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From The Star
Toronto, Canada
Hot Stuff in Bermuda - HAMILTON, Bermuda -
There is but one prescribed use for Outerbridge's Original Sherry
Peppers - O.O.S.P's for short - but that doesn't stop people from
testing them in a variety of odd ways, and Yeaton Outerbridge has heard
them all. On the flying bridge of a committee boat overseeing races at
the Harrington Sound Sailing and Gliding Club, a semi-circle of jesters
surrounds Outerbridge, who takes it all in good Part.
"Hey Yeaton! I keep a bottle in my boat to clean the battery
terminals. I add it to the
bottom paint, too. It
really does a job on the barnacles".
"My wife strips floor wax with it Yeaton, but last night I spilled
some on an antique chair and it took the varnish off that too."
The barbs slide right past Outerbridge, who says with a smile:
"These clowns like to poke fun at everything that's just
starting to make a name for itself, but you go into any of their homes
and every one has a cruet of my sherry peppers on the kitchen
table."
Steeped in Sherry - O.O.S.P's in case you hadn't guessed, are hot
(that's H O T in red, capital letters)
condiment made by steeping hot peppers in a medium dry sherry for
several months and adding selected spices. They make Indian curries seem
as mild as oatmeal, while the Koreans Himchee or Texas chili pepper
preparations pale when compared to the heat of this sub-tropical sauce. Originally
called "pepper wine" by the Royal Navy during the 19th
Century, the condiment was used aboard ship, so the story goes to kill
the taste of the food.
But in contemporary Bermuda, the sherry pepper bottle is kept alongside
the salt and pepper shakers to add flavour, heat and spice to a variety
of dishes from soups to chowders and even the breakfast egg.
Easy to Prepare - Preparing Bermuda sherry peppers is easy.
simply soak some bird peppers (small hot peppers alternately
called cherry hot peppers) in a medium dry sherry. They have been around
Bermuda for generations, but the Outerbridges, Yeaton and his cousin
Robbie, were the first to produce them commercially in 1964. From humble
beginnings in a bathtub (a sparkling white bathtub with a very free
running drain) in the basement of Outerbridge's 300 year old home,
Outerbridge's sherry peppers went international with the start of a
bottling operation in Rhode Island in 1973.
Paint Executive - For Yeaton Outerbridge, sherry peppers are a
part time avocation. Full-time
he is an executive of the
Bermuda Paint Company.
"I guess it's just natural", Yeaton sighs "but my funny
friends accuse me of making my peppers in the paint bins and adding
paint thinner for flavour."
"I think they know better though.
No paint would ever stand up to Bermuda sherry peppers!" |
