Chile Peppers
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Remedies for the Chile Pepper Bite
or Burning Mouth:
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chili pepper
, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or simply chileBe careful when you handle any kind of chile peppers. They contain oils which can burn your skin and especially your eyes. Avoid direct contact as much as possible. Many cooks wear rubber gloves while handling chilies, or or generously grease your fingers with any kind of shortening (even the cooking sprays can help).
In any case, after you have worked with them, be sure to wash your hands and nails thoroughly with soap and water.
Most Familiar Types Of Chile Peppers:
Chile peppers are available year round and in the United States they are mainly grown in California, New Mexico and Texas.
Anaheim: Very mild. Six to eight inches in size and deep, shiny green. Often stuffed or added to salsas.
Ancho: Dried or fresh poblano pepper. Dried anchos are flat, wrinkled, and heart shaped. They range in color from very dark red to almost black. Anchos are mild to moderately hot and often soaked and ground for use in sauces.
Cayenne: From four to twelve inches in length. Deep green, yellow, orange, or red. Long, skinny, and wrinkled in appearance. Hot in taste.
Cherry: Round and red like a cherry. Sold fresh or pickled in jars, these peppers range from mild to moderately hot.
Habanero (Scotch Bonnet): Typically yellow-orange but they can be green, red, or orange. These peppers are lantern shaped and typically about 2 inches long. The hottest pepper grown commercially; intense fiery flavor; a unique floral flavor and an extremely intense heat that affects the nasal passages.
Jalapeno: Most often green when mature but sometimes red. They are very hot, with an immediate bite. Use whenever recipe simply calls for hot chile peppers. They can be fresh or canned. When smoked, jalapenos are called chipotles.
Poblano: Poblano peppers look like small bell peppers and are mild to hot on the hotness scale. They can be fresh or canned.
Serrano:
Sold red or mature
green and about 1 to 4 inches in length. Moderate to very hot with an
intense bite. Can be found canned, pickled, or packed in oil with vegetables. Often served in
Thai or Mexican dishes.
Selection And Storage:
Fresh Chile Peppers:
Make sure that they are firm to the touch and the skin is smooth. Once they are wrinkled, their crisp texture and fresh flavor are gone.
Use them as soon after purchasing as possible. Otherwise store them for up to two weeks wrapped in a dry terry-cloth towel inside a paper bag in the refrigerator or a cool dark place. Do not freeze.
To select chile peppers for cooking:
If you are searching for milder chiles, always select ones that have broad shoulders and blunt tips.
For hotter chiles, select chiles with pointed tips and narrow shoulders. This is important because you can have up to 35 different piquancies on one plant at a time.
Dried Chile Peppers:
The best dried chiles are the ones that have been sundried. If possible, buy loose, rather than packaged chile peppers so that you can examine them closely.
Dried chiles should have a rich (not dusty), uniform color, unbroken
skins and a slight flexibility. Don’t buy those with skin blemishes. Select chilies
that are still a little flexible and not dried to a crisp. Dried chiles
should be used within 1 year of production. Store in a cool and dry area
or in a very airtight container (tightly sealed jar or freezer bag) in
the refrigerator.
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This photo tutorial for preparing fresh chile peppers is courtesy of Cynthia Detterick-Pineda of Andrews, TX. Check out more of Cynthia's Southwest Recipes. To use fresh chile peppers in your recipe, you want to remove the tough skin, the seeds and the ribs. Warning: Always wear gloves when working with hot chile peppers (fresh, dried or roasted chiles). Never touch your eyes when working with chiles. Gloves will protect your hands, but the capsaicin in the chile pepper sticks to all it touches, and if you touch near your eyes it will burn. Rinse well with copious amounts of water. If the chile is too hot for your taste buds, drinking milk is a sure way to stop the burn. Sugar may also help. Please don't learn this lesson the hard way!
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This photo tutorial of preparing fresh chile peppers is courtesy of Cynthia Detterick-Pineda of Andrews, TX. Check out more of Cynthia's Southwest Recipes.
Preheat the broiler of your oven. Wash and dry
the chile peppers. Remove husks from tomatillos;
wash and pat dry. Place chili peppers and
tomatillos on a baking sheet; broil 3 to 5
minutes each side until blackened. Remove from
oven. Place hot chile pepper in a bowl, cover
with plastic wrap or an airt Warning: Always wear gloves when working with hot chile peppers (fresh, dried or roasted chile peppers). Never touch your eyes when working with chile peppers. Please don't learn this lesson the hard way!
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This photo tutorial of preparing dried chile peppers is courtesy of Cynthia Detterick-Pineda of Andrews, TX. Check out more of Cynthia's Southwest Cooking Recipes.
