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Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

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Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#91

Post by uxcart »

tptacek wrote: post #11

The reason I took away from this: large agricultural producers of peppers bred towards a "low heat, low variance" standard, away from a "high variance" standard that produced frequent hot jalapenos. Low-heat-low-variance is better for mass food production, because producers can just dose the capsaicin directly, which is something they can't do easily when every pepper is a wildcard. There are second-order effects, li…

> Just grow your own

How’s that houseplant doing?

> or buy from a farmer's market.

I love to ferment my own hot sauces so I am always on the lookout for new varieties of extremely hot peppers.

There is one, one!, pepperhead in the Bay Area farmers markets. You only hear hushed whispers of him at the other markets, but through a various sequence of flatteries and bribes you will be lead to him at the Clement Street farmer’s market on Sundays. (as of 2024)

Jamil at Raised Roots makes some of the most delicious fermented hot sauces made with only the showcase pepper, salt, water and garlic.

I wish I could give him some traffic but it seems his web presence is a bit outdated, so if you’re in the area check out the scorpion and fatalii. They are absolutely delicious.

As I understand it it’s an “urban farm” so it has multiple plots around the city of Oakland. Meaning the peppers are grown outside, meaning they are seasonal. So raised roots only sells peppers at harvest in November, but you can get the sauce all year round.

That’s the state of wanting hot peppers living in San Francisco.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#92

Post by taeric »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #31
simonsarris wrote: post #2

It's interesting how bad incentives are when something with qualitative differences (flavor, heat) is sold by the pound. Making it more palatable expands the market up to a point, but so does requiring more peppers generally. The most durable countermeasure seems to be totally outside of the purview of economics: building up a culture of caring about the product. Like tomatoes in Italy, or coffee beans among coffee l…

Are the incentives "bad", really? It seems like they are getting less spicy because that is what most people want. There seems to be an assumption that because Big Jalapeño are changing the flavour it must be for the worse. Personally I prefer spicier peppers but I am definitely an outlier amongst my friends at least. I don't know that we need countermeasures, as such. I think it's fine to have a very common, afforda…

Coffee is a fun one, as I absolutely hate the taste of arabica coffee. And that seems to be universally the preferred family of coffee for the everyone.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#93

Post by ricardobeat »

thrwwycbr wrote: post #18
episteme wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do bug bites increase spice?

They release enzymes necessary for the spice/acid production. The acid counteracts those enzymes. If you cut open peppers, you can see the black veins which were bit by bugs, those are the ones containing the carbon acid. A better way to protect them against virusses but not against bugs that won't harm them is by combining the top of peppers with the root of potatoes, and by using moss to heal the cuts where you com…

The bites themselves don’t cause the plant to produce more capsaicin. It’s natural selection - plants in areas with lots of insects end up producing more capsaicin as a means of protecting themselves. They are hotter, and insects will not bite them as a result.

Happy to be proven wrong if you have sources saying otherwise, but I’m quite certain this is the science behind it.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#94

Post by PheonixPharts »

squokko wrote: post #83
PheonixPharts wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I prefer more flavorful chiles, with less spice. As someone with a fairly high spice tolerance, I've found a strong correlation between heat and flavor . I think anyone coming from a culture that eats spicy food will agree. I had a batch of habaneros I grew last summer that were both the most spicy habaneros I've had, and by far the most flavorful. I've also had some very tasty ghost peppers (when used in moderatio…

Your palate has been desensitized and can only taste flavor with heat. Spend 2 months with zero capsaicin and it will reset.

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. I enjoy plenty of non-spicy foods, and don't need every meal to be spicy, nor to I think that the only flavorful meals are spicy meals.

My point is exclusively with chili peppers, as the spice increases so does the flavor. I didn't grow up eating spicy food, and my experience has been that as my spice tolerance has grown overtime I have found access to increasingly wonderful flavors that are simply not present at lower spice levels.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#95

Post by madeofpalk »

ramraj07 wrote: post #12
tptacek wrote: post #11

The reason I took away from this: large agricultural producers of peppers bred towards a "low heat, low variance" standard, away from a "high variance" standard that produced frequent hot jalapenos. Low-heat-low-variance is better for mass food production, because producers can just dose the capsaicin directly, which is something they can't do easily when every pepper is a wildcard. There are second-order effects, li…

This has got to be the funniest responses to the problem at hand: peppers not spicy enough? grow your own..

