Chili pepper

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Chili peppers

Chili peppers and their various cultivars originate in the Americas; they are now grown around the world because they are widely used as spices or vegetables in cuisine, and as medicine.

History

Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since about 7500 BC. They were domesticated there between 5200 and 3400 BC, one of the first cultivated crops in the Americas. Chili peppers are thought to have been domesticated at least five times by prehistoric peoples in different parts of South, Central and North America, from Peru in the south to Mexico in the north and parts of Colorado and New Mexico (Ancient Pueblo Peoples).

Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to encounter them (in the Caribbean), and called them "peppers" because of their similarity in taste (though not in appearance) with the Old World peppers of the Piper genus. Columbus was keen to prove (incorrectly) that he had in fact opened a new direct nautical route to Asia, contrary to reality and the expert consensus of the time, and it has been speculated that he was therefore inclined to denote these new substances "pepper" in order to associate them with the known Asian spice^{[citation needed]}.

Diego Álvarez Chanca, a physician on Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, brought the first chili peppers to Spain, and first wrote about their medicinal effects in 1494.

From Mexico, at the time the Spanish colony that controlled commerce with Asia, chili peppers spread rapidly into the Philippines and then to India, China, Korea and Japan with the aid of European sailors. The new spice was quickly incorporated into the local cuisines.

An alternate sequence for chili pepper's spread has the Portuguese picking up the pepper from Spain, and thence to India, as described by Lizzie Collingham in her book Curry.^[1] The evidence provided is that the chili pepper figures heavily in the cuisine of the Goan region of India, which was the site of a Portuguese colony (e.g. Vindaloo, an Indian interpretation of a Portuguese dish). Collingham also describes the journey of chili peppers from India, through Central Asia and Turkey, to Hungary, where it became the national spice in the form of paprika.

Species and cultivars

Cayenne chile pepper

See List of chili pepper cultivars

The most common species of chile peppers are:

• Capsicum annuum, which includes many common varieties such as bell peppers, paprika, jalapeños, and the chiltepin
• Capsicum frutescens, which includes the cayenne and tabasco peppers
• Capsicum chinense, which includes the hottest peppers such as the naga, habanero and Scotch bonnet
• Capsicum pubescens, which includes the South American rocoto peppers
• Capsicum baccatum, which includes the South American aji peppers

Assorted paprika fruits from Mexico

Though there are only a few commonly used species, there are many cultivars and methods of preparing chile peppers that have different common names for culinary use. Green and red bell peppers, for example, are the same cultivar of C. annuum, the green ones being immature. In the same species are the jalapeño, the poblano, ancho (which is a dried poblano), New Mexico, Anaheim, Serrano, and other cultivars. Jamaicans, Scotch bonnets, and habaneros are common varieties of C. chinense. The species C. frutescens appears as chilies de arbol, aji, pequin, tabasco, cayenne, cherry peppers, malagueta and others.

Peppers are commonly broken down into three groupings; bell peppers, sweet peppers, and hot peppers. Most popular pepper varieties are seen as falling into one of these categories, or as a cross between them.

Heat

Further information: Capsaicin

The substances that gives chile peppers their heat is capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) and several related chemicals, collectively called capsaicinoids. Capsaicin is the primary ingredient in pepper spray. The "heat" of chile peppers is measured in Scoville units (SHU). Bell peppers rank at 0 (SHU), jalapeños at 3,000–6,000 SHU, and habaneros at 300,000 SHU. The record for the hottest chili pepper is assigned by the Guinness Book of Records to the Red Savina Habanero, measuring 577,000 SHU; however the Dorset Naga pepper is claimed to be over three times as hot as the Red Savina pepper, at 970,000 SHU.

However, a recent report was made of a pepper from India called the Naga Jolokia, measuring at 855,000 SHU. Both the Red Savina and the Naga Jolokia claims are disputed as to their validity, and lack independent verification.^[2] In April 2006, it was reported that the Dorset Naga pepper, a variety of the Naga Jolokia pepper cultivated exclusively by the Peppers by Post company in Dorset, England, had been measured at 923,000 SHU by a lab used by the American Spice Trade Association.^[3] For reference, pure capsaicin rates at 15,000,000-16,000,000 SHU. Subsequently BBC “Gardeners’ World” has recorded an even higher level for the Dorset Naga. As part of its 2006 programming, it ran a chili trial looking at several varieties. Heat levels were tested in a British laboratory and the Dorset Naga came in at almost 1.6 million SHU. The growers are currently waiting for details of the testing before being confident with this result.

Culinary use

Thai pepper

The fruit is eaten cooked or raw for its fiery hot flavour which is concentrated along the top of the pod. The stem end of the pod has glands which produce the capsaicin, which then flows down through the pod. Removing the seeds and inner membranes is thus effective at reducing the heat of a pod.

