Let's get this fact up front: I'm a wimp. I cannot eat habaneros and too much hot sauce makes me cry like a teenage girl who's been stood up for the prom. But I do like complexity in my food, so I keep four hot sauces and one jar of dried hot peppers in my pantry. They perk the palate without pummeling it. All are winners of my coveted "Meathead's Hot Stuff Award".
Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce. Tabasco Chipotle is made from smoked jalapeño peppers in vinegar and has a wonderful smoky flavor, a strong vinegar bite, and, of course, the capsaicin kick. It is my go-to hot sauce and you will see it in many of my recipes. I much prefer it to the original Tabasco which was, according to company records, first made in the 1860s after Edmund McIlhenny planted hot peppers on his family's property on Avery Island, LA. By 1868 McIlhenny started to market Tabasco Sauce. His process is still used today, and Avery Island remains the headquarters for the worldwide company that is still owned and operated by direct descendants of Edmund McIlhenny. Avery Island is about 2.5 hours west of New Orleans, and the charming spot is open to visitors.
Frank's Original RedHot Cayenne Pepper Sauce. Frank's started making hot sauce in 1918 from Louisiana peppers and today its peppers come from New Mexico and Mexico where it is made into a mash and shipped to Springfield, MO, where it is cooked, seasoned, and bottled. Frank's claims it is "the secret ingredient in the original Buffalo wings created in Buffalo, NY in 1964." I think it's secret to success is the proper balance of heat and flavor. Unlike so many hot pepper sauces that seem to be just capsaicin and vinegar, Frank's has a distinct bell pepper flavor.
Sriracha. This is a thick Thai chile paste made from red chile peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. I like it because it is not just pure fire as are many hot sauces. This stuff is rich and complex. It can be mixed with lime juice, hoisin sauce, or even ketchup and barbecue sauce. It comes in a squeeze bottle and I use it as a condiment as well as an ingredient in marinades and sauces.
Chipotle in Adobo Sauce. I am in love with this stuff. It is made of smoked jalapeños in a thick sauce of tomato puree, vinegar, onion, garlic, and goodness knows what spices and herbs. But the flavor is so sexy. It's a little to hot for me straight from the can, so I decant it into a small bottle, and use it minced fine to amp up sauces. It's perfect for barbecue sauces, and mixed with mayo it is a natural for fish tacos and hamburgers. There are many brands and you'll find one in your grocery store in the Mexican section.
Outerbridge's Sherry Pepper Sauce. I discovered this unique sauce in Bermuda, where it is made and served at tableside in many restaurants with Bermuda Onion Soup and fish chowders. It is made by steeping 17 herbs, spices, and chiles in dry sherry. It is thin and brown. I use it mostly in soups, stews, and chowders, and boy does it add depth and spark. It's also good in Bloody Marys, meat sauces, dips, and dressings.
Harissa. This hot pepper paste is easy to make and I use it on more and more foods all the time. Click the link for my recipe.
Penzey's Chipotle Powder. Chipotle powder is made by grinding dried, smoked jalapeños. It brings flavor, heat, and an exotic smokiness. I just put a shaker bottle of this amazing stuff on the table at most meals. It's amazing on anything with tomato sauce especially pizza and pasta. Sprinkle it on beans, stir fries, anything except ice cream.
By the way, chipotle powder is pretty easy to make. Grow or buy ripe red jalapeños, put them in your smoker for two hours at about 225F with smoke, and then continue to dry them out without the smoke until brittle but not burned. Then grind them in a spice grinder, coffee grinder, blender, or food processor.
I also always keep these guys on hand
Whole chipotles (dried smoked jalapenos)
Anchos (dried poblanos). They're only slightly hot and they have a wonderful prune and chocolate flavor. You can't make molé without them and they're in most chili powders.
Sweet paprika. Mostly for color in spice rubs.
Smoked hot paprika. Great flavor, and can give indoor cooked meats an outdoorsy flavor. With a kick. I make it by smoking a variety of red peppers from the garden for about 4-6 hours, and then I grind them in a coffee grinder.
Generic Crushed Red Pepper (cayenne). Used in Carolina barbecue sauces and when I want heat, not flavor.
