The Other Chile Peppers
(Page 2 of 3)
February/March 2004
By Brook Elliot
Comparatively, jalapenos (a C. annuum species) range from 5,000 SHUs to 15,000 SHUs.
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'TABASCO' PEPPERS
The C. frutescens species includes the well-known 'Tabasco' variety used in the trademarked Tabasco hot sauce.
'Tabasco' (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) originated in the Mexican state with the same name and isn't a particularly hot chile (30,000 SHUs to 50,000 SHUs), but some C. frutescens peppers are truly incendiary—particularly those from Africa, India and the Far East. Others, such as 'Guatemalan Dog's Tooth' (1) and 'Aji Chinchu' (1) taste mildly pungent, with a pronounced underlying flavor best described as "green," as in unripe bell peppers.
FRUITY BACCATUMS
C. baccatum peppers were practically unknown in North America until the early 1990s, when food products containing them as ingredients began appearing on store shelves. They have a fresh, tropical-fruit taste and an appealing aroma, but DeWitt says so many of them exist, with so many different flavor components, that it's difficult to categorize their tastes.
Beth Boyd owns Peppermania, a retail pepper seed and plant company in Stafford, Texas, that offers about 75 varieties each year. She describes the baccatum 'Aji Colorado' (1, 2, 4, 5) as having "a peppery, spicy flavor," and 'Lemon Drop' as having a "very fresh, lemony taste." The bright-yellow pods of 'Lemon Drop' (1, 2, 3, 4, 6) average 2 inches long, have a distinct lemony aroma and taste, and enough heat to let you know they're present. Boyd says in the South, 'Lemon Drop' is the first to set fruit in the spring and continues setting well into cool fall weather.
A nother Texas pepper authority, Jean Andrews, describes a favorite baccatum, 'Aji Flor', also known as 'Aji Orchid' (2, 5), as "crisp, sweet and flavorful." Because of their fruity, often citruslike flavors, baccatums are great for fresh sauces made with herbs and onions, or mixed with lime juice to make ceviche: The acid in the lime juice "cooks" the fish.
Some sources score baccatums as very hot while others score them more modestly—from 30,000 SHUs to 50,000 SHUs—because the heat of different pods from the same variety can vary widely. "Pepper breeders are just realizing how much effect year-to-year growing conditions can have on heat," DeWitt says. "There are indications that as much as half of the capsaicin levels result from growing conditions."
THE ROCOTOS
The rocotos (C. pubescens) are the least known of the chile peppers, and DeWitt says they are the only domesticated species with no remaining wild form. Archeological evidence indicates that rocotos may be one of the earliest domesticated New World crops: They are certainly the first pepper species to be domesticated.
