chinense The Orange Habanero Pepper

[Bumper]

For many the orange hab is the 'gateway pepper' and then they discover the rabbit hole does indeed go quite a bit deeper.  
 

This completely.  I had no idea there were so many peppers out there until I started looking for recipes for orange habanero.   I had heard of the notorious ghost peppers etc, but bahamian goat, aji lemon, 7 pod,  I had no idea until 8 months ago. The perfume of them chopped straight of the bush is intoxicating, I still really love them, but the homegrown is far superior to the supermarket one's you find here.  

 

[Streamer]

"terminator seed tech"  That's a good one ajdrew.....LOL..yeh..it was an experiment and I have one beautiful plant to show for it...can't wait to see
if and what it produces.   With my best Schwarzenegger impersonation ...."I'll be Back"

 

[Datil]

So I guess what I'm trying to convey here is just because you don't like an orange hab by itself doesn't mean that its not good tasting used in a recipe with other ingredients.
 

 
True, but i find easier to cook with peppers with a flavor that a i really like than fighting to cover that perfumey hab aftertaste (yuck!).
I'm VERY biased towards annuum flavor
 
Cya
 
Datil

 

[Spicymon]

Nice write-up. Too each his own for sure.  
 
I still really cannot stand the orange hab.  Not fresh, not in sauce, nada.  It is not for lack of trying.  I even grew them from seed again last year just too see if I was over my angst. I ended the season with a freezer half full of peppers.  It is nearly May and I still have pounds of orange habs in there, nothing else is left.  Many a many year ago the first non-traditional pepper I grew was a Jamaican Mushroom/UFO pepper alongside an orange hab plant.  It opened the flood gates to what has become a long running obsession with peppers.  Much on the basis that it was so much better IMO than the orange hab it made me question what else I had been missing in my life!  Continue the love for the orange hab, it has it's place, just not in my garden anymore      

 

[Spicymon]

 
I still really cannot stand the orange hab.  Not fresh, not in sauce, nada.  It is not for lack of trying...
 
Continue the love for the orange hab, it has it's place, just not in my garden anymore      

 
So after seeing my post again late last night it seems I have become the pepper snob I never thought I would be... 
 
To help shake the feeling I decided to make one final round of hot sauce out of the remnants of last years grow, including some of the orange habs taking up too much room in the freezer.      
 
I gave it my all I in terms of trying to make the taste of the orange hab appealing to me in a sauce.  I got closer but still not feeling it.  Threw 19 orange habs, 9 Jamaican Mushrooms, and 8 small jalapenos, the latter being the smaller end of the season peppers that were still hanging around the freezer all onto the smoker.  I smoked them about an hour-ish at 250 over hickory and peach wood.  I then brought them in and threw them into the pan and did my usual hot sauce thing.  
 
Sauce ended up quite good, sweet citrus off the bat and just as the orange hab taste was about to get the better of me... BAM smokey goodness, followed by some decent heat    Made a couple small jars worth and will give them away this week keeping one for myself.  I tried but it is still not my thing anymore, cutting them open raw  nearly gives me a gag reaction.   They will stay out of my garden and probably my sauces but I came away with the knowledge that... I need to smoke more peppers for my sauces   If it did this much for a pepper I don't really care for I need to try it with some I do! 

     

 

[D3monic]

Looks good to me!