Why is that funny? "Commercial mass-produced product isnt to your own liking? Here's how you can easily make something better!"

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#96

Post by adriand »

dheera wrote: post #66
jseliger wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less spicy is actually good. I prefer more flavorful chiles, with less spice. Mark Miller's conversation with Tyler Cowen is good on this subject: https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/mark-miller/ . Chiles are actually fruits and, combined judiciously, create a lot of complex flavors. Excess spiciness overwhelms the flavor. And people who want absurdly spicy peppers, can get them: ghost chiles, carolina reaper…

I really wish we could have a habanero that is 1/4 as spicy. I LOVE the flavor of habaneros but their spiciness prevents me from putting too much. That said on the flavor/spiciness scale a lot of the Chinese varieties are excellent. The chili peppers used in Sichuanese cuisine are actually not that spicy compared to habaneros or Thai chilis, which allows it to be possible to dump a bag full into a dish and it gives i…

I was in Jamaica a couple of months ago and they use habanero peppers a lot and I was astonished by how much I loved the flavour. I never buy them because I always assumed they were too spicy but you don’t need much for great flavour. I also hear what you’re saying and I’d be tempted to agree, but I wonder if the flavour would be negatively affected by the reduction in heat.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#97

Post by mattnewton »

taeric wrote: post #78
tptacek wrote: post #11

The reason I took away from this: large agricultural producers of peppers bred towards a "low heat, low variance" standard, away from a "high variance" standard that produced frequent hot jalapenos. Low-heat-low-variance is better for mass food production, because producers can just dose the capsaicin directly, which is something they can't do easily when every pepper is a wildcard. There are second-order effects, li…

Today I learn that Brussel sprouts have changed on us. Odd, as I loved them as a kid, and still love them as an adult. Curious how genetic noticing that flavor shift is. Is it akin to how some folks hate cilantro? And agreed that this all seems fine. The heat of these peppers is directly added to things that people want to have heat. I see some folks say they can taste differences, but I have stopped buying dips that…

Yup it’s kinda like cilantro - you might not have the genes for tasting glucosinolates, the bitter compounds that have been bred down to lower levels in modern Brussels sprouts. Some people apparently don’t taste them, but they are very bitter to most.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#98

Post by yashap »

tptacek wrote: post #11

The reason I took away from this: large agricultural producers of peppers bred towards a "low heat, low variance" standard, away from a "high variance" standard that produced frequent hot jalapenos. Low-heat-low-variance is better for mass food production, because producers can just dose the capsaicin directly, which is something they can't do easily when every pepper is a wildcard. There are second-order effects, li…

> Have you noticed that you're way more into brussels sprouts now than you were when you were a kid? If you're a GenX-er or a Millenial, that's because today's (delicious) sprouts aren't the same plant as the (gross) sprouts of yore.

This is an oft-quoted fact, and it’s true that modern brussels sprouts are less bitter, but that’s far from the whole story. The popular preparation used to be boiling or steaming, and many people still find that gross with modern varieties. But over the past 15-20 years, frying or roasting them, and topping it off with things like bacon, parm, balsamic reduction, etc. became the standard preparation, and this is just a way more delicious way to cook them (for most ppl). I’d assume this makes a massively bigger difference than a reduction in bitterness.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#99

Post by lm28469 »

tptacek wrote: post #11

The reason I took away from this: large agricultural producers of peppers bred towards a "low heat, low variance" standard, away from a "high variance" standard that produced frequent hot jalapenos. Low-heat-low-variance is better for mass food production, because producers can just dose the capsaicin directly, which is something they can't do easily when every pepper is a wildcard. There are second-order effects, li…

I mostly noticed how most tomatoes are absolutely tasteless
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