Jalapeno Conspiracy

I've grown Burpee "Jalapeño M" for the past two years and the peppers had plenty of kick. What brand & variety did you grow?

Is there any chance that your taste has changed? I've always understood the jalapeño to be a not-very-hot pepper. They're plenty hot enough for me, but maybe if you're really comfortable with really hot ones, the less-hot will taste like nothing much. I'm only thinking out loud -- no idea otherwise.

You're pampering the plants, and picking the peppers too early.

When buying jalapeños at the grocery store, look for peppers that have cracks in them, or are turning red. They will be the hotter ones because they are more mature and/or grown when the plants were more stressed.

When growing your own, leave them on the plants a while after they get big. Wait until they have stopped growing for maybe a week (or you can wait and pick them red)

Or the seed company may have mixed up the seeds and you really got one of those cursed mild jalapeño varieties.

Bob

I feel yer pain, little brother. A farmer down here in the chile capitol said that the chiles on the ends of the field that got less water were hotter. And to watch your variety. hth Edrena

I've been growing jalapenos from the same packet of Burpee seeds for five seasons now, those suckers are too hot, stick a fork in em and they'll melt the tines.

Hot, and big too:

It's weird - before I grew jalapeños, I'd only tasted them out of jars, or at restaurants, maybe in salsa or cooked into other stuff. They never impressed me as hot at all. At home, when I want heat in the recipe, I use the cayenn peppers from the garden, fresh or dried. When I grew jalapeños, I figured I'd be getting peppers I could stuff, cook briefly, and woof 'em down like potato chips. Ha. Not.

Guess what, they're four times as hot when dried and crushed. The usual pizza parlor pepper sprinkle I can literally cover the slice and not feel it's too hot, but not with the ones I grew myself, they are too wicked to eat.

It certainly has changed but is not dead. This all started when I learned that my blood pressure was too high. One of the home remedies/internet factoids was that capsicum reduces blood pressure.

Up to that time, I abhorred hot food and considered it uncivilized and fit only for howling savages.

Well, after a concerted effort to modify my palate, it now takes a jabenero to really challenge me. However, a proper jalapeno still has that nice warm mouth feel and is not confused with the dudds I am referring to. They simply have no heat.

Last year we harvested from about now till frost and nothing changed. Most of them were duds and a very few were hot. We had to add a few jabeneros to each jar of pickled jalapenos to get a reasonably hot batch.

None of this had any effect on my blood pressure BTW but it has expanded my horizons.

js

Have you noticed any other foods that don't taste the way you remember them from the past?

Of course but that is just growing up and becoming more sophisticated.

It has nothing to do with the fact that some jalapenos taste hot and others taste like bell peppers.

The color, age and stress do not seem to have anythng to do with it.

Yesterday we picked about a pound from all over the garden, a few from each plant. Most tasted like bell peppers and a few were hot.

js

Bill

Ah - the best way to see Forbidden Planet is with a bunch of science geeks/nerds and pick the plot to pieces.

Lunch and peppers here

Pick the plot to pieces? Wasn't the plot lifted right out of Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

(or was that Christopher Marlow? :-)

Best regards, Bob

Whoa, you poor old sumbo. Back in harness.

Giddy-up, Billy.

Yes, but with nerds, you get that and science (or lack there of) commentary and that can be hysterical. (Best quantum mechanic in the galaxy)

Joost pusted thees oofer in SMC

"The new findings promise to help untangle the early molecular events of a syndrome at the root of one of the world's most significant health issues. ³Knowing how insulin resistance alters energy storage before it leads to more serious problems can help those susceptible prevent the onset of the metabolic syndrome,² Shulman said. Another key observation was that skeletal muscle insulin resistance precedes the development of insulin resistance in liver cells, and that fat production in the liver is increased. ³These findings also have important implications for understanding the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, one of the most prevalent liver diseases in both adults and children² Shulman said.

The good news, according to Shulman, is that insulin resistance in skeletal muscle can be countered through a simple intervention: exercise."

..............

I'd suggest that the shift from sand lot playing to organized games has reduced the amount of exercise significantly. Practice on yada yada and game on Yada Yada not enough. "leave those kids alone" comes to mind . We played every day for hours and in winter it was ice skating and snow removal aka snow forts. Today young folks deal with less physical work, more hours though and sedentary entertainment. I suggest shaking your booty often is a cheap good thing. Fun too.

Dance the night away!

Bill musing yea what about Vitamin D.

I've said over the past few years that the jalape=F1os taste like concentrated Bell peppers.

My friend agrees

I like them for substituting green peppers for taste, a little goes a long way in cooking but it's missing something. The jalape=F1o taste.

I believe it is a conspiracy.