On 7/11/2010 9:57 PM, lil abner wrote:
> zxcvbob wrote:
>> Most store-bought jalapeņos are mild. Not just slightly hot, but mild
>> like a bell pepper. (I seek out the ones with cracks in the skins,
>> they often have a little heat.) So I started buying serranos, but they
>> are not really hot either now. Yesterday I bought a handful of little
>> Thai peppers thinking at least they would be hot. Well, some of them
>> are, barely.
>>
>> This is starting to **** me off.
>>
>> Fresh habaneros, dried chilitepins and chipotles, and cayenne pepper
>> don't taste right for a lot of uses, even though they are still hot.
>> Maybe I need to try the Asian and Mexican grocery stores.
>>
>> Bob
> Raise your own and don't harvest until ripe.
> I raised some Jalapenos one year.
> I harvested them barehanded, about half a bushel.
> For many many days some, of my favorite parts, were plenty hot.
> I can kid about it now. 
I've had several years in a row of crop failures. :-( Looks like I will
at least get a few this year.
I made a couple of batches of picante sauce last year. My recipe has
5:2:1 ratio of tomatoes, peppers, and onions, by weight. One batch was
made with 2 pounds of grocery store jalapeņos. It turned out "medium"
(I was pleased that it was that hot; the peppers were pretty mild but
got hotter when cooked). The other batch had 1.5 pounds of the same
barely-warm jalapeņos and 1/2 pound of home grown green jalapeņos from
my brother's garden in Houston. That batch will knock your socks off.
I'm going to enter a jar of the "hot" in the county fair next month.
I think the growers are just pampering the pepper plants and then
rushing the peppers to market before they develop their heat. I'll try
some Fresno chile peppers next time I see them. They have to wait for
those to turn red.
Bob