European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 8, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Focus \ Tabasco was hot before hot was Cool by Charles Perry los Angeles times f or its first 00 years or so Tabasco sauce was the hottest thing most americans Ever tasted. The Mcilhenny cos big Job was to get people Over their fear of hotness. Official Tabasco recipes have always counselled subtlety and moderation. But Over the last 25 years americans Haye been eating hotter and hotter. First mexican food entered the mainstream. Then Jalapeno eating contests thai food and Chili Cook offs showed up. In the late 80s, a fringe of Chili loons began questing for Ever hotter flavors and slowly the Public taste shifted with them. A a As a result the Jalapeno no longer symbolizes the ultimate threshold of. Pain in some restaurants it has become a Pepper for stuffing As if it were a Bell Pepper. And today you can get fresh super hot Caribbean chillies known As Haban Erps or scotch bonnets at the supermarket. Definitely there s an explosion in Pepper use Quot says Mcilhenny co. Vice president Paul Mcilhenny. Quot look at All the books posters magazines boutiques it s helpful to us. If people lose their fear of peppers it helps  Tabasco sales Are booming but in the current Chi ii madness it would t do to rest on one s laurels. Last year the Mcilhenny co. Bought its longtime Louisiana rival Trappey s and reworked a couple  s products under the Tabasco name. One is a Jalapeno sauce Well balanced Good Jalapeno flavor More. Aromatic but less hot than Tabasco the. Other is called new Orleans style Steak a sauce like a-1 sauce but spicier sweeter and with a pronounced Orange. Peel Aroma. A Caribbean style Steak sauce is being developed along the lines of a jamaican Jerk sauce Complete with Mango tamarind and allspice. But Mcilhenny s is in an Odd position despite All those years As the proverbial extreme of hotness it is a supermarket Brand and has to Bear in mind the taste. Of the general Public not just  the. Chili loons. For instance to give the new Steak sauce the genuine Tabasco stamp some pureed pulp of barrel aged Tabasco los Angeles times ret capped bottles of Tabasco sauce move Down the production line at Mcilhenny co s Plant on Avery Island. La., one of the food Industry s original hot spots. The narrow necked bottle is a copy o f a if 9th-Century perfume bottle designed for Quot dispensing its precious liquid drop by drop. Chillies is added. However peppers naturally vary a Little . In a sauce used by the drop such As Tabasco a Little variation does t matter much but the first Batch of the Steak sauce turned out hotter than Mcilhenny figured the supermarkets could stand. Quot i did t want to throw away 400 cases of Steak sauce Quot he says genially Quot so i just slapped an extra spicy Label on  a.  the original Tabasco sauce is basically unchanged though it is no longer made with peppers grown on Avery Island. Quot in the late 60s, when 1 started with the company Quot said Mcilhenny Quot we still Farmed our own peppers. But then the local Louisiana labor Market dried up. Instead of importing migrant workers we tried farming in Mexico but we had problems of Plant disease and flooding Down there. Now we raise 90 percent of our peppers in Central America. Quot los angelas times these Days the ground fresh peppers come up to Louisiana in stainless steel Tanker trucks each holding 100 barrels. The Mash is still aged on Avery Island spending three years in Oak barrels. Mcilhenny inspects every barrel before it s mixed with vinegar to make the  we skim off a couple of inches of oxidized Mash Quot he says Quot then take a fluorescent lamp and look at the color smell the  he adds with the faintest of winks Quot we Don t taste  inevitably in today s hot Chi ii climate the Mcilhenny co. Is working on a habanera sauce. Quot it won t just be a straight Chili and vinegar sauce like Tabasco Quot says Mcilhenny. Quot it will have Tomato and so on in it. The reason habanera sauces always have carrots and mangoes and stuff in them is to dilute the habanera they re so hot Quot Quot but we do not plan a hotter version of Tabasco Quot he says. Quot we consider that  subject fake steaks Are now much better done by Keith Sinzinger the Washington Post the makers of meat substitutes those foods Long ridiculed As tasteless or just Plain weird Are fighting Back a challenging animal flesh and sometimes one another. They re tinkering with formulas in a quest for lower fat or better tasting vegetarian burgers hot dogs and other Quot analogs a they re slowly working their Way from natural food co Ops and health food stores to supermarkets restaurant chains fast food outlets and ballparks. Armed with charts and tables they re increasingly Quick to quantify How their products stack up nutritionally a against real meat As Well As their competitors imitations. Judging from the new varieties displayed and the expansion plans discussed at the natural products expo East in Baltimore mde a last month they re also confident that sales will keep growing. But Why in this age of value based eating and heightened concern about the environment and animal welfare do so Many companies try to replicate the taste texture and look of meat sometimes right Down to the charcoal Grill stripes Quot people want something that a familiar something they can understand Quot said John f. Swann of Asheville n.g., a former manufacturer of Tofu and tempeh who now is developing Quot value added foods like soy pizza. Quot the accessibility is the advantage these converted products  while an estimated 12 million to 15 million americans Call themselves vegetarians company officials say Many More people Are eating meatless meals strictly for health reasons. A a a a a a a  because Many Consumers regard the Basic alternatives of Tofu soybean cur tempeh fermented soy cake and seitan wheat gluten As too exotic intimidating or time consuming for regular use they re looking to the meat look alikes. A sixty percent of our clients Are meat eaters a said Frank card of wholesome and Hearty foods in Portland ore., which makes the popular Hardenburger a Frozen Patty based on mushrooms and Brown Rice. He and other Industry officials interviewed at the expo said without exception that sales of their meat substitutes Are up with most reporting sustained increases of 25 percent to 50 percent a year. What s More the number of meat analog products on the Market has a probably tripled two years a said a manager at nightlife foods of Greenfield mass., whose products include Foney baloney and faking Bacon. In general meat analogs spare Consumers the worst properties inherent in animal products fat particularly saturated fat and cholesterol things that May have been added to them preservatives antibiotics hormones and things that May be left behind e. Co Salmonella while delivering what my at inherently lacks fiber and Complex carbohydrates. At their Best they do so without excessive sodium or fat and with a taste whether intended to emulate meat or not a that keeps Consumers coming Back. For Ruth Sias Point a company officials readily Hal 9,e e poor station that meat substitutes have had but insist its history. Is Potvin Petit a technology has a f Een years ago you had to be a Nanyu us and t0 believe in it. Now you Don t have to believe in it it tastes  the stars and stripes