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HOT,
HOT HOT...
The popularity of hot chile peppers is on the
rise, depending on the season, look for fresh poblanos, jalapeños,
serranos, Anaheims, and habañeros, to name a few. Dried chipotles
and pasillas can be found in the spice section of the bulk department,
while chipotles canned in adobo sauce are available in the International
section along with canned green chiles.
Hundreds of varieties of chiles exist, more than 100 of them indigenous
to Mexico alone. Prolific and unpredictable, many remain unnamed
as a result of their penchant for cross-pollination. They vary in
length from 12 inches to ¼ inch, and may be long and thin,
plump and conical, or lantern-shaped. Their colors range from green
through yellow, orange, red, and black. When dried, they are known
by a different name, thus adding to the confusion.
Chiles are native to Central and South America and were so highly
valued in Peru that they were used as a medium of exchange. When
Christopher Columbus brought them back to Europe from the New World,
he named them “peppers,” thinking he had found India and
the source of black pepper. The botanical name, Capsicum, applies
to the entire genus which includes the chile’s non-pungent
cousin, the sweet pepper.
Chile peppers were enthusiastically embraced in equatorial countries
around the world. Spicy Thai dishes, Indonesian sambals, Hunan hot
bean paste, Indian curries, Moroccan chermoula, Ethiopian berbere,
and Tunisian harissa all rely on this fiery food from the New World.
Hot red peppers spice the cooking of southern Italy, Portugal, and
Spain. Capsicums reached the Balkans in the 1560s; Hungarians were
producing paprika by 1569.
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Hot,
Hotter, Hottest
The inner ribs and membranes that hold the seeds
contain 80% of a chile’s capsaicin (cap-say-i-sin), the potent
alkaloid that gives hot peppers their heat. Neither cooking, freezing,
nor passage of time diminishes capsaicin’s intensity; removing
the ribs, membranes, and seeds is the only way to moderate a chile’s
heat.
When working with chiles, always wear gloves, and never rub your
nose, eyes, or mouth. Capsaicin is not soluble in water; so washing
with water won't bring relief to stinging skin. Likewise, when eating
chiles, water will not relieve the sting, but milk, yogurt, or ice
cream and starchy foods, such as bread or rice, are the best antidotes.
As a general rule, the larger the chile, the milder it is, with
small, narrow-shouldered, pointed chiles like the cayenne being
much hotter than large broad-shouldered varieties like the ancho.
Color is no indication of a pepper’s pungency. Among the most
fiery are deep green serranos, tiny red Thai or “bird”
peppers, and the infamous little habañeros or Scotch bonnets
that can be yellow, orange, red, green, or white.
Relative pepper heat is measured in Scoville Units, in use since
the turn of the century. Originally, a panel of tasters sipped solutions
of ground chile peppers dissolved in increasing dilutions of water
until they could no longer detect a burning sensation in their mouths.
The Scoville Units then assigned to each pepper reflected the amount
of water required to neutralize the heat.
Today’s Scoville Unit charts are the result of measurement
of capsaicin by high pressure liquid chromotography. Still, only
ranges can be given for each pepper type, since significant variation
occurs among specimens of the same variety relative to growing conditions
and maturity when picked.
While heat is often the main focus of today’s hot pepper rage,
don’t ignore the individual flavors of peppers. Balancing the
pungency, flavor, and aromatic qualities of chiles against milder
foods results in pleasingly complex tastes. Smoking or roasting
chiles, which caramelizes their natural sugars, gives them added
richness. When cooking with recipes, chile substitutions should
be made with flavor in mind. Small hot types can substitute for
one another, but large mild anchos and pungent jalapeños
are not interchangeable. Peppers with distinctive tastes, like floral
habañeros and smoky chipotles, have no substitutions.
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Take
Two Chiles and Call Me in the Morning
For years, it was popular belief that spicy food caused, aggravated,
and retarded the healing of digestive tract ulcers. Research has
not only disproved this, but has shown that capsaicin can actually
help ulcer sufferers by producing a local anesthetic effect while
improving blood flow to the area. Animal studies have demonstrated
that hot peppers help protect the stomach lining, limiting damage
ordinarily caused by aspirin or alcohol.
