Habaneros Chili
Chili
peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at
least 7500 BC and perhaps earlier.
You can also find the content of this Site on our Sister Site habaneros.org
There is archaeological evidence at
sites located in southwestern Ecuador that chili peppers were already
well domesticated more than 6000 years ago, and is 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 and
North
America, from Peru in the south to Mexico in the north and parts of
Colorado and New Mexico
The habanero chile (Capsicum chinense
Jacquin) (originally Spanish
"Javanero,"
and sometimes incorrectly spelled "habañero"
is one
of the most intensely spicy chili
peppers of the Capsicum genus.
Chili Pepper
The chili pepper, chilli pepper, or more simply just
"chili", is the fruit of the plants from the genus Capsicum, which are
members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Even though chilis may be
thought of as a vegetable, their culinary usage is generally as a
spice,
the part of the plant that is usually harvested is the fruit, and
botany
considers the plant a berry shrub.
The latter description seems counter-intuitive to North Americans and
Europeans, most of whom never see the perennial shrubs in their natural
habitats. San Diego, California and the Florida peninsula
may be the only locales in the United States of America where tropical
perennials, such as chilis, frequently survive from one growing season
to the next.
The name, which is spelled differently in many regions
(chili,
chile or chilli), comes from Nahuatl via the Spanish word chile.
The term chili in most of the world refers exclusively to the smaller,
hot types of capsicum. The mild larger types are called bell pepper in
the USA, simply pepper in Britain, Canada and Ireland, capsicum in
India
and Australasia and paprika in many European countries.
History
Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the
Americas since at least 7500 BC and perhaps earlier. There is
archaeological evidence at sites located in southwestern Ecuador that
chili peppers were already well domesticated more than 6000 years ago,
and is 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 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 with the Old World
peppers of the Piper
genus.
Chilis were cultivated around the globe after Columbus'
time. 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 peppers' spread has the
Portuguese
picking up the pepper from Spain, and thence to India, as described by
Lizzie Collingham in her book Curry.
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. 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.
Currently India is the largest producer of chilis with
around one million tons per year.
Only the Name is changing,
the sharpness always remains.
Aztec
Chili pharm
Fructus
Capsici acer pharmAmharic Berbere,
Mitmita Arabic
فلفل حار,فلفل الأحمر, شطة, فليفلة حر, فلفل الأحمر, شَطَّة< فُلْفُل
أحْمَر, فُلْفُل حَار,شَطَّة Fulful alahmar, Fulful haar,
Shatta, Fulaifilah har Armenian
Կծու Պղպեղ Gdzoo Bghbegh, Kcu Pghpegh Assamese
Jolokia
Basque
Chili Bengali Lanka, Morich,
Чили Bulgarian
Chili Burmese
Nga yut thee, Nil thee
Chinese
Lup-Chew 辣椒 [laaht jìu] Laaht jiu 辣椒 [là jiāo] La jiao Croatian
Čili, Feferon, Kajenska paprika Czech
Pálivá paprika, Pepř
cayenský
Dhivehi މިރުސް Mirus Danish Chili Dutch
Spaanse peper, Cayennepeper
English
Cayenne pepper, Red pepper, Chilli, Chili
Esperanto Duonligneca
kapsiko, Kajena pipro Estonian Kibe paprika, Punapipar,
Tšili, Cayenne'i
pipar
Farsi
فلفل, دار فلفل Felfel, Pilpil, Philphil; Dar felfel Finnish Chilipippuri French Poivre rouge, Piment
enragé, Piment
fort, Piment-oiseau, Poivre de Cayenne
Galician Guindilla
Georgian წიწაკა
Cicaka, Tsitsaka German Roter Pfeffer,
Cayenne-Pfeffer, Chili-Pfeffer,
Beißbeere Greek Πιπέρι καγιέν, Τσίλι, Καυτερές
πιπεριές Piperi kagien, Tsili, Kafteres pipieres
Gujarati Lal
marcha (red), Lila marcha (green)
Hebrew פלפל
אדום, פלפל חריף, פפריקה חריפה, צילי, צ'ילי Paprika harifa, Papriqa
charifa, Pilpel adom, Pilpel harif, Tsili Hindi Lal
mirch (red), Hari mirch (green) Hungarian
Csilipaprika, Igen erős apró,
Cayenne bors, Cayenni bors, Macskakpöcs paprika, Aranybors,
Ördögbors, Chilipaprika
Icelandic
Chilipipar, Cayennepipar Indonesian Lombok,
Cabé, Cabe Italian Peperone,
Diavoletto, Peperoncino, Pepe di
Caienne, Pepe rosso picante
Japanese 唐辛子 とうがらし
トウガラシ, チリ, カイエンペッパー Tōgarashi, Togarashi, Chiri, Kaienpeppa
Kannada
ಮೆಣಸಿನ ಕಾಯಿ Menasina
kayi, Molaku
Khmer Ma-tek Korean 고추,
카이엔 고추 Kochu, Gochu, Kaien gochu
Latvian Čili
pipari, Kajēnas pipari Lithuanian
Kajeno pipirai
Laotian Mak phet kunsi
Malay Lada
merah, Cabai, Cili Malayalam Menasinakayi, Chuvanna mulagu (red), Pacha
mulagu (green)
Maltese Bżar aħmar, Felfel
Marathi
हिरव्या मिरच्या, लाल
