Tabasco: the Original Mcilheny Method (1800’s)

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Carey Starzinger was kind enough to respond to my request for his Tabasco
recipe within an hour of my requesting it! Thanks, Carey.
And away we go. I have included how I do it as well as the original
McilHenny method. This should be a big hit. I have had the fermentation
start very early in the aging stage, but I have also had a delay of up to 6
months before it started. I assume it is due to temperature differences. I
just set it on a shelf with the fermentation lock on and checked it every
once in a while.
Hope you and all the members enjoy it. I know that I certainly do and it is
worth the effort even though it may take a year or more.
Carey
Grind peppers. Add 1/2 cup kosher salt per gallon of ground peppers and
allow to age 1 month in glass or crockery jars. Add white wine vinegar to
taste and bottle in cologne bottles. Age before using to blend the flavors
together. Try to find somebody to buy it. Get famous.
Nowadays they do it the same, except that the salted mash goes directly
into oak barrels. The mash is packed down and the top sealed with oak
planks into which holes have been drilled. Avery Island (trivia: the
"island"`is really a natural salt dome; originally all salt used in
production came from natural salt digs in the area. ), where some of the
peppers are grown, is the production site. The barrels are topped with a
thick layer of salt and allowed to ferment. The salt layer serves as a
permeable barrier that allows gases to escape but allows no bacteria, fruit
flies, etc. access to the mash. McIlhenny allows them to age three years in
these oak barrels. After aging, the mash is pulled, checked for quality
and, if OK, it is blended with white wine vinegar (they don't say how much)
and aged some weeks more ('nother secret!). Finally, the product is pulled,
strained and the liquid bottled. They already have buyers and the stuff
*is* famous.
The US version has potassium sorbate added to inhibit fermentation. Same
method except the peppers are aged not fermented.
Adapting this to your home:
Note: as you must pull the liquid from the peppers, they must be fresh,
fleshy and of the right state of ripeness. At Avery Island they still use
the original "critique baton rouge", a red stick tinted to the exact color
of the peppers to be harvested. Peppers not matching the "critique" are
rejected. Old or overdried peppers are the key to failure. One trick for
garden peppers is picking them as they are just at the right stage (I've
been doing this with habanero peppers for weeks), then popping them into
freezer bags until you have enough to make a batch of sauce.
The ratio of mash to salt seems to be about the same as for sauerkraut.
Grind peppers, seeds and all, in a medium to fine grind (compare To
KitchenAid cutters). Mix with Kosher salt and put into gallon jug. Add
enough sterile water so the whole puree is pourable. Place a fermentation
lock (available from homebrew/wine making shops) on the jug. Use a campden
tablet (from same source as above) in the lock. Liquid will form. Allow to
ferment until the mash stabilizes (stops fermenting). It may be 3-5 months
before obvious fermentation begins. It is a very slow ferment. It will last
a couple of months. Place the whole thing in a larger, sterile crock and
add sterile white wine vinegar to taste. Allow to meld another week or so.
Run the mash through a chinoise, fine strainer, or, last resort, throw it
all into a bowl lined with cheesecloth, fold the cheesecloth up into a ball
(like making cottage cheese) and twist & squeeze until the juice is
extracted. Adjust for taste with salt. Bottle the juice and keep in fridge.
You might want to heat the sauce to pasteurize it, or not. I use potassium
sorbate (available from the same homebrew/wine making shop) in the
concentration for wine.
If there is a question as to whether the material has fermented, if the
liquid that forms on top (with the pepper slurry settled out) is very red,
then fermentation has occurred. Otherwise the liquid on top will be very
pale and almost colorless. (i.e. not red)
Variables: Age of peppers. Variety. Water content. Consistency of ripeness.
Hope this helps. Win or lose, it's a lot of fun. The key is : Keep all your
stuff clean and sanitized! Enjoy the effort! Amaze and astound your friends
with *your own* hot pepper sauce. If it doesn't beat Tabasco, sweat it not.
It took him a couple of years to perfect it.
Posted to CHILE-HEADS DIGEST by Suzanne <suz@avana.net> on Aug 22, 1998,
converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

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