Hot Sauce

Hot sauce is a condiment, seasoning or salsa made from chili peppers and other ingredients, with chili pepper in some form as its only universal component; common additions include salt, vinegar, fruits and vegetables, and some makers ferment, age or puree the peppers, while hotter sauces may use ghost peppers, Scotch bonnets or habaneros, or add capsaicin extract or mustard oil. Regional styles vary widely, from Mexican sauces that emphasize flavor over heat, to Louisiana-style sauces built on vinegar and cayenne, to Caribbean sauces featuring habanero and Scotch bonnet peppers, with further traditions recorded in Belize, Australia, the United Kingdom and Lebanon. Tabasco sauce, launched in 1868, is the earliest recognizable brand in the United States hot sauce industry, and as of 2010 ranked as the country's thirteenth best-selling condiment.