TABASCO: An Illustrated History (Hardcover)

History buffs as well as cooks will be interested in a pair of books from national companies with international reputations. The first is Great Food, Great Beer: The Anheuser-Busch Cookbook (Sunset, $24.95 paperback), and the second is Tabasco: An Illustrated History by Shane K. Bernard (McIlhenny Co., $49.95). Both have interesting stories to tell as well as recipes to explore. The beer book has more recipes, but the sauce book has more history. . . .

Even though there are fewer than 20 recipes in Tabasco, there is much, much more to savor. It is a beautifully crafted and profusely illustrated history of the founding family, the McIlhennys, and the little bottle of hot sauce that made the name Tabasco and Avery Island, La., famous.

Actually, there are nearly 40 recipes -- the original and the updated version for this volume. Some are more than 150 years old. Of course, Tabasco is an ingredient in all of them. These selections include Tomato Catsup, Lobster a la Newburgh, Veal Loaf, Oyster Cocktail and a Classic Bloody Mary.

All manner of wonderful advertising, cartoons, bottle labels and family photographs -- particularly those involving military service -- are throughout the book. The photograph I liked best, however, is a portrait of Edward A. McIlhenny, "the Arctic explorer" and second son of the founder. He looks regal in his Arctic furs.

Tabasco is a hot read. -- Peter Franklin, Universal Press Syndicate, February 10, 2008

In the summer of 2005, McIlhenny historian and curator Bernard was working on the Tabasco Museum in New Orleans, a project shelved by Hurricane Katrina. This lavish, entrancing book resulted instead, tracing the fabled condiment's history, the family, marketing and more. -- New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 18, 2007

In this beautifully designed book, McIlhenny Company historian and curator Bernard chronicles the McIlhenny family of Avery Island, LA, and the origin of their ubiquitous pepper sauce. . . . [T]his volume contains primary-source documents from the company's archives (both black-and-white and color photographs) and more than a dozen historical recipes from handwritten family cookbooks, along with updated versions. The text and accompanying illustrations are exquisitely laid out, and numerous detailed sidebars add a lot of flavor to an already colorful narrative. The historical photographs depict not only generations of the McIlhenny family but also Avery Island, New Orleans, and cultural artifacts. . . . -- Library Journal, January 15, 2008

It's easy to say this is a hot holiday book. The coffee-table tome includes history, ads and trivia -- a "Tabasco in Hollywood" section tells us the sauce appeared on film with Laurel & Hardy, Bugs Bunny, the Little Rascals and James Bond and even in "Apocalypse Now." Our fave picture is a 1954 poster in English and Hebrew boasting "The Only Pepper Sauce Under Rabbinical Supervision." -- New York Post, December 2, 2007

Serious Tabasco fans are no doubt salivating over this hardcover story of Louisiana's McIlhenny family and their iconic hot stuff. Bernard, the official historian for Tabasco producer McIlhenny Co., peppers the volume with rarely seen photos, documents and lush illustrations right out of the company archives. Includes Tabasco recipes like Oyster Cocktail and Eisenhower's Barbecue Sauce. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 13, 2007

[Bernard is] quick to mention that the McIlhennys gave him "free reign" on the project and did not edit his work. . . . One of the great attributes of Bernard's book is that myths are dispelled. Even family renditions of how Tabasco came to be are noted as being false because of proof Bernard found in business documents. -- Lafayette (La.) Times of Acadiana (October 24, 2007)

[C]hock-full of archival photos, family history and reverence for the people behind the iconic sauce. If you've ever dreamed of rifling through the dusty boxes in the McIlhenny attic, the author has done the work for you, making it possible to gaze upon the original hand-written recipe, the early diamond-label and even Tabasco account books from 1871. . . . Heat-loving cooks will enjoy the archival recipes dating back to the 1850s. . . . There's plenty of good reading here . . . we promise you'll be licking your lips throughout. -- Chili Pepper Magazine, January 2008

It also examines the often stranger-than-fiction stories that are inexorably bound up with the rise of Tabasco®--Edmund McIlhenny's creation of the sauce in the midst of Reconstruction- era economic ruin; John Avery McIlhenny's adventures in Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders volunteer cavalry regiment; Edward Avery McIlhenny's explorations in the unforgiving Arctic; and Walter S. McIlhenny's amazing heroics in World War II, which eventually secured him the rank of brigadier general, even as he modernized his family business and ensured its success into the late twentieth century.

In addition to the central narrative, Tabasco®: An Illustrated History contains numerous detailed sidebars, as well as over a dozen historical recipes selected from handwritten McIlhenny family cookbooks and other archival sources. This book boasts hundreds of fascinating photographs, both in color and black-and-white, many of which are previously unpublished.