From the fine folks at FirstWeFeast.com comes an article based upon my food history research: “Every morning, food historian Dave DeWitt drinks a Virgin Mary, allowing him to sample as many of the hundreds of hot sauces he has on hand as possible. The author of books like The Hot Sauce Bible and The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia also keeps an emergency pepper on hand at all times in case he ever runs out. Naturally, when we wanted to find out more about the history of our favorite food-challenge fodder, we gave “The Pope of Peppers” a call. Given how broad the label of “hot sauce” and the appeal of spicy foods are, the history of hot sauce is predictably hard to sum up. But there are a few major milestones, starting when the chile pepper was first domesticated and selectively bred for the ideal level of spice, and continuing through today’s ever-escalating quest for the hottest pepper in the world. In between, we’ve seen hot sauce evolve from little more than a paste of chiles and water to one of the most mind-blowingly diverse condiments on the planet.” The full article is here.