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Questions and comments from readers: Question: I am enjoying the information on your site. I was lead there looking for information on using different variations of chiles in my Texas chile recipe. I have not experimented with anything other than jalapenos and usually they are of the pickled variety. My recipe has a good flavor and moderate heat. I want to kick up the heat but retain a natural flavor; I love the taste of peppers in a recipe when done right. I think a dried and/or smoked chile may give me what I am looking for but I am clueless about how much to use. I wonder if you could give me the approximate equivalent amount of other varieties as I mentioned versus using the jalapenos? For my recipe that uses five pounds of ground beef I use five large pickled jalapenos, without the membranes and seeds. The recipe is mild for my tastes. I guess using fresh (not pickled) jalapenos would add heat also? Should I include the membranes and seeds? I am intrigued with your Carne Adovada (Meat in Red Chile) recipe and will try it soon. It reminds me of the Red Chile Stew at Pancho’s Mexican Buffet. I love that stuff over white rice. I have been searching how to make that for a while. I was amazed that you use twenty-four red chiles in it. I think this is the method I want to try in my Texas chile. How hot is your stew? - Kind regards, Houston (2/06/10)
The problem with the scale is that it cannot take into account the outside factors affecting the “heat” of the chile, such as a dry growing season which will make a chile hotter, or pickling, which can often make the chile milder. I am going to attach a popular image of the scale that can help a lot when looking for how hot different varieties are, just remember, this scale is not exact, Even two jalapenos picked from the same plant can have different heat levels just because of the growth conditions. As Linda mentioned, leaving the seeds and membrane in the chile will definitely increase the hotness you will get when using the pepper. The capsaicin is concentrated in the membrane, and since the seeds are attached to the membrane they carry a lot of the heat with them. One thing to keep in mind when handling chile peppers is that the capsaicin will come off on your hands when you are removing the seeds and membranes, and since capsaicin is an oil it can be very hard to get off. I have burned my eyes and lip before when I wasn’t being too careful handling the peppers. Dipping your fingers or hands in household bleach will remove the capsaicin from your hands, just remember to wash off the bleach. You mentioned that you use about 5 large pickled jalapenos that have been de-seeded and the membranes removed for your chile. If you were to go by the Scolville Scale to get an equivalent amount of heat from another pepper, you can figure that 1 serrano pepper would equal about 5 jalapenos heat wise, but the taste would be totally different. Personally I think your thought about using smoked peppers would be a great idea. I love the taste of chipotle chiles, and they can be added with the adobo sauce they come packed in. Oh and the dish you mentioned from Panchos is something I have never had, but I bet it is very very similar to Carne Adovada. It is really good over rice. The chiles I use in the recipe are dried New Mexico Big Jims, which are about as hot as a jalpeno, but if you notice, I always take out the seed from them which really decreases the heat in a dried chile. I hope this answered your question somewhat, if not let me know and hopefully I will be around to answer any questions for you.
Question:
I enjoyed reading your
pictorial description of roasting and preparing fresh
peppers. I have used and enjoyed fresh peppers for
years. I recently read a recipe in a reputable magazine
for chili using dried chilies. They suggested roasting
them to enhance the flavor and grinding in a coffee type
grinder. Have you used this method, if not after the
soaking and peeling process how do you proceed with
making the stew? Thanks - Frances (4/0/08) Answer by Cynthia Detterick-Pineda of Andrews, TX: Living where I live, on the border of New Mexico and Texas, I think I must have prepared chiles in just about every possible way. There is just something about the taste of chile! When chile peppers age they become red, either while on the plant or after they are picked. Anaheim Chiles are the most common variety found dried and bagged in markets. By the way there are over 500 varieties of chile peppers (both sweet and hot). Anaheim chile is also the kind of long green chile that most markets carry. There are a few differences in how you prepare both fresh and dried chiles:
To prepare roasted red chile you can choose to either leave the seeds in or remove them. Removing seeds would be done after they were roasted and cooled, should they not come roasted. TO remove them, just pull off the stem and the top will open up. You can usually “shake” most of the seeds out, or you can break open the pod and remove them that way. The dried pods should be placed into a large pot. Cover with hot water (not boiling) and let them soak for about an hour. I have also simmered chiles for 15 to 20 minutes then allowed them to sit for another 20 minutes or so. Drain the chiles once they are soft and place them in a blender (food processors can also be used, but then you can’t really add much more liquid without making a big mess). Add about 3 tablespoons of the water from the pot they were softened in, and pulse on low several times, add a tablespoon of water at a time as needed to make a paste of the chiles.VERY IMPORTANT: Never place the blender top on over a hot liquid unless you are keeping it secure with a protected hand (a dish towel held over the top will keep it from coming off). The article you read about using a coffee grinder is a great idea to prepare a small amount of either very thick chile paste, or to make your own chile powder. I have several coffee grinders in my kitchen that have never seen any coffee beans. I use one for grinding herbs, one for chile and one to grind and mix spices for grilling marinade. Once you have used a grinder for one item, it is better not to use it for another unless the flavors will go well together. To clean out a coffee grinder between uses you can grind up a piece of fresh white bread. This helps to remove any residue and aroma from the previous grinding. I hope this answered your question and that I didn’t give you too much information or confuse you. I really love my chiles! They are so versatile, and really interesting in many ways. If there is anything you would like to see on the site, or have any ideas please let me know. I would love to try and help. - Cynthia Detterick-Pineda Question: Wow!! What an interesting article on the chili pepper! Do you know what chili tepine is? I have a great recipe for Navy Bean Soup but it states:
I have never heard of a chili tepine. - Connie (11/30/07)
Also known as Chiltecpin or simply Tepin - from the Nahuatl Mexican word meaning "flea." It is a type of chile pepper. They are bright red and round but very small. They are served on the side with tacos, soups and stews. Called the "mother of all peppers," is thought to be the oldest known of the Capsicum genus, as well as the hottest wild variety in the Americas even hotter than the habanero. They grow on the rocky surfaces of steep slopes and are difficult to find because they are usually protected by other shrubbery. If you can’t find these chile peppers, just substitute whatever pepper you would like to use.
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I hope I can help you out with your question. All
peppers are gauged for heat on the Scolville Scale (it was
developed be a guy named Scolville back in the 1930’s I
believe). Essentially the scale measure the amount of heat by
the amount of capsaicin in the pepper. 0 for a sweet pepper,
such as a sweet bell, up to 15 or 16 million for pure capsaicin.
Capsaicin is what makes a chile hot. The more it contains, the
hotter the chile pepper.