product is not cheap at all in our stores, but it’s understandable because it is imported from the USA, where it is produced by only one company. But how to cook Tabasco sauce yourself? As it turned out, it is very simple. You will need to take a few hot peppers, salt, vinegar and water. Fruits should be selected sharper to make the taste as close as possible to the original. Tabasco sauce, the recipe of which we give below, is obtained in the process of fermentation, or fermentation, hot pepper. Therefore, preparing it is not a matter of one day.
You should take the fruits of pepper, wash them and grind together with the seeds in a mortar. Or cut into rings. Then they should be folded tightly in a glass jar, crushed and pour there a teaspoon of salt (3-4 peppers). Together with salt, the resulting mixture must be carefully rammed to the bottom of the can, and then add a little cold water. All this is closed by a lid and put away in a dark, warm place for about a week. The very next day, bubbles will be noticed in the bank - this starts fermentation. After a week, 1-2 teaspoons of vinegar should be added to the pepper and crushed again. After that, the sauce is almost ready - you can put it in the refrigerator.
But what about the barrels in which Tabasco sauce is aged? Does the original recipe imply a three-year exposure in them? In fact, you will not notice much of a difference between seasoned and seasoned because of the sharpness of the sauce. Allegedly, mandatory storage in the Limousin oak is certainly a tricky marketing move, thanks to which the Macailenney family manages to keep the price of their product high. Otherwise, how to explain why a sauce, whose cost is lower than the glass containers in which it is sold, should be so expensive?