A banker acquired an island plantation through marriage and made an interesting discovery on it. After using the discovery to supply one side in an important war, he combined it with a couple of more exotic ingredients and came up with a piquant product. Who was this man and what is his well-known creation?

griffinj

The gentleman in question was Edmund McIlhenny (1815-1890), bank of New Orleans, who married the heiress of Avery Island, Louisiana. The piquant product is Tabasco Sauce. I assume the discovery he made on said island was that some peppers from Mexico given to him flourished there. Beside capsicum peppers, the other primary elements of Tabasco are vinegar and (originally) Avery Island salt, not particularly exotic ingredients. http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Tabasco.htm Jul 01 05, 5:58 AM

lanfranco

Brilliant! Though McIlhenny discovered a major, 7 million ton salt repository on Avery Island, so important that it became a strategic war target of both the Confederate and Union Armies. After the war, McIlhenny's Tabasco Sauce involved not only the capsicum peppers to which he was introduced by a Confederate veteran who'd spent some years in Mexico, but also French wine vinegar. Tabasco sauce is, today, still packed in the original, perfume-style bottles, with red and white labels and green seals. See Mark Kurlansky, "Salt: A World History," (New York, 2002), pp. 272ff. Jul 05 05, 5:59 PM