So, let’s chat about some of our favorite chili peppers. To us, heat is mysteriously missing from the “spectrum of taste” and that’s odd to us, considering it adds an entirely different dimension to food.
You won’t likely find the classic Cayenne pepper on “northern” growing lists. Possibly because this is where “serious heat” begins. Despite this, we’ve found it to be a very reliable 60-70 day producer in cool climates, even ripening when the season challenges every other chili.
Of all the peppers we grow, cayenne tend to be the very first to mature. What’s nice about them is they don’t take long periods of heat to fully ripen, which definitely aids us in our northern growing efforts.
We don’t have a lot of luck with “super hots” in northern climates, cayenne is about as hot as they come for us. Still, at 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville, cayenne will not leave you wanting for more heat. If jalapenos are hot to you, these usually come in about 10x-20x as hot! Cayenne tend to be a rather neutral pepper, laying down an excellent spice profile with only a touch of sweetness.
Though cayenne are certainly welcome as a fresh or preserved pepper anywhere hot peppers are desired, we tend to focus our production on dehydration and turning our peppers into powder. Given cayenne is the spiciest pepper that we grow, powder form tends to give us the most versatility. We can sneak in powder almost anywhere without necessarily making something a “pepper dish.”
In case you’re an aspiring pepper head, we’ll share some wisdom. The key to amazing heat and flavor profiles is using multiple peppers, often from different flavor profiles and heat levels. Single pepper blends tend to be less interesting and monotone, whereas multi-pepper blends will wake up the senses and provide you with both complex flavors and multifaceted burn that keeps the tongue on edge.
This season is looking like it’s going to be a bang up year for our cayenne harvest. We’ll probably need to find an alternate use for them, I’m leaning towards an end of season pickled pepper medley. We’ll see, though, we’ve still got a few weeks to think about it!
