There’s no doubt about it: Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce is the sauce of Bond villains. Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) tells Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize) to fetch a bottle at the very beginning of 1974’s The Man With The Golden Gun (“Nick Nack! Tabasco!”), while in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), a bottle can be seen on Karl Stomberg’s (Curd Jürgens) dining table in his underwater base, Atlantis.

Nick Nack arriving with the Tabasco sauce in The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

Both villains use the sauce to spice up their oysters. Preparing oysters à la Stromberg (or Scaramanga) is simplicity itself; the addition of just a drop of Tabasco sauce is a taste sensation and positively wicked.

Serves two

• A dozen oysters
• Wedges cut from half a lemon
• Bottle of Tabasco sauce

Pile some crushed ice on a serving plate or platter. Shuck the oysters, taking care not to spill the liquor, and place the half-shells on the ice. Arrange the lemon wedges artfully on the platter and serve. Just before you tuck into each oyster, add a drop or two of lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. Enjoy!

Oysters à la Stromberg