N.C. is Texas Pete’s home state: True or false?

Food and travel writer Jenn Rice of Durham says: “Texas Pete Original Hot Sauce is to North Carolina as bourbon is to Kentucky.”

Barstool Sports’ blogger Caleb Pressley of Asheville says he considers “Texas Pete to be the fourth best thing about his native state,” ranking it a notch above “North Carolina’s mountains.”

Are Rice and Pressley off their rockers? Not at all. Texas Pete is pure North Carolina, invented by the Garner family of Winston-Salem during the Great Depression years.

The saga began more than 90 years ago – in 1929 – when Thad W. Garner, son of Sam and Ila Jane Garner, invested all of his savings…accumulated while working jobs as a bus driver and newspaper delivery boy…to purchase a local Winston-Salem business known as the Dixie Pig barbecue stand.

The most valuable asset proved to be the vinegar-based barbecue sauce recipe, dubbed a “Louisiana-style hot sauce.”

Thad Garner’s barbecue joint didn’t survive, but people loved the dagnabbit Dixie Pig sauce. Ila Jane and daughters Virginia, Elizabeth and Margaret made it in the family kitchen. Sam and sons Thad, Ralph and Harold took to the road and peddled it throughout the Piedmont of North Carolina.

Customers suggested that the sauce would be “even better if it were a tad spicier.” The Garner family tinkered and dickered with the recipe to come up with a hot sauce that was infused with a special “snap, crackle and pop.” They added cayenne peppers.

Sam Garner saw the opportunity to create a new brand, and he sought the advice of a hot-shot marketing consultant. The man suggested the name “Mexican Joe” – to “connote the piquant flavor reminiscent of the favorite foods of our neighbors to the south.”

Sam Garner was half-way impressed, but he insisted the made-in-the-U.S.A. product had to “have a dad-gum American name.” He reckoned that Texas also had a reputation for spicy cuisine. Then he glanced at son Harold, whose nickname was “Pete,” and it was settled. The “Texas Pete” brand was born.

“The tangy, spicy Texas Pete condiment contains a blend of three peppers, but the recipe is a closely guarded top secret,” Jenn Rice reported.

The linkage of Texas Pete to cowboys was another stroke of genius. Movie cowboys were very popular in the 1930s, and Tom Mix was the hottest star in Hollywood.

A likeness of Mix’s face on Texas Pete products preceded the iconic red cowboy logo that has been associated with Texas Pete since 1962. (Tom Mix was regarded as “king of the cowboys,” having starred in 291 early western movies. He is credited with helping “define the genre as it emerged in the early days of the cinema.”)

When the Texas Pete production demands grew beyond the capacity of the Garner family kitchen, the Garners built a factory on Indiana Avenue in Winston-Salem in 1942, and the T.W. Garner Food Company was formed in 1946.

Over the years, Garner Foods expanded its product lines to include sauces for pork, chicken, seafood and Mexican-style dishes.

In 2004, Garner Foods acquired Hume Specialties Inc. of Chester, Vt., and its Green Mountain Gringo brand of salsa and tortilla strips. This gave the company an entry into the growing natural-foods market.

Presently, Ann Garner Riddle serves as Garner Foods’ CEO. She is a niece of Thad Garner and joined the company in 1972. Members of the fourth generation of Garners are now serving in executive level positions in the areas of operations, finance and marketing.

The “Texas Pete Tribe” is the name of the product’s fan club. Member Michael Eickemeier of High Point, N.C., said: “I put Texas Pete on Texas Pete.” David LaBlanc of Breaux Bridge, La., wrote: “It’s not brunch unless my plate is swimming in Texas Pete.”

Around Winston-Salem, Jenn Rice told readers of the Tasting Table website: “You’ll be hard-pressed to find a restaurant that doesn’t have a bottle of Texas Pete on every table. It’s practically a legend in the South – a liquid condiment home cooks and big-name chefs alike swear by.”

She cited Winston-Salem chefs who use Texas Pete on or in everything from brownies to hashbrowns…and from fried chicken to bourbon cocktails.

The burning, remaining question to Caleb Pressley is: “What three things, pray tell, could be hotter than Texas Pete in North Carolina?” Watch this space.