Well-known dishes with a strong chile flavor are Mexican salsas, Tex-Mex chile con carne, and Indian vindaloos and other curries. Chile powder is a spice made of the dried ground chilies, usually of the Mexican chile ancho variety, but with small amounts of cayenne added for heat, while chili powder is composed of dried ground chile peppers, cumin, garlic and oregano. Bottled hot sauces such as Tabasco sauce are made from Tabasco chilies, similar to cayenne, which may also be fermented.

Chipotles are dry, smoked red (ripe) jalapeños.

Korean, Indian, Indonesian, Szechuan and Thai cuisines are particularly associated with the chile pepper, although the plant was unknown in Asia until Europeans introduced it there.

In Turkish or Ottoman cuisine, chilies are widely used. It is known as "Kırmızı Biber" (Red Pepper) or "Acı Biber" (Hot Pepper).

Sambal is dipping sauce made from chile peppers with any other ingredients such as garlic, onion, shallots, salt, vinegar and sugar. It is very popular in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

The leaves of the chili pepper plant, which are mildly bitter, are cooked as greens in Filipino cuisine, where they are called dahon ng sili (literally "chili leaves"). They are often used in the chicken soup dish known as tinola.[1] In Korean cuisine, the leaves are also used to produce chili pepper leaf kimchi (풋고추잎 깍두기).[2]

Decoration

There are entire breeds of chili pepper which are not intended for consumption at all, but are grown only for their decorative qualities, generally referred to as "ornamental peppers". Some of them are too hot for most common cooking techniques, or simply don't taste good. Some are grown for both decoration and food. Either way, they tend to have peppers of unusual shapes or colors. Examples of these include Thai Ornamental, Black Pearl, Marble, Numex Twilight, and the Medusa pepper. Numex Twilight is a green plant which produces fruit starting purple, then ripening to yellow, orange, and red, meaning that the plant actually has every color of the pigment color wheel except blue. Black Pearl has black leaves and round red fruit.

Popularity

Scotch bonnet chile peppers in a Caribbean market

Chili peppers are popular in food. They are rich in vitamin C and are believed to have many beneficial effects on health. The pain caused by capsaicin stimulates the brain to produce endorphins, natural opioids which act as analgesics and produce a sense of well-being. Psychologist Paul Rozin suggests that eating chiles is an example of a "constrained risk" like riding a roller coaster, in which extreme sensations like pain and fear can be enjoyed because individuals know that these sensations are not actually harmful.

Chili peppers drying in Kathmandu, Nepal

Birds do not have the same sensitivity to capsaicin as mammals, as capsaicin acts on a specific nerve receptor in mammals, and avian nervous systems are rather different. Chile peppers are in fact a favorite food of many birds living in the chile peppers' natural range. The flesh of the peppers provides the birds with a nutritious meal rich in vitamin C. In return, the seeds of the peppers are distributed by the birds, as they drop the seeds while eating the pods or the seeds pass through the digestive tract unharmed. This relationship is theorized to have promoted the evolution of the protective capsaicin.

Spelling and usage

The three primary spellings are chili, chile and chilli, all of which are recognized by dictionaries.

• Chili is also widely used, but this spelling is discouraged by some, since it is more commonly used to refer to a popular Southwestern-American dish (also known as chili con carne, the official state dish of Texas [3]), as well as to the mixture of cumin and other spices (chili powder) used to flavor it. Chile powder, on the other hand, refers to dried, ground chile peppers. As with the alternative pronunciation of "route" after the song "route 66", this spelling was popularized in part by the band Red Hot Chili Peppers.

• Chile is the American spelling (uncommon elsewhere) which refers specifically to this plant and its fruit. This orthography is universal in the Spanish-speaking world, although in some parts the plant and its fruit are better known as ají. In the American southwest (particularly northern New Mexico), chile also denotes a thick, spicy, un-vinegared sauce, which is available in red and green varieties and which is often served over most New Mexican cuisine.

• Chilli, is the preferred spelling according to the Oxford English Dictionary, although it also lists chile and chili as variants.

Chili peppers can also be used decoratively

The name of this plant bears no relation to Chile, the country, which is named after the Quechua chin ("cold"), tchili ("snow"), or chilli ("where the land ends"). Chile is one of the Spanish-speaking countries where chiles are known as ají, a word of Taíno origin.

There is some disagreement about whether it is proper to use the word "pepper" when discussing chili peppers because "pepper" originally referred to the genus Piper, not Capsicum. Despite this dispute, a sense of pepper referring to Capsicum is supported by English dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary (sense 2b of pepper) and Merriam-Webster [4]. Furthermore, the word "pepper" is commonly used in the botanical and culinary fields in the names of different types of chile peppers.

Nutritional value

Red chilis are very rich in vitamin C and provitamin A. Yellow and especially green chiles (which are essentially unripe fruit) contain a considerably lower amount of both substances. In addition, peppers are a good source of most B vitamins, and vitamin B6 in particular. They are very high in potassium and high in magnesium and iron. Their high vitamin C content can also substantially increase the uptake of non-heme iron from other ingredients in a meal, such as beans and grains.