By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine
Photos by Paul Bosland
We love chile peppers, but we’re a bit confused about them.
For example:
—In spite of what your dictionary may say, it’s "chile," not "chili."
—Though we follow Christopher Columbus’ error in calling them peppers, chile peppers are unrelated to black pepper.
—Though habanero chiles are botanically Capsicum chinense varieties, and though chiles have been essential ingredients in Asian food for centuries, all chiles are American natives.
—Though bell peppers, cayennes, jalapeños, and many others are botanically C. annuum varieties and are grown as annuals, all chiles are actually perennials.
—The hottest chile in the world is neither ‘Orange Habanero’ nor ‘Red Savina’, but India’s ghost chile, ‘Bhut Jolokia’ (pictured at left, below). This one and its near relations are more than four times as hot as the nearest runner up, 'Red Savina', and about half as hot as pepper spray.
—And while we love chiles for their pungency and heat, the capsaicin that gives them these traits is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. That’s why a heatless jalapeño or habanero still tastes like a chile pepper.
You’ll find all this truth-telling in The Complete Chile Pepper Book by Dave DeWitt and Paul Bosland (Timber Press, Portland, 2009; $29.95 hardbound). Nobody is better suited to set the record straight than these two men, who are professors at New Mexico State University. DeWitt has written more than 30 books about chiles, and Bosland has bred more than 30 chile varieties. Between them they can tell you how to choose, grow, harvest, skin, powder, smoke, and dry chiles; and how to combine them in everything from garlic cheese to tiramisu. The book even offers a recipe for white chocolate 'Ancho' chile ice cream.
They start the book with their "hundred (or so)" favorite chiles, then get into garden design, container-growing, and control of pests and diseases. Along the way you'll learn about their quest for the world's hottest chile pepper, and pick up useful tips about how to stop the burning that capsaicin causes on your skin (rubbing alcohol), in your mouth (ice cream), and in your eyes (an ocean of eye drops and time).
Just published, this book will be the standard reference on chile peppers for a long time to come. I give it my three-chile rating, which translates as hot-hot-hot.
