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"Hot Sauce Nation"is a red-hot ride through the story of hot sauce in America, from the humble South American plant that made its way to Mexico, the Caribbean, and (via Columbus) Spain and beyond, to an excruciating encounter with a 3. 3-million-Scoville heat unit scorpion-pepper tincture, one of the spiciest things on earth. Why should the world s most painful food have inspired such adoration in the United States? While chili pepper based sauces have been potent elements of cuisines worldwide, successive waves of immigrants landing in the New World have turned up the heat on the American palate with their native pungent sauces. Today, the super-fast-growing hot sauce industry has transformed everything from salsa chips and dips to barbecue, buffalo wings, chocolates, and cocktails, inspiring passionate romances and changing people s lives along the way. With fascinating detours into science, history, folklore, and current events, and sprinkled with the stories of the people who make, use, sell, love, and cook with hot sauce, this flavorful volume explores the unique hold the dark prince of condiments has on the American appetite. "