Some Like It Hot, but a New Pepper Is Bred for the Rest

NY Times ^ | November 21, 2004 | RALPH BLUMENTHAL

[neverdem]

WESLACO, Tex., Nov. 18 - It's a burning issue for some hot-pepper lovers: Whatever possessed Kevin M. Crosby to create the mild habanero?

For Dr. Crosby, a plant geneticist at the Texas A&M Agricultural Experiment Station here near the Mexican border, the answer is simple: "I'm not going to take away the regular habanero. You can still grow and eat that, if you want to kill yourself."

But for those who prize the fieriest domesticated Capsicum for its taste and health-boosting qualities, Dr. Crosby and the research station in the Rio Grande Valley have developed and patented the TAM Mild Habanero, with less than half the bite of the familiar jalapeño (which A&M scientists also previously produced in a milder version).

With worldwide pepper consumption on the rise, according to industry experts, the new variety - a heart-shaped nugget bred in benign golden yellow to distinguish it from the alarming orange original, the common Yucatan habanero - is beginning to reach store shelves, to the delight of processors and the research station, which stands to earn unspecified royalties if the new pepper catches on.

"I love it," said Josh Ruiz, a local farmer whose pickers this week filled some 200 boxes of the peppers to be sold to grocers for about $35 a box. "It yields good and I'm able to eat it." As for the Yucatan habanero, he said, "My stomach just can't take it."

By comparison, if a regular jalapeño scores between 5,000 and 10,000 units on the Scoville scale of pepper hotness based on the amount of the chemical capsaicin (cap-SAY-sin), and a regular habanero averages around 300,000 to 400,000 units, A&M's mild version registers a tepid 2,300, or barely one-hundredth of its coolest formidable namesake. A bell pepper, by the way, scores zero.

Not everyone hails the breakthrough. Dr. Crosby, 33, a native Texan and a distant relative of the crooner Bing, said "chili pepper fanatics" have called with rude questions about what he was thinking and why he was wasting his time. A Mexican voiced complete bewilderment. Why, he asked Dr. Crosby, would you want a habanero that's not hot?

Dr. Crosby said he sympathized. He had, after all, seen Mayans in the Yucatan eating their way through plates of habaneros dipped in salt. "I've heard it said it's addictive," he said.

But he said most people should not try this at home, not even with the most potent antidote at the ready, ice cream. (Milk is second best.)

The center's director, Jose M. Amador, said people in Mexico had called wondering if A&M was out to "ruin" the habanero, and asking, "What are you, crazy?" There was even a move afoot in Mexico, he said, to trademark the Yucatan habanero in the same way, say, that the French protect Champagne and Cognac, but he shrugged off its prospects.

Actually, Dr. Amador said, he came from Havana, for which the pepper is named, but had never eaten it there, Cuban cuisine not being known for its spiciness. With the same confusion, Dr. Crosby said, the habanero's scientific name became Capsium Chinense, although the pepper undoubtedly reached China via the tropical Americas.

Last week, Dr. Crosby was among 225 scientists, growers and processors who gathered at the 17th International Pepper Conference in Naples, Fla. Business was booming, a conference announcement said: "In recent years, interest and demand for peppers has increased dramatically worldwide, and peppers are no longer considered a minor crop in the global market."

Specialty peppers, including hot peppers, were a particularly fast-growing part of the market, perhaps increasing by 5 percent a year, said Gene McAvoy, the conference organizer and a regional extension agent at the University of Florida in Labelle.

Dr. Crosby, who delivered a paper on breeding peppers for enhanced health through plant chemicals like carotenoids, flavonoids and ascorbic acid, said capsaicin was being studied as a stroke preventive. Other chemicals in peppers were potent antioxidants and protected against macular degeneration.

The process to produce a more palatable habanero, he said, began with cross-breeding a regular hot variety with germ plasm from a wild heatless pepper from Bolivia. "We took pollen from the hot to pollinate the heatless to create a hybrid," he said. The hybrid was then self-pollinated, fertilized with its own pollen, to inbreed desired qualities and then, Dr. Crosby said, "backcrossed to the hot to recover more of its genes for flavor." That was repeated for eight generations, or four years at two growing seasons a year, to produce the TAM Mild Habanero. He was breeding it in yellow but could also produce it in white and red, he said.

"It's a pretty fruit," said Dr. Crosby, taking a bite and chewing without flinching. "It's got the flavor but it doesn't kill you."

[ASA Vet]

Prik or pik are the same word. The r is often silent when spoken.
It means "chili" not sauce.

[null and void]

Thanks!

[ASA Vet]

my pen rai krup

[null and void]

Woops! I meant:

Kop koon mak...

