National Hot Sauce Day Date in the current year: January 22, 2024

Hot sauce is any type of sauce where chili peppers are one of the main ingredients. Native to Central and South America, chili peppers have spread across the world since Columbus’s discovery of the Americas, and are now used in many cuisines to add heat to dishes. The active component of chili peppers that gives them their heat is capsaicin, a strong irritant that causes a burning sensation when it comes into contact with the mucous membranes in the mouth, which we perceive as hotness.

Chili peppers were brought to Europe, Asia and Africa in the 16th century, but it wasn’t until the early 19th century that the first bottled hot sauces became commercially available. The oldest surviving hot sauce brand is Tabasco; it was founded by Edmund McIlhenny in 1868. Tabasco sauce consists of vinegar, tabasco peppers (a moderately hot chili pepper cultivar), and salt.

There are many hot sauce varieties out there; the only thing they all have in common is chili pepper as the key ingredient. Some hot sauces use chili pepper as the base, while others use some type of vegetables or fruits as the base, and chili peppers are added to make the sauce hot. The hotness of the sauce depends on the chili cultivar used (to be more precise, its hotness on the Scoville scale), its amount, and cooking technique.

You can estimate the hotness of a hot sauce by looking at its ingredient list and seeing what kind of pepper it contains. Green jalapeño and chipotle hot sauces are usually the mildest, red jalapeño sauces are a little hotter, and cayenne sauces are hotter than jalapeño sauces but milder than habanero, Scotch bonnet, and tabasco. The hottest sauces contain pure capsaicin extract. Additional ingredients, such as wasabi or mustard oil, can contribute to the level of heat.

The origins of National Hot Sauce Day are somewhat murky, but it was probably created by some hot sauce lover who wanted to celebrate his or her favorite condiment. You can celebrate the holiday by adding hot sauce to everything you eat during the day, stocking up on your favorite hot sauce, sampling different hot sauce varieties, giving hot sauce as a gift to a friend who loves it just as much as you do, or even making your own hot sauce at home.

If you’re feeling adventurous, offer your friends to participate in the Hot Sauce Pain Challenge, where participants sample a selection of hot sauces ranging in heat from mild to very hot and see who can last the longest without needing to soothe the burning sensation in their mouth with a glass of milk (by the way, drinking some milk is the best way to neutralize capsaicin, while plain water will only make it worse). Finally, don’t forget to spread the word about the holiday on social media with the hashtags #HotSauceDay and #NationalHotSauceDay.