Includes bibliographical references and index.

Hot Sauce Nation is a red-hot ride through the story of hot sauce in America. Why should the world's most painful food have inspired such adoration in the USA? While chili pepper-based sauces have transformed cuisines worldwide, successive waves of immigrants landing in the New World have turned up the heat on the American palette with their native pungent sauces. Today, the fast-growing hot sauce industry has made it into everything from salsa to barbecue, buffalo wings, chocolates, and cocktails, inspiring passionate romances and changing people's lives along the way. With fascinating detours into science, history, and current events, as well as stories of the people who make, use, sell, and love hot sauce, this flavorful volume explores the unique hold the condiment has on the American heart.