Goldilocksy chili

[MKG]

Anyone any ideas? Jalapenos turned out to be a real disappointment - no heat at all. But everything else I've tried I've ended up drying and turning into powder. Is there a chili which I could stick in the oven with a bit of olive oil and cheese which would come out edible rather than explosive or insipid?

Just right would be ... having treated them as above, I could eat a half-dozen and bask in an attractive glow rather than breaking into a sweat.

I've crawled through catalogues. Some describe jalapenos as having medium heat, so there's no guidance there. Experience is king ...

Mike

EDIT: Thought I'd found the answer for myself for a moment. I read that the cuaresmeño is a very mild form of jalapeno and thought "Ah - is that what I actually grew last year, in which case the proper jalapeno really is what I'm after. Then I read on another site that the cuaresmeño is actually a very hot version of a jalapeno. So I'm no further forward.

EDIT2: Why is it that when you search the net for information, you never get exactly what you're looking for? Today I've come across far more stuff on chilis than I've seen over the last couple of months.

And the upshot? Whatever I grew last year, although they looked exactly like jalapenos, were not jalapenos - unless a heat factor of 5 really does mean insipid. But with a green pepper being zero and a Scotch Bonnet 10, I find that unlikely.

[Biscombe]

Aji Angelo is a good mlder variety, I pop it on pizzas, nice fruity taste

[Davie Crockett]

Mike, I tried these last year and wasn't disappointed...They're graft plants and one plant yielded in excess of 30 good sized chillis. Just the right heat to give a zing without blowing your head off.

http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vege ... sku=206972



I know it seems expensive, but they are a pack of 3 and are avery reliable cropper.

[chilitony]

Hi Mike
what this heat scale 1-10, i used the scoville scale try this link for heat of every veriety. Tony
http://www.chilliworld.com/FactFile/Scoville_Scale.asp

[Green Aura]

Aren't habanero chillies the short, broad ones used for stuffing?

[MKG]

Hi Mike
what this heat scale 1-10, i used the scoville scale try this link for heat of every veriety. Tony
http://www.chilliworld.com/FactFile/Scoville_Scale.asp

Problem is the the Scoville scale is pretty meaningless to me (and it's derived in a pretty subjective way anyway). The lower ranges I'm apparently insensitive to, the upper ranges are tantamount to lunacy, and the numbers are far too big and unwieldy. That, apart from the unwieldiness, applies to the 0-10 scale too (I picked it up somewhere on the net, though I can't remember where) but it simply seems easier to envisage for culinary use.

@GA - Habaneros are up near the top of the scale (whichever one you use) - hot, hot, hot for mere mortals.

Mike

EDIT: Actually, I just looked at your link, chilitony, and it illustrates my problem. Jalapenos are listed as the same as Tabasco Sauce - between 2500 and 5000. What I grew as jalapenos, even in their ripest red state and complete with seeds, got nowhere near the effect of Tabasco Sauce.

[chilitony]

I agree with you about the numbers in the scoville scale, i would rather use a scale of 1-10 its a lot simpler.
I will try and covert the scoville scale the decimal scale of 1-10.
I will post the results asa.

[safronsue]

we have lovely ones here in greece. big green ones with a subtle punch, well, do vary, but usually quite manageable. had some last night sweated in olive oil and then with crumbled feta and bread. super. pm me your address.

[Millymollymandy]

I gave up on expecting the heat factor from them and just enjoyed the fact they had flavour and thick juicy flesh and ate them baked stuffed with hot chilli con carne with cheese and greek yoghurt on top. Was fabulous! I'm going to grow more this year for this very reason.

By the way I would rate them 1 up from a green pepper - only because there was one which had a bit of heat out of the hundred or so harvested.

[chilitony]

Tapas bar "Padrons", my friend grows them and cooks them in olive oil and are very tasty. keep meaning to grow some myself!

[wabbit955]

read last year if you look after chillis to well they are not as hot so you need to let them dry out and stress them out a bit
so i try it last year and my chillies were a lot hotter

[trinder]

Tom Archer seems to be well informed. He's at bridge farm. Maybe you could do a google search see if he has a help page.

[Millymollymandy]

Tapas bar "Padrons", my friend grows them and cooks them in olive oil and are very tasty. keep meaning to grow some myself!

We had some as tapas in Spain - looked like green cayennes but not hot at all - but lovely and tasty, quickly fried and served just with chunky sea salt on top..... yum!

[gregorach]

read last year if you look after chillis to well they are not as hot so you need to let them dry out and stress them out a bit
so i try it last year and my chillies were a lot hotter

Yeah, I suspect the problem may be that the heat is quite variable and depends on more than just the variety.

[MKG]

read last year if you look after chillis to well they are not as hot so you need to let them dry out and stress them out a bit
so i try it last year and my chillies were a lot hotter

Yep - I'd read a similar thing. So that's what I did - and got the opposite results. I stressed the buggers, scaring them into maximum reproduction mode, and got loads of fruit (at which point you have to start being kind to them or they keel over and die). I'm beginning to wonder if there's a "per plant" limit to the available heat, so to speak. If a plant must divide a limited amount of capsaicin between its fruits, then forcing more fruits would merely dilute the effects.

Food for thought.

Mike