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Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

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Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#331

Post by lukas099 »

sophacles wrote: post #162
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…

> Peppers are one of the easier and more forgiving things to grow yourself. Just grow your own or buy from a farmer's market. There's only 5 species that make up the domesticated peppers. Most come from just 2: capsicum annuum (bell peppers, jalapenos, anaheims, and the vast majority of the rest) and capsicum chinense (scotch bonnet, habenero, ghost peppers, etc). [1] Those 2 species will also cross-breed pretty well…

This makes me want to grow peppers

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#332

Post by lukas099 »

taeric wrote: post #92
NoboruWataya wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You do like robusta then? You're right, that is interesting. Saves you a lot of money I bet.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#333

Post by taeric »

lukas099 wrote: post #332
taeric wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You do like robusta then? You're right, that is interesting. Saves you a lot of money I bet.

I mean, I'll take a latte either way. But if I'm drinking straight espresso or an americano, yeah, pretty much has to be robusta. Luckily, what has really saved money is that I don't get out of the house that often.

Amusingly, it didn't save money to get started on a good espresso machine. That said, a few years in and I think it has more than paid for itself. I hate how hard it seems to be to find whole bean robusta. About the only reliable way I know is to buy death wish.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#334

Post by sophacles »

lukas099 wrote: post #331
sophacles wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Peppers are one of the easier and more forgiving things to grow yourself. Just grow your own or buy from a farmer's market. There's only 5 species that make up the domesticated peppers. Most come from just 2: capsicum annuum (bell peppers, jalapenos, anaheims, and the vast majority of the rest) and capsicum chinense (scotch bonnet, habenero, ghost peppers, etc). [1] Those 2 species will also cross-breed pretty well…

This makes me want to grow peppers

It's a lot of fun, and since they are so forgiving even new gardeners see a lot of success.

Lots of good guides on line, this site: https://peppergeek.com/ has tons of resources, and of course youtube and the web are full of gardening howtos.

If you decide to give it a go, feel free to shoot an email to my hn username at gmail with any questions or whatever.

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#335

Post by bobthepanda »

throwup238 wrote: post #203
bobthepanda wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i kind of wish i had experienced grocery shopping back when all the weird cuts were cheap. these days, if anything what I would've considered off cuts growing up (wings, oxtail) are now more expensive than other parts in my area. I saw oxtails for $20 a pound the other day.

They were cheap off cuts because almost no one wanted them. Oxtails got popularized by celebrity chefs so theres a lot more demand than the supply can handle now. Here in SoCal there’s such a large population of immigrants that use neck bones and chicken feet for stock that even those cuts have risen in price relative to the rest of the country. It’s gotten to the point where rib eye roasts and new york steaks are on…

Damn. What's the food equivalent of the urban legend about firing blanks in the air to keep the rent down?

Re: Why jalapeño peppers are less spicy (2023)

#336

Post by quickslowdown »

yellowapple wrote: post #46
quickslowdown wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The spice is an evolved defense mechanism, so if it's not needed, the peppers eventually stop producing it. Couple that with us intentionally selecting for things other than spice, and within a few generations you have a less spicy pepper. Note I'm not any kind of qualified to talk on this topic. I'm sure someone can give a better & more accurate answer!

It's indeed a defense mechanism, but (from what I understand) it has less to do with bugs and more to do with mammals; pepper plants started surrounding the seeds with capsaicin to ward off mammals (which chew up and destroy the seeds) while still being palatable to birds (which ingest the seeds whole and "drop them off" elsewhere). Then a certain species of primate decided "Grug inflict pain on self, makes Grug happ…

That sounds like exactly the correction I was hoping for :) and it does make more sense than bugs, especially your bit about birds.
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