5420 LlOoNnGgiISsLlAaNnDdPpRrEeSSs.Cs.OcMom • S•E EPSPTETMEMBEBRER 2 021071 7 40 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 40 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 201TUTU111
Packing heat
For local hot sauce makers, it’s all about having fire in the belly
By ERIC VOORHIS
For 125 years or so, Americans
were happy enough with the chili
sauce made by Edmund McIlhenny,
a Maryland banker who moved
to Louisiana in 1840 and started
growing peppers from seeds someone
had lugged home from Central
America.
He called it Tabasco, after the Mexican
state.
While McIlhenny’s concoction
still commands 18 percent of the
market, it’s now just one of thousands
of fiery American sauces, a
collective $1 billion industry with
growth of 150 percent since 2000,
more than mustard, ketchup and
barbecue sauce combined.
You’ve heard of Zombie Apocalypse,
perhaps? Or maybe Ass
Reaper? Blair’s Megadeth Sauce
with Liquid Rage? They represent
the latest trends in hot sauce
manufacturing – fresh, all-natural
ingredients, unique flavor profiles,
local produce and a ton of heat,
many produced in small batches
like the craft beer or bourbon.
A dozen or so brands are proud to
do it on Long Island.
“People are into pushing the limits
of heat right now, and trying
different flavor combinations,
whether it’s fire-roasted pepper
blends with ginger and Vermont
maple syrup or ghost and scorpion
peppers with Cabernet wine and
blueberries,” said Heather Suter,
who owns the North Fork hot
sauce and cigar shop Greenport
Fire with her husband Dale. “It’s
all about creativity.”
They call him Mr. Peppers
Among the local sauces is a smallbatch
company run by 71-year-old
Giovanni Muscat of Plainview. The
retired chef, who often peddles
his sauce at local farmer’s markets
around the Island, goes by the nickname
“Mr. Peppers.”
Hydra hot sauce, on sale at Some Like it Hot and Spicy in Huntington, has a rating of nearl y 1.5 million
units on the Scoville Scale, which measures the pungency and heat of chili peppers. By comparison, jalapenos
Born in Tunis, Muscat immigrated
to the United States when he
was in his teens. The son of a chef
and grandson of a meat cutter, he
brought with him an early knowledge
of food.
“My mother had me right there on
the butcher block,” he said.
Muscat has a variety of products for
sale including both red and green
habanero sauces, a mild jalapeno
sauce and, perhaps the star of the
show, a homemade harissa sauce
based on one of his grandfather’s
recipes.
“Take a whiff of that,” he said, holding
up the jar. The aroma of garlic,
olive oil, chili peppers and spices
spilled out. “This is my best seller.”
Muscat makes his sauce from
scratch whenever the demand calls
for it. He rents from the Kitchen
Co-op in Amityville, a 1,400-foot
commercial kitchen that offers
space to local food entrepreneurs,
mostly craft bakers. Last year, he
produced about 200 bottles of
sauce, which he sold at farmer’s
markets and a few retail locations
across the Island.
In addition to preserving his family’s
culinary traditions, it’s a fine
retirement gig.
“I don’t play golf,” he said, “that’s
not for me.”
On the road, again
By comparison, High River Hot
Sauce founder Steve Seabury sells
his products in more than 1,000
retail locations and has scooped up
first-place prizes at the Easton Chile
Pepper Festival, the New Orleans
Chile Pepper Extravaganza and the
World Championship Golden Chile
Awards.
He started out making small batches
in his Garden City Park apartment
in 2011, mostly for the bands
he toured with.
“I always loved food and cooking,
and this was just a fun thing to
share,” he said. “We were on the
road eating Taco Bell, whatever
other garbage, and this made it a
little better.”
Now a music industry executive by
day, Seabury’s greatest hits include
Tears of the Sun, which blends fresh
habaneros peppers with peaches,
papaya, pineapple and brown
sugar, and Grapes of Wrath, a mix
of habanero and ghost peppers
blended with grape juice, cabernet
wine, blueberries, strawberries, red
cabbage and ginger.
“I still develop all of the recipes in
our kitchen, with peppers I grow
in my garden,” said Seabury, now
a Kings Park resident. “It really is
a labor of love, a passion of mine
that’s paying the bills.”
“It’s almost like High River is my
new band,” he said. “I get to create
something and tour the country,
come in at around 8,000 units.
FOOD