Plant Black Pearl Peppers
Mrs. Meathead and I first saw black pearl peppers in a garden at the Smithsonian in August 2006. We were very impressed with the beauty of the new hybrid.
The leaves are shiny purple black, the peppers start out shiny purple black like eggplants and then turn candy apple red late in summer although they never get bigger than a marble. These suckers are pretty durn hot, but unlike a lot of hot chiles they have thick walls and good flavor. Don't ask me how hot because they are at my upper limit.
We have a plant we started in spring 2007 in a pot and we bring it in for the winter, put it back out in spring. It is till alive and it is still putting out fresh peppers year round.
It is a new hybrid from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Beltsville, MD, released in 2005, and it is now showing up in seed catalogs. Click here to order Black Pearl Seeds.
The Zen of Chiles
"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." President Harry S. Truman
Chile peppers, indiginous to the New World, come in an astonishing range of size, flavor and spiciness. They are used to flavor food and even in prescription drugs. In 1492 Columbus discovered the Arawak Indians growing them on Hispanola and wrote that "They deem it very wholesome and eat nothing without it." He brought them back to Spain and within 50 years their cultivation had spread around the world.
There are scores of different peppers and hot sauces on the market and they have a wide range of flavors and heat levels.
Here are the definitive definitions describing the differences between chiles and chilis, some info about how hot the common ones are, and some tips on using them.
Chile
There are three definitions for "Chile", with the concluding "e":
1) Chile is the colorful fruit (it is technically not a vegetable) of the Capsicum plant, also called a pepper (that's a fiesta pepper above). But this pepper is not at all the same as the black pepper we put next to the salt shaker. Black pepper is the powder made from grinding peppercorns, the fruit of the Piperaceae plant.
Many chiles are spicy hot, which they get from a chemical irritant named capsaicin, which, interestingly, is also used in ointments as a pain reliever for such ailments as shingles because it can numb nerves. Let that sink in for a moment.
Almost all the heat is in the veins on the inside of the chile that hold the seeds. Most of the seeds are held in a bunch near the stem in a pod called the placenta. The closer the veins get to the placenta, the hotter they are. So if you have a low tolerance to heat, slice open the chile and gut it by removing the seeds and veins.
In the northern hemisphere, most chiles are harvested between August and October. Most are harvested when green, but the longer they ripen the redder they turn. Some are purple, yellow, and orange. When shopping for peppers, look for smooth skin, a sign of freshness, and select those that are heaviest. The main exception is the jalapeño, whose skin is often marked by thin woody brown cracks, which detract not at all from their quality.
Fresh peppers have very different flavors than dried peppers, chiles pasado. For that reason you should not substitute anchos, which are dried poblano peppers, for fresh poblanos in a recipe, or vise versa.
Store them in the fridge in a paper bag. Plastic bags promote mold growth.
There are scores of different types of chiles, and they range in heat from mild to incendiary (see the table below).
Other definitions of chile:
2) Chile is also the name for powdered chile peppers.
3) And of course, Chile is a sovereign nation in South America.
Chili
Chili, with the ultimate "i", also has multiple definitions:
1) Chili is a powdered spice mix made from dried chile peppers, cumin, and other spices.
2) Chili is also savory meat stew seasoned with chili powder. I'm workin on this recipe too.
3) Chili is a band: Red Hot Chili Peppers.
4) And Chili is a restaurant chain: Chili's Grill & Bar.
Chilli
Sometimes restaurants and recipes misspell chili or chile with two Ls.
Bell Peppers and pimento
Those baseball sized thick fleshed green and red peppers in your grocery store are called both bell peppers and sweet peppers.
The stuff in the middle of your martini olive is a slice of pimento which is a ripe red pepper which gets its name from the Spanish word pimiento, which means pepper. Pimento cheese sandwiches are common in the South and traditional at the Master's golf tournament in Augusta Georgia. It is made with chopped pimento, cheddar cheese, and mayonnaise.
My favorite hot pepper sauces are blends of both hot chiles and sweet peppers. Frank's is a great example.
Sweet peppers can be roasted on the grill in the summer, allowing the skin to burn, then peeled, and frozen for use all winter. We usually put them in zipper bags with a splash of olive oil.
