Butler in New Orleans or The Beast Brings Home the Heat

When General Butler was the Emperor of New Orleans, he became obsessed with the fiery food. Butler returned North and when he did, he not only brought his appetite, but was known as the beast who brings home the heat. Benjamin Franklin Butler, became infamous throughout the North and the South, as “Beast Butler,” for his edicts and treatment of the female residents of New Orleans. His ample waistline was significantly enhanced while enforcing his personal military policies in Louisiana. General Butler and his Union occupation forces became addicted to the unusual food and it’s spicy hot and delectable combinations.

Butler and his Northern troopers were raised mainly on a bland diet of corn, wheat, potatoes, some fish, beef and other foodstuffs, seasoned to taste with a liberal portion of salt and pepper. These Yankees didn’t know anything different, so they had suffered or accepted the boring fare, in order to satisfy an empty stomach. When these Union Forces occupied New Orleans, they soon became accustomed to a new world of appetizing and soul satisfying sustenance.

The diverse ethnic mix of New Orleans included, Native Americans, African-Americans, French, Spanish and of course American-Immigrant-Americans. Their combined tastes and native fare was a combination of rice, onions, okra, poke salad, gar, gator, crab, oysters, red chili peppers, distilled vinegar and sea salt. A gravy of any or all these concoctions, called a “Roux” is served over rice, with liberal helpings, of the chunks or “leavings” and is normally called a “gumbo”.

In 1868, Edmund McIlhenny, concocted his first batch of what he dubbed “Tabasco Sauce” using a simple recipe of Hot Red Chile Peppers, Distilled Vinegar and Sea Salt from Avery Island. Every brew is aged in wooden castes for three years, bottled and today is still manufactured in the same way and shipped world-wide. Almost every dish or meal served in Louisiana is stilled topped off, at the table with a generous helping of this fiery sauce.

General Butler and his Union Forces returned North after the war, carrying many of the appetites and recipes of New Orleans and “Beast Butler” would always be remembered as the Beast that brings home the heat.

Bummer