Queen Elizabeth's Favorite Hot Sauce Is A True Classic

Hot sauce is probably last on the list of words you associate with British royalty, but there's actually a stronger bond between the two than you would think. In 2000, the BBC reported that there was an explicit ban on rare meat, foreign water, shellfish, and any food considered "too spicy or exotic" for the royal entourage when traveling; this aligns with what you'd imagine. English dishes, designed for subtle palates, are notorious for lacking spices or bold flavors like the ones you'd find in a hot sauce. But according to Kensington Palace gossip, Queen Elizabeth II liked a kick of heat every now and then. Legend has it that her favorite hot sauce was Louisiana's very own Tabasco.

The McIlhenny Company is named after Edmund McIlhenny who invented the famous peppery sauce in Avery Island, Louisiana, during the late 1860s. About six years after its founding, the McIlhenny Company exported its Tabasco sauce to England. Over 130 years after that, Tabasco sauce received a Royal Warrant. For those unfamiliar, a Royal Warrant is an official document recognizing that Tabasco is an official supplier to the Royal Household.

Even though Queen Elizabeth II gave Tabasco her official seal of approval, her specific uses for the hot sauce remain shrouded in mystery. We know the queen was a peculiar eater, to say the least, but Tabasco sauce is nowhere to be seen on all her famous favorite foods. There is a hint as to one thing she liked to use it for in the book "My Twenty Years In Buckingham Palace," by Frederick John Corbitt. According to Corbitt, Queen Elizabeth II's mother, who also went by Queen Elizabeth, was a big fan of shellfish (She would not have taken to the royal travel rules very well.) Corbitt states that Queen Elizabeth enjoyed using Tabasco in a special "lobster cocktail," i.e. a more extravagant version of a shrimp cocktail, that she served during Sunday brunch. 

Of course, Queen Elizabeth II is not her mother, but she is her mother's daughter, so we can guess that some of the Sunday favorites were served in the proceeding years. It's possible the queen could've had the Tabasco sauce around for bloody marys, but this has yet to be confirmed or denied. Unfortunately, the reason Queen Elizabeth II loved having Tabasco sauce around enough to give it a Royal Warrant seems to have been taken to her grave.