If you haven't tried them yet, I strongly recommend you experiment with orange bell peppers. They are rich, sweet, and have a hint of cinnamon. I love em.
Paprika
The nomenclature for paprika can be confusing. When I refer to regular paprika or sweet paprika in my recipes, I mean the simple reddish orange powder on most spice racks. It is made from dried sweet red peppers. Much of it comes from Spain and Hungary, it has a mild flavor, and is used primarily for color. The McCormick spice people say that, pound for pound, it has a higher content of Vitamin C than citrus fruit.
Then there's hot paprika, which has some hot peppers in the blend. There's also smoked sweet paprika and smoked hot paprika. They are made from peppers that are slowly dried in the presence of hardwood smoke, and they are easy to make at home. Just smoke hot red peppers at a low temp, preferably about 200F for 4-6 hours until dry enough to grind.
How hot is that chile?
The amount of heat in a chile pepper is measured on a culinary Richter scale called the Scoville Heat Units (SHU) scale. One part per million of capsaicin is equivalent to 15 Scoville units. About 85% of the capsaicin in a chile pepper is concentrated in the ribs on the inside of the pepper, about 10% is in the seeds, and 5% in the meat and the skin. This means that you can get the flavor of a jalapeño, for example, without the heat, by removing the seeds and ribs.
Peppers start green and as they ripen turn red, orange, yellow, or purple as they ripen. In general the smaller the chile the hotter, the greener, the hotter, the skinnier, the hotter. The most notable exceptions to the rule are the habanero and the Scotch bonnet, both of which are broad shouldered, medium sized, orange or red, and very very hot. Recent research indicates chiles are hotter when grown in hot humid climates.
When chopping hot chile peppers it is wise to wear rubber gloves, and be sure not to touch your eyes, pick your nose, use the urinal, or make love before you wash thoroughly. On the last two items, I could relate stories I have heard, but this is a family website.
Putting out the fire
Capsaicin is not water soluble, so if your mouth ignites when eating hot peppers or hot sauce, beer and cold water are not very good at putting out the fire. They only distribute the capsaicin oils. On the other hand, lipids in fats bind with capsaicin, so milk, yogurt, butter, and other fats do a better job of damping the flames. Ice cream and Indian fruit lassis are the perfect fire extinguishers. Reader Bob Walsh of Shoreview, MN, sent me this tip: "When your trying hot sauce have some chocolate chips on hand. If it's too hot pop one or two in your mouth. For most people it will tame it right away."
Here are some common peppers and their SHUs. A more complete listing can be found on chilehead Scott Roberts' site.
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Meathead's Faves
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GrillGrates Take Your Grill Into the Infrared Zone
GrillGrates are the best new product I have tested in years and the best thing to happen to beef since salt and pepper.
They sit on top of your current grill's grates. The hard anodized aircraft grade aluminum rail tops are flat and wide and make perfect dark crunchy grill marks. The base superheats yet eliminates hot spots and blocks flareups. This is the same concept behind the expensive new infrared grills.
Juices drip in the valleys between the rails and are vaporized and penetrate the meat enhancing flavor. I throw wood between the rails and they impart a delicate smoke flavor. I have made my best steaks and burgers ever with Grill Grates. This is a really great new product! Click here to read more and for ordering info.
The Smokenator
If you have a Weber Kettle, you need the amazing Smokenator and Hovergrill. The Smokenator turns your grill into a first class smoker, and the Hovergrill can add capacity or be used to get steakhouse steaks. Click here to read more and for ordering info.
. This is a thick Thai chile paste made from red chile peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. I like it because it is not just pure fire as are many hot sauces. This stuff is rich and complex. It can be mixed with lime juice, hoisin sauce, or even ketchup and barbecue sauce. It comes in a squeeze bottle and I use it as a condiment as well as an ingredient in marinades and sauces.
By the way, chipotle powder is pretty easy to make. Grow or buy ripe red jalapeños, put them in your smoker for two hours at about 225F with smoke, and then continue to dry them out without the smoke until brittle but not burned. Then grind them in a spice grinder, coffee grinder, blender, or food processor.
Mrs. Meathead and I first saw black pearl peppers in a garden at the Smithsonian in August 2006. We were very impressed with the beauty of the new hybrid.
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