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Aji Panca

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DocNrock

Is anyone growing this? How are the pods?

I bought a half dozen plants from Refining Fire Chilis. One of them was to be a Black Habanero. I got an e-mail from Jim telling me he wasn't happy with the look of what was his last Black Hab, so he was replacing it with an Aji Panca plant.

I Googled Aji Pance and it seems like an interesting and useful pepper.

Thoughts?
 
In Peru,Aji Panca can be ANY brown podded pepper,most were C.Chinense or C.Baccattum.Though one was C.Annuum.
I've got seed packs of all 3 from seed companies in Peru.
Aji Amarillo in Peru also can be one of many yellow/orange peppers too.
 
Well, I can't address the varieties that might be called the same thing. However...

I was at a shop in another city a while back, and found a tin of aji panca powder imported from Peru which I purchased. I had not knowingly tried aji panca before, but that doesn't necessarily mean I haven't tried it and just not known what I was eating. (I grew up in Houston and lived in southern California before moving to Ohio, so have eaten a lot of Mex and Tex-Mex food which could have used it.) The tin doesn't tell me if it's baccatum, chinense, etc., but I can tell you what I think about it. It's fairly mild, but I really like the flavor - it's a good everyday type of pepper that you would definitely use when cooking for people that can't tolerate much heat. It's also the kind of chile pepper I would use instead of black pepper on the table, similar to how I use cayenne (I don't eat black pepper.) I find myself adding it to food even when using other chiles, such as douglah. It has a mild smokiness to it that I like.

Here's a link to aji panca on thechileman.org, which you might find interesting: http://thechileman.org/results.php?chile=1&find=panca&heat=Any&origin=Any&genus=Any&submit=Search
 
The only reason I mentioned Aji Panca can be a couple different things is that Baccatuums have a distictive flavour as do Chinense or Annuums.

So without knowing which one the guy has it's hard to give a flavour profile.

I've found when buying dry pods from the country of origin that it sometimes depends on the season as to what variety you get.
Might get Chinense in Summer and Baccatuums in spring or fall.Depending on what ones are setting pods at the time.

I've grown seeds for red chile flakes out of different packs of dried pepper flakes from the same company and gotten several different types of peppers out of the seeds from different packs.
All packs were labeled red chile flakes but some seeds grew Guajillo type peppers,others Japone type and others were 1 1/2 - 2 inch red pods.
 
I use/grow/buy a chinense variety, it is probably my wife and I's favorite powder for flavor and the warming sensation it adds to food. It is great with Honduran beans and rice! Good in soups too. I don't use it any other way except as a dried powder though.
 
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