Chile Peppers

Planting and growing chile peppers is both fun and rewarding because you get to eat "the fruits of your labor." Peppers are easy to grow if you get the right kind for your climate.

You can start peppers from seed, or you can buy seedlings from your local garden center in the spring. Buying seedlings can give you a good start on the growing season, but typically there are fewer choices of pepper varieties.

When you start from seeds, you should check the date on the packet to make sure the seeds are fresh. Purchasing seeds at a local garden center or by mail will give you the opportunity to try more different varieties.

You will need to consider the length of the growing season and the humidity where you live when choosing which peppers to grow. If you live in a cooler northern climate, you might choose to grow a Hungarian Wax Yellow pepper. In the desert southwest, jalapeno peppers grow well. In humid areas, try habaneros.

Seed catalogs come out in the middle of winter. Seed catalogs are an excellent source of information on each pepper variety. Take time to read about all the varieties and make plans for your spring garden.

Pepper plants come in many different sizes. Thai peppers are usually very small, while aji amarillo pepper plants grow to be quite tall.

Carefully follow the directions that come with your seedlings or seeds concerning how far apart to plant your peppers. Peppers need lots of sun and good air flow around them to be very healthy.

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How do peppers affect the tastes of other foods? Perhaps adding chiles to our familiar foods can make us more aware of the tastes of those foods, as well as the variety of tastes from the chiles themselves. The way we perceive taste is very complex.

Pungency is a term that encompasses a variety of food related sensations, both "hot" and "cool." The biting sensation of a mustard or horseradish, the burning sensation of a chile pepper, and the cooling sensation of mint are all examples of pungency. These senses are transmitted to the brain via the trigeminal nerve, which is different from the nerves that transmit the tastes: salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. While it is not completely understood how chemicals in the foods we eat act on the nerves to produce a trigeminal response, pungent foods are highly popular in most cultures.

Trigeminal nerves affect the eyes, nasal mucus and saliva, and the facial skin. This explains why, when you eat something spicy, it can cause your eyes to burn, your nose to run, and your face to turn red. Pungency is not a taste, nor is it a smell. It operates in a whole different way.

Capsaicin is an odorless, colorless, tasteless compound that accounts for the "heat" or pungency of chile peppers. It is found in highest concentrations in the seeds and the white "ribs" inside the pepper. By removing these parts when cooking with chiles, you can help control the pungency of the dish to some degree. However, there are other factors that contribute to a pepper's heat. The variety of pepper, where it was grown, the acidity of the soil in which it was grown, watering frequency, and maturity at harvest are just a few of the factors that can affect how pungent a pepper may be.

The heat of a chile pepper can be measured in Scoville Heat Units, which is a scale developed by a pharmacist named Wilber Scoville, in 1912. Testing was originally done by special people who tasted the pepper diluted with water, but testing is now done in a lab with high tech equipment.

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Chiles in Walnut Sauce is a special dish that uses poblano peppers, walnuts, and pomegranate seeds.

It happened that one of the first leaders of Mexico, General Don Augustín de Iturbide, visited the capital of the Puebla region in 1821 after the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba. The women there gave a huge banquet in his honor. All the dishes of the banquet were the colors of the Mexican flag: green, red, and white.

The banquet happened in late August, just as the walnut crop was being harvested. The women used stuffed green poblano peppers, a white sauce from the ground walnuts, and red pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top. It was a great dish for a late summer fiesta!

In San Antonio, Texas in the 1800's and 1900's, a group of Latina women would gather each evening at the Market Square to serve homemade chili to people on the street. These lovely women were called the "Chili Queens."

The Chili Queens would make their chili at home during the day from beef and dried red chiles. Then in the evenings, they would come to the square, bringing pots of chili in the backs of brightly painted wagons, decorated with colored lanterns.

They would build fires from wood or charcoal, and reheat the chili, selling bowls to passersby while groups of mariachi musicians entertained. The practice continued into the 1940's.

While there are no full time Chili Queens anymore, San Antonio has a Return of the Chili Queens Festival each year in May around Memorial Day.

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Chiles were brought to Europe by Columbus and other New World explorers. They were grown in Italy, Germany, and France, and came to Hungary in 1560. Hungary became famous for its Hungarian Wax [paprika] chiles. Hungarian goulash is a dish famous for its use of paprika.

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi was a 20th century Hungarian chemist. He did research at Cambridge University in England, and at the Mayo Foundation in Minnesota, working to isolate a compound we now know as ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, from the adrenal glands of cows.

One night when he was back at his home in Szeged, Hungary, his wife fixed a large dish of paprika chiles, which he didn't want to eat. He didn't have the courage to tell her he didn't want them, so he told his wife, "I'd better take this to the laboratory and see whether it's any good." He found that paprika was a rich source of vitamin C. He named the compound "a-scorbic" acid, since it prevented scorbutus, or scurvy, a disease characterized by spongy gums and loosening of the teeth. He spent several years traveling around Europe promoting vitamin C as a cure for scurvy, the common cold, and other illnesses.

In 1937, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine "for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes, with especial reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid."

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No one knows for sure where chili originated. It may have started as a dish from northern Mexico, a stew concocted by Native Americans, or a trail food eaten by early settlers. Nowadays, there are thousands of recipes available for all kinds of chili.

Chili may contain a variety of ingredients: tomatoes, beans, onions, meat, and of course, peppers of many sorts. Texas style chili does not use beans, but most other types do. Regional and family recipes may vary widely in ingredients and taste.

Mexican stews often resemble chili in both taste and ingredients. "Chili" is an English version of the word "chile," and the word "carne" is Spanish for "meat." While many Mexican chefs would claim that chili is not Mexican, it clearly bears a good deal of resemblance to the foods of that region.

Another theory is that the first recipe for chili was given to a Spanish nun named Sister Mary of Agreda by Native Americans to whom she ministered.

Chili may also have been a trail food prepared by early settlers. Dried meat, salt, and chiltepins [a type of chile] were preserved in fat, which could be cooked as an "instant" stew.

While chili is generally thought of as being very hot and spicy, it doesn't have to be.

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