Chile Pepper Fun Fact - The Tabasco Chile Pepper
Ok, you know the sauce, but did you know it's an actual chile pepper?
Best known for the sauce that bares its name, this pepper grows throughout the world. At maturity, the pepper measures one to two inches and is bright red. To create the famous tabasco sauce, the pepper is smashed and combined with salt and vinegar, which tempers the pepper's heat. Scoville heat units range from 30,000 to 60,000 SHU and the Scoville rating of Tabasco sauce is 2,500 to 5,000 — a mere fraction of its rating as a pepper.
The tabasco pepper is a variety of the chili pepper species Capsicum frutescens, like the Naga Jolokia. It's a very pungent pepper grown mostly in the Gulf Coast states and Mexico. The word, "tabasco", is the name of a state in Mexico. The name of the pepper came first, which was later adopted by the famous hot sauce by McIlhenny Co.