On Hot Peppers

I wrote a bit on controlling heat, but I never covered the topic of hot peppers in depth. I disagree with many asian cooks on what peppers to use. As far as I'm concerned, here are the variables I look for, in order of importance:

1. Available fresh, preferably grown locally
2. Flavor
3. Heat
4. Consistency of heat
5. Ability to control heat

You can see my over-riding concern is local availability. The difference between different peppers is large, but you can adapt to the differences easily. But, the difference in cost, flavor, how long they stay in the veggie basket, etc. is huge and not easily overcome.

Flavor is next, higher than heat. Many people don't think of peppers as having flavor, but they do. Try this: take a jalapeño pepper and remove the spines (see my post on controlling the heat), then eat a little. Can you taste it? Now, try that with bird peppers. WAIT!! Don't try it with bird peppers! You can't remove enough heat from them to taste the pepper. That's my point here. Some peppers are easier to taste. Peppers taste good, but when you use those super-hot pepper you can't taste them. So, a medium pepper, with thick, fresh flesh will taste better.

Most people would think the heat would be the primary, maybe only, concern, but I have it listed as the third. I need a pepper that has enough heat, but not too much. The amount of heat affects the flavor and the ability to control the heat.

Consistency and the ability to control the heat are related. Some peppers are thin-skinned without much spine. The heat is absorbed into the flesh. This makes it very difficult to see how much heat it has. On contract, cutting open a jalepeno or a fresno pepper immediately exposes the spines and the amount of heat. You can control this heat easily by removing some or all of the spines. You simply can't do that with bird peppers, serranos, thai chiles or habaneros.

So, what do I choose? I choose Mexican peppers, particularly jalapeños and fresnos. Here's why.

In Colorado, most of our peppers come from New Mexico and Mexico. That means we have great jalepeno, fresno, arbol and other tex-mex peppers. But, Asian peppers like bird and thai chiles are more difficult to find. They're shipped in, so they're picked green and handled. By the time they get here, they're kind of nasty.

Also, fresnos and jalapeños are easy to control. Jalapeños you simply cut them open and cut out the spines. With fresnos, it's even easier. You chop from the tip, up to the base, stopping when you have enough heat. The heat is clustered at the top.

Finally, the taste of fresnos and jalepenos is excellent. You can really taste the pepper. It might be because they're the freshest, but I have to think the relatively thick skin helps. I happen to like the flavor of the fresnos a bit better, because they tend to be more mature and thus sweeter.


So, when cooking Indian food, I don't use Indian peppers. Whenever adding heat, I try to use Fresno Peppers. If there are no Fresnos, I use Jalapeños.