Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

dmagazine.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 336 posts

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#131

Post by jandrewrogers »

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.

That isn't how it works, flavor sensitivity is orthogonal to heat sensitivity.

Being desensitized to heat does not desensitize you to flavor. Because of a correlation between heat and flavor diversity in peppers, people desensitized to the heat can taste the more complex range of flavors available in peppers.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#132

Post by paradox460 »

Being raised in New Mexico, I cannot stand jalapenos. They infect everything vaguely "mexican" themed, and have basically forced me to buy the mildest sauces and whatnot, only to have to add hatch peppers to bring them up to a suitable level of spice. And even then, with the more mild jalapenos we have now, you'll find them in reformulations of mild sauces, and so on a single taste I get that "hot screen door/cat vomit" flavor shining through. So I frequently have to change brands.

I miss territorial house salsa, but Pace killed them over 20 years ago, so I should probably move on

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#133

Post by dgfitz »

lmm wrote: post #108
ethbr1 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other, and my favorite, example -- bananas Because the plants are reproduced asexually by cloning, exactly what you would expect happened, and a disease wiped out the monoculture fields (Gros Michel variety) of the early 1900s in the 50s and 60s. Which we then replanted in purportedly less flavorful Cavendish, which was resistant to the then-dominant fungus. Cue the new Panama fungal disease (Tropical Race 4) that Ca…

> It's fascinating to think that such a staple ("a banana") is completely different from the one people ate 60 years ago. The most interesting one to me is that US "bacon" and UK "bacon" are completely different things. But because of cultural crossover they get used for the same dishes, and people often don't realise the recipe they're working from was talking about something else.

They’re not completely different things. They’re both cured, and they both taste like bacon. Some companies “smoke” their bacon, or add various other flavors, in the US.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#135

Post by [deleted] »

jseliger wrote: post #24
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…

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…

[deleted]

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#136

Post by pazimzadeh »

bastawhiz wrote: post #128
yashap wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 m…

I don't mind steamed sprouts today, but I remember how utterly repulsed I was by them as a kid. The preparation doesn't make a ton of difference, in my opinion.

tastes can change too

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#137

Post by delgaudm »

bastawhiz wrote: post #128
yashap wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 m…

I don't mind steamed sprouts today, but I remember how utterly repulsed I was by them as a kid. The preparation doesn't make a ton of difference, in my opinion.

Also possible: your taste preferences changed over time. I know mine have.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#138

Post by steve_adams_86 »

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…

> more into brussels sprouts now than you were when you were a kid

You're not wrong, though I actually prefer oldschool sprouts. I grew some a few years back and the nostalgia hit me like a train. Super rich, earthy, bitter, and perhaps a little tougher than what you get today... We ate them a lot growing up, and that was exactly how I remembered them, yet at the store they're more like tiny, slightly bitter cabbages. Still incredibly by all means, I really love them. I eat them all through winter. Even so, I do miss the more opinionated version from my youth.

One nice thing about modern sprouts is they tend to be shaped better and easier to cook consistently. The sprouts from when I was a kid were definitely less like perfect little cabbages, so cooking them now is quite a bit more convenient and reliable.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#139

Post by tptacek »

yashap wrote: post #98
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 m…

I don't know that I buy this; I eat sprouts raw (slivered with a food processor) about as often as I roast them. They're noticeably sweet as a salad base.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#140

Post by ethbr1 »

lmm wrote: post #108
ethbr1 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other, and my favorite, example -- bananas Because the plants are reproduced asexually by cloning, exactly what you would expect happened, and a disease wiped out the monoculture fields (Gros Michel variety) of the early 1900s in the 50s and 60s. Which we then replanted in purportedly less flavorful Cavendish, which was resistant to the then-dominant fungus. Cue the new Panama fungal disease (Tropical Race 4) that Ca…

> It's fascinating to think that such a staple ("a banana") is completely different from the one people ate 60 years ago. The most interesting one to me is that US "bacon" and UK "bacon" are completely different things. But because of cultural crossover they get used for the same dishes, and people often don't realise the recipe they're working from was talking about something else.

I'm just a little bit older than the US bacon craze, which was born out of unsold pork bellies, themselves a consequence of the late 1980s "Pork: the other white meat" campaign (itself a response to healthier, leaner chicken's rise). There's no way to produce a loin without a belly, etc.

So ironically, the US turned to more UK-like pork cuts in the 1980s, and then advertising turned it back to full-fat pork belly bacon in the 90s!

https://web.archive.org/web/20141006135510/http://www.busine...

Post reply on HN