This hot sauce was initially developed by the Patriarch (A. J. King) of the Urban Growers family in the early 1980’s from peppers grown in his backyard garden. He also received peppers from friends.
His pepper bush produced so many peppers! Meanwhile he continued to receive peppers from his friends. Having an abundance of peppers, he decided to make hot sauce and created a recipe.
To bottle it, he used 8 oz. water bottles and little jars. Our refrigerator was so full of these his little bottles and jars that there wasn’t much space for food.
So he started giving the hot sauce away to family and friends.
Origins of the Vicious Hot Sauce, from Urban Growers, continues below …
While making the hot sauce, the smell was so strong that it bought tears to my eyes. I could feel the peppers in my throat. It ruined our blender and one of my newer pots by causing a lingering hot pepper taste in everything blended and cooked. Since I was in the house while it was being prepared, I became one of the in-home testers. It was too hot for me. When cooking, I would sometimes use just a little in a dish for seasoning.
It was great.
His testing circle grew when he then decided to test it on our immediate family during a family gathering. The little bottles were set out everywhere.
Family asked “what is this?” They were told, “this is a hot sauce I made from peppers I grew in the back yard!”
At dinner, family members were told, “this is very hot, use only a little”.
Almost everyone who used it, used it sparsely, except for one family member who began to pour it heavily on his meat and greens. He was told again, “You are using too much, just try a little bit to be sure it’s not too hot for you.” This family member commented “I am a man; I can handle this” and continued to heavily use the hot sauce.
After the first bite, he began to become flush and sweat, it took several glasses of milk to cool the heat down. His comment was, “it’s vicious”.
Since this dinner, our family and friends who truly like very hot, hot sauce will ask us for more of that vicious hot sauce.
As a result, this hot sauce became called the “The Vicious Hot Sauce”.
After everyone liked it so much, he began giving them bottles of the vicious when they asked. Other friends and family heard of it, and he would make it to give as a homemade gift. Urban Growers bottled it and used it as a party favor for his 80th birthday celebration.
I remember on a visit to your house one time. You made tacos and I used the hot sauce on my taco, not knowing it would be really hot. Well, it took a while to get my mouth back to normal. Oh yeah, it is really some VICIOUS stuff! Enjoyed your blog.
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