• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Which peppers for farmers' market salsa demo?

8Planets

8Planets

The organizers of my local farmers market is doing a demo on different types of peppers for salsa making. Knowing that my newborn daughter's name is Pepper, they asked me to pick five or six varieties to show some of the breadth of possibilities in samples for the patrons. Below is a list from which I'm considering:
PEPPER SHU California Wonder 0 Chocolate Beauty 0 Feherozon Paprika 0 Flavorburst 0 Beaver Dam 500-1000 Numex Big Jim 500-2500 Ancho Gigantea 1000-2000 Purple Jalapeno 2500-8000 Early Jalapeno 2500-8000 Hungarian Hot Wax 2500-8000 Fish 5000-10k Serrano 8000-22k Aji Cristal 30k-50k Cayenne 30k-50k Tabasco 30k-50k Pequin 40k-60k Chinese Five Color 50k-100k Hot Lemon (Lemon Drop) 50k-100k Thai Hot 50k-100k Habanero (Orange) 100k-300k Naga Morich 1,000,000+ Bhut Jolokia (Ghost) 1,000,000+

So I'm looking for some input on which varieties, from this list, would you pick. A quick note: they have pretty much ruled out the Naga and Bhut for the samples (they want to display them instead), so I'm thinking Orange Habanero will be the hottest sample pepper. What five or six peppers would you choose?
 
I'd roast some bigjims for sure and maybe some poblanos(ancho gigantea) too. Forget about the chinese 5 color, they are full of seeds and not that flavorful. I'd also pass on cayennes in a salsa
 
I think you have to include the early jalapeno too since jalapenos are the peppers to which all others are commonly compared. I'd also include the serrano if I were doing it.
 
So far my leading contenders are:

Flavorburst - for those who prefer no heat at all...I wonder about these folks...
Beaver Dam or NBJ - nice blend of sweetness with mild heat
Early Jalapeno or Purple Jalapeno - the standard bearer
Serrano or Aji Cristal- the former has some name appeal to non-chileheads, but it's a tough call which I like better in a side-by-side comparison
Hot Lemon - why not, they're delicious
Orange Habanero - this is the hottest I think the organizers want to go...
 
Definitely the jalapeno, serrano and habanero as those are most commonly available. And roast something like POTOWIE said, to show a different style of chile prep. If you're doing this at the farmers market, I'd suggest using chiles that are available at the market or in local stores.

Have some superhots available for people to sample. Doesn't need to be in a salsa, but you know there will be some crazy chileheads who will want to taste them. And why not? If they are there on display, why not cut them into tiny pieces and let people try a piece on a tooth pick?

Sounds like a fun project. Take pics and post when you do it.
SL
 
The farmers market employees themselves are going to be preparing the salsas, I'll only be supplying the peppers. But I will pass along the suggestion to roast some of the peppers. Regarding samples of the superhots, that's something I do at every market - there are always some willing chileheads...Will definitely post pictures of the event.
 
8Planets said:
Regarding samples of the superhots, that's something I do at every market - there are always some willing chileheads....
Click to expand...

Right On!
 
POTAWIE said:
I'd roast some bigjims for sure and maybe some poblanos(ancho gigantea) too. Forget about the chinese 5 color, they are full of seeds and not that flavorful. I'd also pass on cayennes in a salsa
Click to expand...
Are you kidding me on the Chinese 5 colors? True they are full of seeds but they are very flavorful. Might not be the best pepper for salsa but they are tasty for sure.
 
I've been growing, breeding, and selling tonnes of Chinese 5 colors for 7+ years now but never eat them. Do a site search, most people seem to agree with my description. They do pack a fair bit of heat but they taste sort of bitter, are full of seeds and the skins are chewy. Like almost all ornamentals, they were not bred for flavor but I'm glad someone likes them.
You don't happen to want to buy several pounds of them in the near future do you?
 
I have 3 plants myself this year. I think that I will have plenty, but thanks for the offer. I don't recall them being bitter but they did have ALOT of seeds in them. I also grew them in a mixture of other peppers and it is possible that they took on some other traits of them and gave them some different flavor. They have a nice heat to them and really smooth taste, atleast for me they did.
 
Of all the peppers on my list of possibilities, I think pequin is a good substitute to the Chinese 5 Color - slightly bigger pods with slightly fewer seeds with roughly the same heat (maybe a little less heat)...

Anyone ever have pequin in their salsa or think it would be a good choice for the demo?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top