Chili and otherwise "hot" peppers

[Astronuc]

An excellent source on Pepper plants - http://www.chili-pepper-plants.com/

"Although most chili peppers are indigenous to South America, they are used and grown around the world. Hot peppers are used in abundance in Mexican, South American, Indonesian, African and Oriental cooking, while the milder peppers are common in European and North American recipes. And, peppers have been cultivated for thousands of years for their medicinal properties, known for lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, in addition to their culinary purposes.

What Are Peppers?

The word "peppers" can bring to mind several images. On one end of the spectrum is the sweet bell pepper. On the other is the hottest of the hot peppers, the habanero chili pepper. One has virtually no heat while the other will melt the taste buds off your tongue. Yet these and all those in between are peppers. (By the way, that bit about the habanero melting your taste buds, I was just kidding . . . but it's pretty near the truth!)

The one thing that all chili peppers share is the common name "capsicum" (pronounced KAP-sih-kuhm). Capsicum, from the Greek kapto meaning "to bite," is the pepper genus. The five big species of chili peppers are:

  Capsicum annuum - including most of the common varieties like the jalapeno and bell peppers
 
  Capsicum baccatum - including the berry-like South American chili peppers, aji
 
  Capsicum chinense - including the fiery habanero
 
  Capsicum frutescens - including the bushy pepper plants like tabasco
 
  Capsicum pubescens - including the South American rocoto peppers.
 
Measuring the Heat of Hot Peppers

Chili pepper heat is measured in Scoville Units. Developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, Scoville Units measure chili pepper heat in multiples of 100, with the bell peppers at 0 and the habanero at over 300,000 Scoville Units.

The Scoville Unit rating of a pepper is determined by a dilution taste test. Pure ground chili peppers are blended with a sugar-water solution. A panel of testers sips the mixture in increasingly diluted concentrations until it no longer burns the mouth. The Scoville Unit number is based on how much the ground chili needs to be diluted before no heat is detected. (Nowadays, liquid chromatography, rather than Scoville's dilution taste test, is used to evaluate the heat of chili peppers.)

The substance that makes a chili hot is called capsaicin, also known for its ability to improve one's health by increasing blood circulation and metabolism. Pure capsaicin comes in at over 16 million Scoville Units! Capsaicin is found in its highest concentrations (about 80% of the total amount) in the ribs of the pepper, and because of their proximity, the seeds are also highly concentrated. Removing the ribs and seeds will reduce the heat of the chili pepper. Capsaicin is also distributed in smaller amounts throughout the flesh of the chili pepper, and because it's distributed unevenly it's common for some areas of a pepper to be hotter than others.

Growing & Using Chili Peppers

On this site we've included information about the Pepper Varieties that you can grow in your garden, those that are commonly seen at your local grocer's, and those that are typically used in chili sauces and spice mixtures. If you want to grow your own peppers, visit our Growing Peppers page to read about container and garden planting, and what kind of soil, moisture, temperature and amount of sunlight chili peppers like best. If you're growing peppers or purchasing them fresh we have provided some ideas on Using Peppers, from stuffing to salsa to pickling."

[Orstio]

Great topic.   

I love hot peppers.  I eat enough of them, that I have developed some resistance to the tongue-melting heat.  I can actually taste the sweetness of the jalapeno.  What a wonderful flavour!

I have had jabaneros, and I wonder about the claim that they are the hottest peppers in the world.  I know of some locally grown pimentos that bring me to tears by the second pepper, and that is not the case with habaneros.

Something I have noticed about the hotness of peppers:  the smaller they are when fully ripe, the hotter they are.  This goes for green varieties as well as red.  It is most likely due to the distribution of the capsaicin:  In a smaller pepper, you are more likely to get a bite of some.

[Astronuc]

I've been growing some Cayenne peppers around the yard.

They are doing quite well.  Top picture shows peppers on the plant, and bottom shows peppers in varying stages of drying.  I now have a kilogram or two, with more ripening.

[Astronuc]

I searched for "Serrano Peppers" on Google and found -


Topic: serrano peppers and bell pepepers
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/cgi-bin/ubb/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=000227;p=0

http://www.almanac.com/phorum/read.php?f=2&i=6856&t=6856

http://dirtdoctor.com/forum/archive.php/o_t/t_807/serrano-peppers.html

http://www.overthegardengate.net/forums/treplies.asp?message=8691&all=True

It seems that Debbie is having problems with her peppers.

[Astronuc]

Serrano Pepper - from http://www.truestarhealth.com/Notes/3632006.html

Even though the serrano chile pepper is not extensively cultivated in the United States, it is the easiest hot pepper to find fresh in the grocery store. This pepper is often chosen for the sharp flavor it gives when incorporated fresh into salsa. When roasted, it is a favorite in Mexican and Southwestern-style sauces.