Hot foods, including mustard, garlic, and chiles, have been used
since antiquity to relieve pulmonary and respiratory diseases. Capsaicin
activates secretion of fluids that make the eyes water, the nose
run, and bathe the lungs’ bronchial passages. Dr. Irwin Ziment,
a pulmonary specialist at UCLA, recommends eating spicy meals to
clear up a stuffy nose and chest congestion, and to help fight sinusitis,
bronchitis, and emphysema.
Capsaicin’s anesthetic properties and ability to stimulate
circulation explain the mechanism behind the use of cayenne extracts
and tinctures to ease the pain of shingles, reduce muscle soreness,
speed healing in joints, and stimulate metabolism. It is used for
this in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy,
Egypt, and Japan.
Chiles are excellent sources of vitamin C and beta carotene, the
latter being extremely high in the red varieties.
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A
GUIDE TO CHILE PEPPERS
This list is arranged in order of increasing
heat, with the Scoville heat units shown at the end of each paragraph.
Anaheim or New Mexico: Available
in both green and red forms and used fresh, roasted, or dried, this
chile has a rather mild, peppery flavor. The most common chile grown
in the U.S., it is frequently stuffed for chiles relleños
and can easily be added to any vegetable, meat, or egg dish. Dried
maroon Anaheims are the chiles most often woven into the hanging
decorations known as ristras. 500-1,000
Poblano: This glossy, richly green pepper looks like a slightly
flattened green bell pepper with a pointed tip. It has a full, earthy
flavor and aroma, with thick flesh perfect for stuffing. Generally
mild, poblanos are good in corn dishes, soups, sauces, and salads.
1,000-1,500
Ancho: This dried poblano is the most popular dried chile
in Mexico. Usually very mild, it is flat, wrinkled, and heart shaped
and can be almost black. When rehydrated, the ancho becomes crimson.
1,000-1,500
Pasilla (pah-see-yah): Sometimes confused with the ancho,
this dried chile is long and skinny where anchos are wide, and is
the pepper used in Mexico’s chocolate molé sauce. 1,000-1,500
Guajillo (gwa-hee-yo): This hot, dried pepper has a smoky,
peppery taste and fruity aroma, and is known as mirasol when fresh.
It is very popular in Burma and India as well as Mexico. 2,500-5,000
Jalapeño: This is the most widely known and eaten
fresh chile in the U.S. Red or green, jalapeños are hot and
richly flavored, with thicker flesh than most small peppers. They
go well with cheese and in spoonbreads, cornbreads, sauces, and
pastas. Jalapeños are also pickled or used to make hot pepper
jelly. 2,500-5,000
Chipotle (chee-pote-lay): The chipotle is a dried, smoked
jalapeño, very hot and with a distinctly rich, smoky flavor.
It is often found canned in adobo sauce, a mixture of onions, tomatoes,
vinegar, and spices, but can also be purchased in the dried form.
2,500-5,000
Serrano: This tiny pepper is used extensively in Thai cooking
as well as in Mexican salsas. It has an intense, searing heat that
lasts and is used raw or roasted. 10,000-23,000
Cayenne: The favorite of Creole and Cajun cooks, this long
red pepper is sweet and exceedingly hot. It is grown mainly in India
and Asia, and is the most widely used chile in the world. The cayenne
has a flavor similar to the tabasco pepper and is usually used in
its dried form. Chile de Arbol is a form of cayenne grown in Mexico.
30,000-50,000
Habañero (Scotch bonnet): This small lantern-shaped
pepper comes in a range of colors and has the distinction of being
the most fiery of all domesticated chiles. It is known for its floral
flavor as well as its heat, which affects the nasal passages, and
is a favorite in hot sauces, Jamaican jerk seasoning, and salsas.
100,000-300,000
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