One of my favorite memories with my dad, Don Stroud, is making salsa together back in the early 2000s. He named it Santa Anna’s Revenge after the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, where Sam Houston and the Texas Army defeated General Santa Anna’s troops in just 18 minutes. Dad loved to say Santa Anna got his “revenge… through a jalapeño pepper!”
The Battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836. Eighteen minutes that gave a salsa its name.
What started as a salsa just for us quickly spread to friends and family, and soon everyone was asking for jars. We even used it as a form of “payment” at times! My dad hand-drew jalapeños for the original Santa Anna’s Revenge label, and in his honor, that artwork has become the symbol of everything Strouderosa.
In 2018, while helping a friend with his iBBQ 4U food truck, I experimented with creating a Texas BBQ sauce with a little kick. The samples were an instant hit, and before long I was canning the recipe and sharing it with more people. What began as a fun experiment grew into a true passion, with folks asking for it again and again.
After being furloughed in January 2020, I leaned fully into that passion: smoking meats, preparing meals for the holidays, and eventually growing into Meals of the Week and catering. Today, Strouderosa BBQ is proud to carry on a family tradition of flavor, story, and community. And now, we’re excited to share that tradition with you.
– Matt Stroud & Family
