Tabasco sauce: why 216 g per cup is wrong
USDA SR Legacy "Sauce, ready-to-serve, pepper or hot" (NDB 6168) publishes 216 g (7.6 oz) per US cup of Tabasco sauce. This site rejects that figure and publishes 241 g (8.5 oz) instead, from Tabasco red pepper sauce, 60 mL (Pomona technical sheet) (density 1.0167 g/mL, matching the composition of the substance). The reason:
Lighter than water. Pepper sauces are vinegar, peppers and salt; vinegar weighs about 1.01 g/mL, and every gram of pepper solids or salt added makes the sauce heavier, not lighter. A teaspoon of any of them weighs at least 5 g. USDA's record is generic hot sauce rather than Tabasco, but no sauce of this kind can weigh 0.91 g/mL.
The arithmetic
| Source | 1 cup | Density | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| USDA SR Legacy "Sauce, ready-to-serve, pepper or hot" (NDB 6168) | 216 g7.6 oz | 0.913 g/mL | Rejected on physics |
| Tabasco red pepper sauce, 60 mL (Pomona technical sheet) | 241 g8.5 oz | 1.0167 g/mL | Published here |
The published figure and its sources
The full sourcing for Tabasco sauce, including every accepted and rejected figure, the state or filling method behind each, and the physics or standards reasoning applied, is on the ingredient page.
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