Hot Peppers of the World: Everything You Need to Know

Characteristics

 

Listed in the chart below are hot peppers of the world, along with some info about each. The color indicates the hotness, with red hot being incredibly spicy, and burnt yellow being moderately spicy.

 

Pepper	Color	Shape	Cultural / Cooking Notes
Habanerot	neon orange	Tiny, squat and fat	Use a little, keep your hands covered when touching them
Cascabelle	red, orange, or yellow-green	Tiny, shaped like fat cones
Serrano	red or green	Fat and little, with a slight point at the end	Remove the ribs and seeds and/or roast them for more mild taste
Santaka and Thai		the size of a small fingernail	sold on the branch or as a whole plant with hundreds of peppers that dry and keep for years the heat doesn’t soften, even after cooking
Cayenne	slim and twisted with a long point, 3 to 6 inches in length	red, green, and yellow-green	Most cayenne chiles are dried for cayenne pepper.
Jalapeño	plump little barrels with thick skins, as big as a thumb	green	the most available of all the fresh chiles roasted they are a little less hot and have wonderful flavor
Fresno	shaped like the jalapeño	lighter green or bright red
Santa Fe Grande	cone shaped with smooth skin	deep red or yellow streaked with orange
Hungarian wax (banana pepper)	long, tapering cones	creamy yellow	some are very mild; others are medium-hot these peppers are wonderful pickled look for them in big jars with Hungarian labels
Surefire	elongated, cone- shaped with a slight curve or twist	deep red or bright yellow
Ancho (Poblano)	cone shaped with a long tip	very shiny skin green or red	best roasted and peeled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buying

·       The skins should be tight and glossy and the pepper firm with no bruises or soft spots.

Storing

·       store fresh chiles in a paper bag in the refrigerator

·       most will keep up to two weeks

Handling

·       you must take precautions when working with hot peppers

·       wear rubber gloves or cover your hands with plastic sandwich bags

·       wash your hands thoroughly when you are through

·       never rub your eyes or touch your face

·       Peppers can cause second-degree burns!