 The South's economic collapse after its defeat ruined McIlhenny, who now lived with his in-laws in their plantation house on Avery Island, Louisiana.It was there that McIlhenny tended the family garden, where, according to tradition, he grew a variety of fruits and vegetables.McIlhenny was given tabasco peppers and a recipe for tabasco sauce by a friend, plantation owner Maunsel White, who died in 1863 – though company legend says McIlhenny himself invented the sauce between 1866 and 1868.