मिरच्या Lal mirchya (red),
Hirvya mirchya (green)
Nepali रातो खुर्सानी Rato Khursani
Oriya Lankamaricha
Pashto Murgh Polish
Papryka owocowa
Portuguese Pimentão, Piripíri, Pimenta
de caiena
Provençal Pebrino,
Pebroun Punjabi
ਲਾਲ ਮਿਰਚ Lal Mirch
Romanian
Ardei iute Russian
Чили, Кайенский перец, Красный перец, Чилли Chili, Kajenskij perets,
Chilli, Krasnij perets
Sanskrit Marichiphala
Ujjvala
Singhalese
Rathu miris, Gasmiris Slovak Čili paprika, Kajenská
paprika, Čili paprička, Feferónka,
Dederón
Slovenian Čili, Feferoni, Kajenski poper Spanish
Chile, Guindilla, Cayena inglesa, Pimienta de Cayena, Pimienta picante,
AjíSwahili Pilipili
hoho Swedish
Chilipeppar
Tagalog Siling labuyo, Sili
Tamil சிகப்பு
மிளகாய், பச்சை மிளகாய் Pachai
milagai, Sigappu milagai (red) Telugu
మిరపకాయలు Mirapakayalu Thai
พริกชี้ฟ้า, พริกขี้หนู, พริกแห้งผลเล็ก Prik chifa, Prik
khee nu, Prik haeng pallek, Pisi hui Tibetan
Sipen marpo, Si pan dmar po Turkish Acı kırmızı
biber, Toz biber
Urdu Lalmarach
Vietnamese
Ớt, Ot
Species and cultivars
The most common species of chili peppers are:
- Capsicum annuum, which includes many common varieties
such as bell peppers, paprika, cayenne, jalapeños, and the
chiltepin
- Capsicum frutescens, which includes the 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
Though there are only a few commonly used species, there
are many cultivars and methods of preparing chili peppers that have
different common names for culinary use. Bell peppers, for example, are
the same cultivar of C. annuum; immature peppers being green and mature
peppers being red. In the same species are the jalapeño, the
poblano (when dried is referred to as ancho).
Jamaicans, Scotch bonnets, and
habaneros are common varieties of C. chinense.
The species C. frutescens appears as chiles
de árbol, aji, pequin, tabasco, 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.
Habanero Pepper Sauche
Mostly your own sauce is the best. I mine I’m using,
habaneros pepper, vinegar,
garlic, lime juice, nutmeg and some secret ingredients.
If you don't have the time and the resources, in my
opinion the commercial pepper
sauce comes from Belize. I say Marie Sharp's Habanero from Belize wins
hands down. It comes in a
variety of heat levels, but all have the same incredible flavour.
Marie
Sharps
If you were to go into your
garden, and pick all your favorites: habanero, garlic and carrots, and
somehow put the right combination into your mouth all at once, this hot
sauce is what you'd taste.
Marie Sharp family-owned business takes great pride and honor in
producing products with highest quality of standards, living up to its
slogan, "Proud Products of Belize."
How Hot Is it?
The most common way to evaluate chile pungency is a simple taste test.
What we call “heat” or ”fire” of the chile is known in the industry as
the pungency level. There are two other ways of testing pungency as
well, the Scoville organoleptic test and high performance liquid
chromatography.
The Scoville Scale
The chart in Scoviille Heat Units (SHU)
below rates chiles, with 0 being mildest and 10 highest heat.
- Mild: 0 to 5,000 SHUs
- Medium: 5,000 to 20,000 SHUs
- Hot: 20,000 to 70,000 SHUs
- Extreme: 70,000 to 30,000 SHUs
Chile Type |
Category |
Scoville Heat Units
|
Bell, Pimento, U.S. Paprika, Sweet
Banana |
Mild |
0 |
Pickled Pepperoncini |
Mild |
10 |
Anaheim, Canned Green Chiles,
Cherry, Hungarian Hot Paprika Mexi-Bell, New Mexican R-Naky,
Pepperoncini Pepper (500) |
Mild |
100-500 |
Chili Powder, New Mexican Big Jim, New Mexican 6-4,
Tabasco Sauce/Green Pepper (600-800) |
Mild |
500-1000 |
Coronado (1,000), Pasilla |
Mild |
1,000-1,500 |
Ancho (2,000), Cascabel, Poblano (2,000) Sandia |
Mild |
1,500-2,500 |
Cayenne Large Red Thick, Louisiana
Hot Sauce, Mirasol, Rocotillo (2,500), TAM Mild Jalapeño |
Mild |
2,500-5,000 |
Aji Amarillo, Chipotle (10,000), Early Jalapeño
(8,000), Serrano, Tabasco Sauce/Original Pepper (5,000), Wax Pepper,
Tabasco Sauce/Habañero (8,000) |
Medium |
5,000-15,000 |
Crushed Red Pepper, De Arbol,
Habañero Hot Sauce, Manzano (30,000), Serrano (23,000) |
Medium-Hot |
15,000-30,000 |
Cayenne Long (50,000), Pakistan Dundicut, Piquin, Thai
Prik Khee Nu |
Hot |
30,000-50,000 |
Chiltepin, Chinese Kwangsi,
Rocoto, Santaka, Thai (100,000) |
Hot-Extreme |
50,000-100,000 |
African Birdseye, Habañero (350,000), Jamaican
Hot (200,000), Scotch Bonnet (325,000), South American Chinenses |
Extreme |
100,000-500,000 |
Red Savina Habañero |
Extreme |
570,000 |
Dorset Naga, Francisca, Naga Jolokia or Tezpur |
Extreme |
855,000 |
Bhut Jolokia |
Extreme |
1,001,304 |
Common Pepper Spray |
— |
2,000,000 |
Police-Grade Pepper Spray |
— |
5,300,000 |
Pure Capsaicin |
— |
16,000,000 |
|
|
|
... Scientists now believe that hot Habanedros Chili can combat
cancer