Charles Campion: Real food

Tag : hot pepper seed


Perversely enough, for a country in the Northern part of the globe(and one where the climate isn't very favourable for growingchillies), the British have long enjoyed a head-over-heels loveaffair with spicy food. It is thought that Columbus brought thefirst chilli plants back to Europe after his initial New Worldexpedition and that then Portuguese sailors re-exported them toIndia – which means that in the pre-chilli 1450s English foodand Indian food would have had many similarities.
Today there are more than 8,500 Indian restaurants in Britain,which speaks volumes about our liking for a whiff of chilli, and awhole industry has been built up selling bottled hot pepper saucesso that everything from a Bloody Mary to a cottage pie to a fry-upbreakfast can be invigorated with a shake of chilli magic.
The grand-daddy of pepper sauces is Tabasco, which is made on AveryIsland in Louisiana and this year celebrates its 140th anniversary.Tabasco is remarkable in that it has been the McIlhenny familybusiness for 12 generations, each of which has managed tostrengthen the brand's vice-like grip on the pepper sauce market.
Production continues to grow despite competitors knowing the"secret" recipe only too well – Tabasco has just threeingredients: peppers, salt and vinegar. It's just a matter of whatthey do with them.
When the peppers are harvested they are minced, mixed with salt(from the Avery Island salt mine) and then the mash is allowed toferment and mature in white oak Bourbon barrels for three years.Finally the mix is stirred with vinegar in huge vats for up to 28days before being strained and bottled.
The McIlhenny family makes 700,000 bottles of Tabasco sauce everyday and the iconic little bottle is to be found on pantry shelvesin more than 160 countries, patiently waiting its opportunity toadd a welcome splash of instant heat. the heat is on
The chemical that gives chillies their heat is capsaicin and it ismainly found in the seeds and connective tissue of each pod. Aswell as delighting diners, capsaicin is used in ointments to giverelief from muscular aches and pains. In 1912 the Americans deviseda way of measuring the heat of chillies and invented the "Scovilleunit", so while an Anaheim chilli might rate 1,000 units theHabanero is 300 times hotter at 300,000 (the Capsicum frutescenschillies in Tabasco are around 50,000 units), and the hottestchilli of them all – the Naga – delivers nearly1,000,000 units. If you would like to grow your own chilliescontact Really Cool Seeds, which is linked to the market gardenwhere they developed the blistering Dorset Naga.