In this picture you see 2 groups of Naga Morich peppers.
Both harvests came from the same plants. The group on the left was harvested the day I put the plants indoors, so they actually did all their growing and ripening outdoors.
The group on the right ripened very quickly under the stress of inadequate light, and an abrupt change in temperature after they were moved indoors.
The harvests took place about 7 days apart, the first harvest was kept in the refrigerator. The second harvest were still 100% green when I moved them inside but were already changing color the next day.
As you can see, all of the indoor ripened pods are a much darker red color
and the ones on the bottom right even darker still. That dark color is not
patches that have not ripened. They are a very deep, dark red and thats where they stopped changing color. They do not match the bright red/orange of every other Naga I've harvested this year.
I've never seen a Naga this color before.
Being very intrigued by this difference, I wanted to see if there were any other differences as well so I made separate batches of sauce with them.
Differences is sauce are that the indoor ripened naga's made a darker colored sauce, obviously, but it also has a noticeably more fruity flavor and scent.
Additionally, the capsaicin seems to have different effects, possibly
due to a different balance of capsaicin vs di-hydrocapsaicin? Just a guess.
The sauce made from the lighter colored peppers had a burn that began right away, peaked fairly quickly,
(perhaps 60 seconds) and then faded very slowly.
The sauce made from the darker pods have much less noticeable burn the first few seconds, build very slowly in intensity to a peak at about the same heat as the first at around 2 minutes, and fades away more slowly.
So they basically both take about the same amount of time to fade away and reach a similar peak in intensity,
but the lighter pods get there much faster, darker pods take their time.
Same plants in different environments = different fruit.
Not really that surprising, but its cool to see it so graphically demonstrated.
Very interesting indeed
Both harvests came from the same plants. The group on the left was harvested the day I put the plants indoors, so they actually did all their growing and ripening outdoors.
The group on the right ripened very quickly under the stress of inadequate light, and an abrupt change in temperature after they were moved indoors.
The harvests took place about 7 days apart, the first harvest was kept in the refrigerator. The second harvest were still 100% green when I moved them inside but were already changing color the next day.
As you can see, all of the indoor ripened pods are a much darker red color
and the ones on the bottom right even darker still. That dark color is not
patches that have not ripened. They are a very deep, dark red and thats where they stopped changing color. They do not match the bright red/orange of every other Naga I've harvested this year.
I've never seen a Naga this color before.
Being very intrigued by this difference, I wanted to see if there were any other differences as well so I made separate batches of sauce with them.
Differences is sauce are that the indoor ripened naga's made a darker colored sauce, obviously, but it also has a noticeably more fruity flavor and scent.
Additionally, the capsaicin seems to have different effects, possibly
due to a different balance of capsaicin vs di-hydrocapsaicin? Just a guess.
The sauce made from the lighter colored peppers had a burn that began right away, peaked fairly quickly,
(perhaps 60 seconds) and then faded very slowly.
The sauce made from the darker pods have much less noticeable burn the first few seconds, build very slowly in intensity to a peak at about the same heat as the first at around 2 minutes, and fades away more slowly.
So they basically both take about the same amount of time to fade away and reach a similar peak in intensity,
but the lighter pods get there much faster, darker pods take their time.
Same plants in different environments = different fruit.
Not really that surprising, but its cool to see it so graphically demonstrated.
Very interesting indeed
