A Brief History of Hot Sauce

Hot sauce is an ancient invention dating back to the Mayans. The first condiments were simple mixtures of peppers and water, but colonization introduced ingredients from other parts of the world. It didn’t take long for adventurous palates to begin breeding pepper plants in order to develop their most desirable traits.

These days, the base of most hot sauces is some combination of chilies, vinegar and salt, and many are fermented to add a funky flavor element. From gas stations to gourmet grocers, you’ll see sauces in a colorful range of vibrant red, green and orange hues (don’t get your hot sauce at the gas station, though).

The naturally-occurring chemical that gives peppers their heat is capsaicin. Mother Nature may have meant for capsaicin to deter animals from eating peppers, but it’s had the opposite effect on humans. We love our spicy food!

People don’t always agree on matters of flavor, so measuring capsaicin on the Scoville scale provides an objective way to know how hot a pepper is. Whether you’re out to explore the nuanced flavors of artisanal blends or want to sample the spiciest pepper on the planet, Chef Jermaine’s got the sauce for you!