Pickling has been around some 4,000 years as a way to preserve vegetables. It became popular in 18th century England as a way to preserve food, according to savoringthepast.net, and today is traditionally served with fish and chips or with what is called a ploughman’s lunch, a dish of bread, cheese and onions — part of the English diet for centuries. Today, pickled onions are used all over the world in a variety of dishes.

The first bottled cayenne sauces appeared in 1807 in Massachusetts, and the oldest surviving commercial hot sauce is Tabasco. The first recorded crop of Tabasco chiles was in 1849 in New Orleans on a plantation owned by Colonel Maunsell White, who advertised a hot sauce using the chiles in 1859. He then gave the recipe and seeds to his friend, Edmund McIlhenny, who began planting on Avery Island. Production was halted due to the Civil War, and the McIlhennys relocated to San Antonio, Texas. Operation picked up again in 1868, and the sauce sold for $1 per bottle. The sauce was patented in 1870.