Top Things to Do on Avery Island, Louisiana

Different world. Yeah, I need some milk or something Hi, everyone. David Hoffman here from David's been here right now. I'm in Avery Island, Louisiana home of Tabasco Avery Island is an island in the middle of the bayou in southern Louisiana and Tabasco sauce has been made here since 1868 come with me to experience the best of Avery Island from the beautiful surroundings to the Tabasco factory Our first stop here in Avery Island is the Tabasco Museum here. We're gonna learn how it all started back in 1868 so I'm Shane Bernard. I'm the historian and curator for Macaloni company I've been here almost 25 years and I collect everything having to do with the island the Macaloni family their Avery cousins Tabasco sauce Tabasco. I wouldn't say it was invented in 1868 I would say sometime between 1866 and 68 Edmund and grew his first commercial crop in 1868 sold his first sauce from that crop in 1869 and it was not an immediate successor He really had to work hard to get it off the ground and it grew steadily He kept meticulous records because he had been a banker beforehand and you can you can see it slowly growing during his lifetime But it never became phenomenally successful It was really only 10 or 15 years after his death in 1890 that Tabasco finally became What I would consider a household word But then it had yet to really make a name for itself overseas and it really became well known Globally after World War two today. We make about seven hundred fifty thousand bottles of sauce per day We can make more than that if we have to if we have a really big order But the average is about seven hundred seven hundred fifty thousand bottles a day, which is a lot Especially when you consider that during Edmund's entire 22-year career as a pepper sauce manufacturer He only made 350,000 bottles in 22 years. So we make twice that much in a single day now behind me We have the barrel aging room If you didn't know Tabasco ages their pepper mash takes about three years to ferment. Let's go inside and learn more about it One of these is fresh this one Right here is actually just a couple weeks old I'm gonna try two different pastes from Tabasco. This one has been fermenting for a few weeks this one three years The whole process takes five years So I guess we'll try this Completely different. Yeah, I need some milk or something It's too hot It turns out all we do here is blend. We take mash, we stir it and we change the name to blending This is the blending part of the factory This is where they blend the pepper mash that has been fermenting for three years with vinegar They mix it for 28 days Then they strain it take out the pulp the seeds and the skin and then it's ready for bottling Follow me. We're entering the bottling room here. They bottle over 750,000 bottles of Tabasco every day My name is John Simmons. I'm the manager agriculture here at Maclennan company where we make world-famous Tabasco brand pepper sauce We've just come through the whole process So we started in our pepper field where we grow our heirloom pepper plants to distribute seed to farmers around the world That pepper mash which is going to be salt and ripe red Tabasco peppers We saw where that's going to be aged for three years in oak barrels repurposed whiskey barrels We walked through and we saw the blending area blending is where we take that aged pepper mash mix it with vinegar Stir it for a few weeks up to a month depending on demand And then we walk down the bottling line and we saw how we're gonna bottle all that product now We're standing in the export warehouse, which is where anything being shipped to one of the 185 countries that we sell Tabasco sauce Too is going to be staged here after it's bottled before it goes out the door and around the world So now you know how Tabasco is made bottled the final thing we have to do is do a taste test We're gonna try every single Tabasco that they make here at the corporate office So here we have the family reserve Made with peppers that are grown only here on every island So Tabasco pepper is grown here the agent owns in nine years and they use a white vinegar So taste the vinegar very different Yeah is The jungle gardens tour it opened in 1936 and this is basically a self-drive tour. You can also walk the gardens It's a great place to see wildlife. We just saw some gators. There's some turtles and right here We have a 10th century Chinese Buddha that was donated to the island in 1936 So if you come to the bayou and you don't go on an airboat ride you weren't in the bayou Let's go my friend. What's your name? Pete pleasure. Nice to meet you So let's do this whoo One of the things you have to do on Avery Island is come to 1868 and take a cooking course with chef Lionel Robin We're gonna make four different Cajun dishes. Let's jump on the fire So, what's this first dish you're making chicken wings chicken wings Then dessert obviously, of course, which would be Tabasco ice cream. It's a Basco ice cream. This is great I'll teach you how to do a salad juice a vinaigrette We start with of course oil and then of course, we have red wine vinegar tomato paste pepper gel pepper gel Okay, and of course, we're gonna use Tabasco pepper gel. You can see it pours right out Okay Can I help you with anything? I'm good. Good. That's fantastic. I'm being okay To my salad this vinaigrette looks incredible Sweet enough for me chicken wing by the wings, of course like so right there Okay, you put the wings you put a little bit of Tony Sasha seasoning, which is got salt pepper Okay, and then we do mustard mustard perfect Tabasco spicy brown and Like so so this is like the ultimate Tabasco chicken wings flavors But I like still the taste of the wing and then at the end I'll always add just a little bit more to put right on the top of the wing. Okay, and then like so And then we bake them in the oven 15 minutes on one side 10 minutes on the X. Oh, man. Here we go Okay, enjoy. That looks great. Now. Let's pull it on top of me. Just like cross it there. Oh my god So all I'm doing is sauteing Suppose here's the whole thing. I'm gonna copy this recipe This is a really good one, it's not hot so I like so we saute the onions, okay We add the Tony Sasha seasoning nice So got onions tomato garlic red pepper Original Tabasco chopped parsley and we're gonna put all right at the Tabasco Right. Here is the main course crawfish at to fit So now it'll saute it'll draw out all the natural flavors from the crawfish and add it to the pot on its own It'll just keep making me and that that water is coming out for the crawfish, right? Oh, yeah Wow, oh Yeah nice I'm not fantastic. I can't eat something like this every day I just I love seafood and just love the sauce and everything not Cajun food has a special taste, you know So many different spices Crawfish obviously staple in Louisiana Hmm now we're gonna make the dessert Tabasco ice cream vanilla Recipe and it's four eggs one and 1 1⁄4 cup sugar and a tablespoon of vanilla True basic vanilla ice cream. We're gonna make Tabasco so it can go from 40 to 75. So 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 55 okay You want to put the cream in So basically put it into the it's made the old-fashioned way with ice It took Lionel two years to perfect this recipe He's telling me that the first 20 seconds are gonna taste a lot of fruit Then you get the ting from Tabasco and then all the flavors start building up Here we go first 20 seconds, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah peachy. Okay. I'm I'm already feeling a thing They're already sneaking up on me, but it's not gonna get hotter and hotter and hotter. Yeah, it's gonna melt I don't love ice cream and this is fantastic. I can I can like keep going on this gotta watch the calories, though And that's everything you could do on a brown y'all