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Kitchen Tip: How to Check for the Hotness of Jalapenos


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Ever take home a jalapeño chile pepper from the grocery store and have it either be so lacking in heat it may just as well be a bell pepper, or so hot a speck will create a raging inferno in your mouth? Here's a quick tip for choosing jalapeños that can help you decide which ones to pick. Jalapeño chilies start out mild and progressively get hotter the older they get, eventually turning bright red (and quite hot). As they age, they develop white lines and flecks, like stretch marks running in the direction of the length of the pepper. The smoother the pepper, the younger, and milder it is. The more white lines, the older and hotter. Red jalapeños are the most hot, because they've been maturing the longest.

 

 

 

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If you are looking for mild jalapeños (say for a stuffed jalapeno dish), pick the chiles without any striations. If you are looking for heat, find a red jalapeño, or a green one with plenty of white stretch marks.

 

Note that this is just a guideline. There is still plenty of variation among individual peppers. You can find hotter-than-Hades peppers without any white lines. But your chances of picking a mild one are better if you go for smooth. Or if you are looking for heat, you will more likely find that in a pepper with lots of lines.

Original Article

 

Now you know how to pick the 'hot ones' for your pico de gallo or ceviche . .

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As far as jalapeno pepper maturity, this is correct. A fully mature jalapeno will turn bright red and will have these "stretch marks", also referred to as 'netting' in chili pepper circles. They will usually develop the netting before turning red. Different varieties grow differently.

There are also some varieties of jalapeno that will fully mature and turn red, but not be hot at all. I try to grow some of each in my garden, so I can put them on the grill, and my guests can eat them too...lol.

I've won the blue ribbon at the NC State fair for two years in a row with my fresh jalapenos, and won other blues for some other varieties like the Aji. I would have won it three years running if they hadn't changed the judges around and got someone in there that didn't know their shit, and preferred them to be smooth and green like the ones at the grocery store... :rolleyes:

They are supposed to be judged by regularity in size, color & shape, and the presence of the netting is a plus.

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Hell, I just hand it to Shannon to taste. I don't think there is a pepper in the world he wouldn't try. :rolleyes:

 

I have some carribean reds going right now in my pepper patch. Think he will eat one on film?

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Hell, I just hand it to Shannon to taste. I don't think there is a pepper in the world he wouldn't try. :rolleyes:

 

I have some carribean reds going right now in my pepper patch. Think he will eat one on film?

If your talking Scotch Bonnet aka Habanero, pass it over here.
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I feel like I'm on tour at the tabasco plant again

I bet that was a fun tour...

 

It was pretty cool got alot of free samples then got a few gallons of sauce from the gift shop hehe but its only an hour from the house pretty neat place to visit they have a big garden type thing you can drive threw and look at aligators that are every where in the garden wich is pretty big not like a typical garden

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thanks, i knew the red ones were hotter but did not know about the lines.

 

my favorite peppers are birds eye peppers. the really hot ones turn sort of a dark purple.

 

chillerelleno the best mexican dish ever lol

 

what town is the tabasco plant in? i might want to visit one day.

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Ahhh...Blair's is some really good stuff. I've got several flavors of that one. I think my favorite is still Endorphin Rush though. It's got a good flavor to go with the heat.

I try to stay away from needles.

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Nice post and good info.

I find that grilling the peppers (Jalapenos) seems to mellow out the heat also.

Anyone else notice this also?

You're removing the essential oils when you cook them.

 

Another reason is the usually, folks remove the internal veins before cooking (these contain a lot of the oils).

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Nice post and good info.

I find that grilling the peppers (Jalapenos) seems to mellow out the heat also.

Anyone else notice this also?

You're removing the essential oils when you cook them.

 

Another reason is the usually, folks remove the internal veins before cooking (these contain a lot of the oils).

 

I don't gut them first but the essential oils being burned off somewhat does make sense.

Thanks, Nalioth

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Nice post and good info.

I find that grilling the peppers (Jalapenos) seems to mellow out the heat also.

Anyone else notice this also?

 

If you dehydrate them it actually makes them hotter.

 

The remains of last years crop my friend :beer:

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Nice post and good info.

I find that grilling the peppers (Jalapenos) seems to mellow out the heat also.

Anyone else notice this also?

 

If you dehydrate them it actually makes them hotter.

 

The remains of last years crop my friend :beer:

 

Looks like some stuff my friend does dryes all sorts of peppers and makes seasoning usualy turns out like this when he decieds to cook with it and tell no one

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Edited by bigcec1
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  • 1 month later...

This is a VERY cool thread, Kudos to Nalioth and Cobra 76 for the info and expertise. I have a buddy that like to grow Jalapenos and habeneros, and we used to sit around and eat them off the bush, raw. First one to crack and have to have a beer was the loser! Ha. I had no idea on the stretch marks and such. Thanks.

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Actually, Will, I grew up in the same town as the Culinary Institute of America, and worked for several famous chefs, as well as in a few upper class resturaunts.....yet another thing I know how to do well is cook.....

 

Im actually weaponizing some of my crop, making a condiment bottle of sauce (refilling one of cobra's bottles, actually), and making my own sauce out of the rest.....i have to puree the different peppers and mix small amounts to get the right blend that Im going for, still. Cant find some of my kitchen stuff, like my GOOD knife and blender of all things.....

 

you shoulda seen the look on the clerks face when i told him what the pot grinder i bought from him was actually gonna be used for....grinding habenero seed into dust :)

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