Varieties
Though not as hot as the infamous habaneros, serrano peppers deliver plenty of heat and are the easiest hot chiles to obtain. These dark green or red peppers are between 1 and 2 inches (2.5-5 cm) in length and about 1/2 inch (1.3cm) in diameter, with a slight taper and a rounded end. The larger variety, termed the Largo, can be twice this size.

Serrano chiles are extremely hot peppers that range in heat between 5,000 and 20,000 Scoville heat units. How high a chile pepper scores on the heat scale is determined by high-performance liquid chromatography measurement of how many parts per million of capsaicin it contains. (Capsaicin is the compound that gives chile peppers their fiery bite.) This figure is then converted into the historic Scoville heat units that signify how much dilution is necessary to drown out the chile's heat. The heat level of a chile is given as a range because it varies with how and where the pepper was cultivated.

Buying and Storing Tips
Fresh serrano chiles can be found in the produce section of specialty markets and supermarkets. Choose chiles with deep colors, avoiding those that look wrinkled or soft. Store them in a plastic bag for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. These peppers do not retain their flavor and heat after freezing.

Availability
Green serranos are available year-round, while red serranos are best purchased in the spring and fall.

Preparation, uses, and tips
The seeds and membranes in chile peppers contain most of the capsaicin, the compound that lends them their mouth-searing qualities. Use caution when handling these chiles. Serranos are hot enough to easily irritate the skin on the hands and it can be painful if their juice comes in contact with the eyes. Wear thin disposable surgical gloves while working with hot chiles, and don't touch your face until the gloves are removed.

Serrano peppers are often used to add considerable heat to salsas and sauces and can be used with or without their seeds. While they do not need to be peeled, these peppers should be roasted before adding to sauces.

Nutritional Highlights
Serrano pepper (raw) - 1/2 cup (52.5g)
Calories: 16.8
Protein: 0.9g
Carbohydrate: 3.5g
Total Fat: 0.2g
Fiber: 1.9g

*Foods that are an 'excellent source' of a particular nutrient provide 20% or more of the Recommended Daily Value, based upon United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines. Foods that are a 'good source' of a particular nutrient provide between 10 and 20% of the USDA Recommended Daily Value. Nutritional information and daily nutritional guidelines may vary in different countries. Please consult the appropriate organization in your country for specific nutritional values and the recommended daily guidelines.

[Astronuc]

Pictures of my serrano and kung pao peppers. 

The serrano are in the first picture.  I bought the plant with fruit on it, and some were already ripe (red) like the red one showing.

The kung pao peppers look somewhat like the cayenne, but are much longer.  The one in the left fram is ripening and I am still waiting to see if the kung pao peppers turn red like the cayenne peppers.

[Astronuc]

One of my favorite subjects and hobbies. 

Chili peppers have ancient history

WASHINGTON - Who says food fads can't last? Thousands of years before the advent of Tex-Mex, ancient Americans were spicing up stew with red hot chili peppers. New fossil evidence shows prehistoric people from southern Peru up to the Bahamas were cultivating varieties of chilies millennia before Columbus' arrival brought the spice to world cuisine.

 The earliest traces so far are from southwestern Ecuador, where families fired up meals with homegrown peppers about 6,100 years ago.

The discovery, reported Friday in the journal Science, suggests early New World agriculture was more sophisticated than once thought.

"Some people who have described ancient food ways as being simple will probably have to rethink their ideas because of this work," said lead researcher Linda Perry of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

"It tells us a lot about what was going on around the prehistoric hearth," adds co-author Deborah Pearsall, an anthropology professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, who found evidence of chili-laced stew in pots in an ancient Ecuadorean village.

Archaeologists trace food origins not just from curiosity about the ancients' everyday lives. How a crop spreads sheds light on prehistoric travel and trade. In the Middle East, figs were domesticated 11,400 years ago. Wheat wasn't far behind. In the New World, corn was being cultivated around 9,000 years ago.

How do you trace a pepper, which leaves no husk or other easily fossilized evidence? A dozen researchers at seven sites around Latin America kept finding microscopic starch grains on grindstones and cooking vessels and in trash heaps. Finally Perry identified these microfossils as residue from domesticated, not wild, chili species that in some spots even predated the invention of pottery.

"We now have a marker, in starch granules, that allows us to look back in time and demonstrate the widespread use of domesticated chili peppers throughout the Americas at much earlier times than previously documented," said botanist W. Hardy Eshbaugh of Miami University in Ohio, a pepper expert not involved in the research.

The microfossils suggest vitamin C-rich chilies were usually mixed with corn and a few other foods, not just used as a spice.

Now the hunt is on for the first site of homegrown chilies. It can't be Ecuador, too far from where wild chilies flourish in Bolivia and Brazil.

"Whether this is migration of people or early trade is one of the fascinating questions," said Pearsall, who calls these early farmers pretty sophisticated. "They were not at the edge of starvation. ... People were growing all kinds of things and not just focusing on staples."