What you are about to read isn’t exactly science. I am not sure what type of scientific expert we would have to pay for a study on picking the perfect pepper, but like most things surrounding home cooking it’s advice based on firsthand experience passed around to people like you and me.
If you are looking for real heat, go straight to red!
1.Let’s say you’re making a salsa and you want it hot. Or you’re making a nice batch of chili and you want to bring the heat. You don’t want a green jalapeno. Even if you found the perfect one based on this advice you still wouldn’t get the same fire you would get from the red jalapeno pepper with lots of striations. More on those later! If you are looking for something in between, look through the basket for a green pepper with a few spots of red.
In the case of the jalapeno pepper aging is good!
- The prettiest smoothest peppers with the spotless skin in fact can turn out to be the ones with the least flavor. These young pups haven’t had a chance for their heat to develop. Instead look for the peppers with the lines also called striations and little white flecks in the skin, these are the guys that have been around long enough for the heat hiding in the ribs to really develop. The more striations and spots the hotter the pepper!
Store even the young ones in the fridge!
It seems that jalapeno peppers get hotter as they get older and the older they get, they change in appearance. When young, they are smooth, uniformly green and less hot but as they get older they start to develop striations or lines in the outer skin. You’ll also start seeing little white lines and white flecks in the skin.
- Put your peppers in the drawer of your fridge. Keep an eye on them. As they age there they will develop those same lines giving you a sign as to what is happening to their flavor on the inside.
When in doubt taste!
- I realize you can’t be taking bites in the grocery aisle so follow the first few tips when buying. This tip is for when you are in your kitchen! Since this isn’t an exact science and no one pepper is the same as another I always give it a nibble before dropping those bright green cubes of pepper flesh into anything. That is the only real way to know what you are working with.
Leave some rib!
- If you’re looking for hot and you took the time to pick the pepper with the great lines and spotty skin and still you get him home and his flavor isn’t packing the punch you want, deseed him but when it comes to taking out his ribs, leave a little in. That rib is where the heat lives!
So the next time you are at the store take a minute to look though the jalapenos. Now that you know about the striations you won’t be able to miss them!
If you are into the spicier peppers and are looking for a way to heat things up in the kitchen then check out: 7 of The Hottest Peppers on Earth. This guide will show you everything you need to know about the hottest peppers on the planet.
For more information visit The Reluctant Gourmet
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