Posted on 07/01/2023 8:06:10 PM PDT by Yardstick
Throw out those bogus shopping tips about pepper size. Decades of deliberate planning created a less-hot jalapeño.
It’s not just you: jalapeño peppers are less spicy and less predictable than ever before. As heat-seekers chase ever-fiercer varieties of pepper—Carolina reapers, scorpions, ghosts—the classic jalapeño is going in the opposite direction. And the long-term “de-spicification” of the jalapeño is a deliberate choice, not the product of a bad season of weather.
This investigation began in my own kitchen. After months of buying heat-free jalapeños, I started texting chefs around Dallas to see if they were having the same experience. Many agreed. One prominent chef favors serranos instead. Regino Rojas of Revolver Taco Lounge suggested jalapeños are now “more veggie-like than chile.” Luis Olvera, owner of Trompo, said that jalapeños now have so much less heat that “I tell my staff, ‘I think my hands are just too damn sweet,’ because I can’t make salsa spicy enough anymore.”
[snip]
There’s truth to all these theories, but Walker says they are only secondary factors.
“As more growers have adopted drip irrigation, more high-tech farming tools to grow the peppers, they’ll tend to be milder,” Walker told me first, as a sort of throat-clearing exercise before the real explanation. “But there’s more to it than that.”
The truth is more like a vast industrial scheme to make the jalapeño more predictable—and less hot.
(Excerpt) Read more at dmagazine.com ...
The ones my husband grew at our old house would burn all the way down and clear your sinuses immediately.
The one that accompanied our queso and chips at Saltgrass this evening was timid in comparison. It must be one of the new ones.
Sadly, not much choice here (Honolulu), and the jalapeno here is weak.
I also learned about the benefits of thorough handwashing after handling hot peppers or even dried pepper flakes.
I didn’t even recall having touched in certain areas until they lit up with a jolt of stubbornly burning pain.
Some peppers become nature’s own EV Lithium Battery once aflame. Almost impossible to extinguish by regular means.
Jalapeños are not spicy.
I triple washed my hands after cutting up ghost peppers, then, hours later, took my contacts out.
I literally pepper sprayed myself so bad, my wife has to find a way to counter that, while I kept warm water streaming into my eyes.
It felt like it would never end.
Jalapenos were always too tame. A nice X-hot Mirasol chile will put some hair on your chest! :)
Is that Pepi the Pepper? The MAGA chile? Arriba!
Jose Jalapeño...on a steek!
I grow mine from seed too. This yr they ae plenty warm. Wish I would have saved the package since this variety is growing to 6 inches or better. Ghost and Reapers are just setting on.
My wife canned some Reaper hot sauce. It ate through the jar lids.
Genetics are important when it comes pepper heat. But, so is soil. Ever wonder why sweet onio,s come from Vidalia, Ga.? The soil. Spicy pepper do better in a soil that tends towards the alkaline side. The more acid a soil the milder the pepper.
Bookmark dis.
We grow Scotch Bonnets they provide the right amount of heat without ruining the taste of your food. I can them in jars along with jalapeños and they create the perfect sandwich.
The only peppers I eat are bell peppers. I cant take the heat. Never understood how someone could learn to like it.
A. Global Climate Change
B. Old White men
Nice of the chef to give us all a tip; serranos. Time to experiment.
New Mexico State has a chili pepper institute too:
And “Pistol Pete” as their politically incorrect athletic mascot!
https://brand.nmsu.edu/official-university-logo/NM-State-Pete-Color-1024x751.png
https://www.slamstox.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/13a660bdc385e57e6ec81a8621de7645.jpg
Those have been available for years, though they're not always easy to find. They go by the name of Cajun bell or spicy bell peppers. They look like bell peppers, but they're small like jalapenos, with just a little warmth in the mouth. Good in salads.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
