231–240 of 336 posts
One time I had to check if I bought the right thing.
Now it makes sense that I wasn’t imagining it.
I had already planned to grow my own jalapeños in this year’s garden before I read this article.
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> 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…
> 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 couldn't agree more. I grow a variety of chili plants on my balcony each year, from the Jalapeno (red and green) all the way to the Morugas and the Bhut Jolokias, with some varieties in between such as Chiltepins and Scotch Bonnet peppers. I…
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> 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.
I think very few people would find them bitter raw, even self-professed sprout haters.
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> 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…
The preparation concept is huge. Growing up way back in the day, industrial canned spinach was absolutely disgusting and pushed on all forms of school cafeterias. They even tried to influence its liking with a cartoon character. Many many years later, fresh spinach was made available and I find it delicious. How anyone thought that mushy slop from a can was ever considered edible is beyond me.
Popeye?
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Also possible: your taste preferences changed over time. I know mine have.
Yes - mushrooms and olives on pizza used to be a crime against humanity. I don’t think Papa John’s invested in higher quality toppings.
I have a couple of theories: I think consumer preferences have pushed in that direction (e.g. I remember McDonalds chicken nuggets used to have chewy gristle in them), and JIT inventories mean that ingredients can be fresher, and food science (e.g. additives and preservatives) has improved, and improved flavor along with it, and there are also new preparation methods which improve quality of the final product.
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That's interesting, I am curious if it's the capsaicin itself you're tasting directly. I know I've had hot sauces that were just heat without any kind of real flavor. It's not that I couldn't taste it. I could, I just didn't want any more of it.
Capsaicin itself is boring. Frankly, I think it tastes rather metallic. Hot sauces that add it to boost their "spiciness" ratings taste awful as a result. The flavor of it stands out, and not in a good way
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> 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 couldn't agree more. I grow a variety of chili plants on my balcony each year, from the Jalapeno (red and green) all the way to the Morugas and the Bhut Jolokias, with some varieties in between such as Chiltepins and Scotch Bonnet peppers. I…
I cultivate all three of those on my balcony. They are all extremely forgiving plants.
Then if one lives in the south, brings it inside next year over the winter, and stop fertilizing it, and reduces watering it to once a week or so, it will again produce peppers next year that will be a lot hotter, but during the summer if you live in somewhere its getting over 100F daily, stop watering it until it starts to drop its leaves and pull it back from the brink of death ever couple weeks over the summer. The last peppers to set in the late spring early summer will only grow to be an inch or so long and the plant will stubbornly refuse to drop them even when they start to shrivel a bit and its lost most of its full size leaves only sprouting 1/4" long leaves during the short periods of recovery when the soil isn't bone dry. Then after a couple months when those peppers get really dark before they start to turn red, pick one and taste it.
The second year that plan will produce peppers hotter than probably anything most people have ever tasted. But, the plant will get strong and gnarly, continue to mistreat it for another year or two and what you will have is a pepper that no one can actually eat.
In my 20's I found pleasure in sampling top ten lists of hottest hot sauces and peppers, but nothing prepared me for the pepper I pulled off a ~5 year old jalapeño plant I had largely been ignoring all summer long and hadn't been fertilized since it was a seedling. A single bite, and about two chews, and I went into an upper body "hickup" that might be better described as a repeating upper body spasm, and a mouth burn unlike anything I've ever experience before or since. Those are peppers one should pick with gloves.
Pepper genetics or even variety aren't the largest dictator of how hot a pepper is. A bigger factor is how they are grown. Give a young plant a 70-80F pleasant environment, plenty of water and nutrient rich soil and they produce lots and lots of peppers that vary only slightly in heat based on their variety. Exactly what a commercial grower will do to maximize yield. Keep a plant on life support for multiple years and it will be an ugly thing, producing only a few peppers that grow slowly and ripen slowly over months, stress it to the point where its largely dropped all its leaves and only has a few small leaves baked daily in full 100F+ sun and it will produce peppers that are by themselves in-edible.
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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.
It's actually the over-cooking them, specifically over-boiling them, that makes the more bitter. I think very few people would find them bitter raw, even self-professed sprout haters.
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I just dump a bunch of peppers into a kimchi bucket, ferment, then boil it out with vinegar and stuff. There's not much science to mine. :)
Gonna need a recipe, friend. Gotta try it. I’ve made fermented hot sauce before and it was okay, but I think I overcomplicated it.