[angkor]

That discussion on "prik paha" or "prik nam pla" or however it's prounounced made me grab a plate of jasmine rice, throw some fish sauce and cayenne pepper on it, and dig in.

Nothing better.

[asgardshill]

By comparison, if a regular jalapeño scores between 5,000 and 10,000 units on the Scoville scale of pepper hotness based on the amount of the chemical capsaicin ... and a regular habanero averages around 300,000 to 400,000 units, A&M's mild version registers a tepid 2,300

400,000 Scoville units? Pikers - try 7.1 million. For all my "Romulan Chili" needs, I go straight to The Source.

(Not an advertisement - just the most insanity ever collected in a bottle).

[angkor]

I'm not even going to try, my Thai is limited to the cheat sheet that comes with the Nancy Chandler maps.

[ASA Vet]

prik nam pla is correct

prik = chili
nam = liquid (not water as many Farang believe)
pla = fish

Nam pla is fish sauce. Many brands have to much salt for my taste.
In Vietnamese it's Nouc Mam.

[Redcloak]

As I recall, the Red Savina rates >500,000 Scovilles. It was developed by a So. Cal. botanist with priorities that obviously differed from this guy at TAM.

[null and void]

LOL! I've never been to Thailand, and learned Thai from an American (Harold Conover where are you these days?) I used to get complemented on my accent all the time by native Thai speakers...

[lemura]

We grow both Habs and Serranos in our garden during the summer (along with Anaheims, Bells, etc). I don't even use the Habs - we dry the Serranos and use them carefully during the winter to spice up certain meals.

[Fiddlstix]

.....As for the Yucatan habanero, he said, "My stomach just can't take it."

Jeeeez! I grew up in South Texas. I put habanero in my eggs for breakfast. What is this guy's problem?

[Cap Huff]

Like giving birth to a blow torch.

[angkor]

Thanks for that link. A lot of boutique sauces, I wouldn't know where to begin. Super hot ain't necessarily the best.

The best (most flavorful) sauce I ever found was on the island of Bequia in the Windward Caribbean. It was orangish colored, in unlabled soda-pop style bottles, and had a very subtle "seafood" flavor to it (fish sauce??). Presumably made with the Scotch Bonnet peppers. I bought half-a-dozen for gifts and everyone loved it.

[angkor]

Well now I'm completely stumped. "Prik pa ha" apparently means nothing, yet I always got the little bowl with fishsauce and chilis when I asked for it.

Vietnamese is easier: nouc mam gai (literally, liquid fermented fish hot/spicey).

There is no doubt that Vietnamese fish sauce is earthier and more potent than the Thai variety. The Vietnamese almost always cut nuoc mam with water, spices, lime juice to make "nuoc cham" (literally, dipping liquid). Rarely it served in the same manner as prik nam pla.

[Tom D.]

I also grow Habeneros. I have dried and crushed them into powder, but now I freeze them and chop the frozen peppers into what I am fixing.

For an excellent mango salsa, try this:

Peel and dice 4 or 5 fresh mangos'
Finely chop 1/2 to 1 fresh or frozen Habenero pepper. Include the seeds and membranes;
Chop up 1/2 to 2/3 red onion;
Chop up a red bell pepper;
Chop up 2 or 3 green peppers. You may want to just use the tops;
Squeeze in the juice of 1 or 2 limes;
add a little salt and maybe some black pepper; and, mix the stuff together.

This makes a delicious salsa. It goes well with chips or crackers or as a topping for various fish. It will keep for a couple of days in the refrigarator. Use a glass bowl, not a stainless steel bowl.

[roaddog727]

Yay-es, I say Yay-es!

I mean Mind-numbing hot! I mean stick my tounge in a bucket of liquid nitrogen to extinguish the heat hot!

I'm sayin' so hot that the endorphin rush lasts 24 hours hot!

HOT!

My brothers and sisters! Say yay-es to the HOT!

[R. Scott]

The Jack and Budweiser go into the cook. I dice and sauté the peppers along with onion and garlic and add to the meat while it’s cooking.

[asgardshill]

Thanks for that link. A lot of boutique sauces, I wouldn't know where to begin.

I put one drop of "The Source" on the tip of a toothpick then dip it into a pot of chili. And its plenty, believe me.

"The Source" is not the hottest they carry either. This stuff is the current champ from what I've been able to gather.

Super hot ain't necessarily the best.

True.

[asgardshill]

I have to admit that I do not use "The Source" solely to warm up my food. I've put a drop on one nugget of cat food, then put that nugget along with a few more out in the garden. As a result, my flower beds are remarkably free of "spoor" from the feral cats that have invaded this area.