Espelette pepper

[lurley]

I had a few ripe Espelette peppers today so I brought them in and washed them off and took a big bite... holy sh#@! I was immediately coughing and burning. I thought these were only supposed to be a 4 like a medium jalepeno... these were a bit more I think. I only go big bites of raw with anything less than a hot serrano, anything hotter than that has to be chopped small, pickled, or dried and ground so I can use small amounts in cooking. Maybe because it has been really hot and dry lately and they are in a raised bed that drains quickly? If I water will the heat in future harvests be a little more tolerable to eating fresh? (for me)

[matereater]

I'm no expert, but I've heard the hotter the weather, the hotter the pepper.

[lurley]

I do hope you are right, they have a lot of flavor and will be great dried and ground for kitchen seasoning, but I was hoping they would be a tad less hot for fresh use. They are not anything terrible hot like my habanero or lemon, pequin or bird, but I was looking for something with a little kick that wouldn't make me cough and choke.

[fortyonenorth]

Lurley,

Pure Espelette's are only mildly hot - not nearly as hot as your typical jalapeno. I think they have a wonderful taste and, for me at least (and I'm a wimp), the perfect amount of heat for fresh eating or on salad, etc. I enjoyed several today on my grilled cheese sandwich. Heat is dominant in peppers, so your pepper might have been crossed with a much hotter variety.

I wonder why they are not more popular in the states. Before I tried them, I figured they were shy seed producers, but that certainly isn't the case. Of course, they have AOC protection and, strictly speaking, if they are grown in Indiana or Ohio, we can't call them Espelette's at all. I've seen many sources of Espelette powder, but very few sources for seed. I wonder if the French control export of the seed. I bought mine from an Indiana company as "Espelette-type Basque pepper" or something to that effect.

[lurley]

Forty,
Do you have any pictures of yours for comparison to what I have? I bought commercial seed that was supposed to be the real deal, now I'm not so sure.

[fortyonenorth]

Here you go, Lurley. Of course, I can't guarantee mine are correct - I've developed a healthy distrust of all pepper seeds - but they seem to match the type insofar as appearance, taste, and heat. There's a guy who posts at iDig from the UK who apparently got some espelettes from France - they even came with a certificate (haughty French ) and his description matches up to what I'm getting.

[lurley]

Forty,
Those look exactly like mine. I checked out idig, there are photos of espelette that look like ours but one guy says more a "cayenne type"? Does that mean cayenne look or cayenne heat? And in the thread, it is said that they are quite hot.. the ones that look like ours anyway, guy with cayenne type says not so hot.
http://idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48263
I am a bit of a wimp on the hot peppers. I eat jalepenos, anaheims, new mex, poblanos, mulatos, etc, but the hot ones like cayenne, lemon, and habanero, I make into hot sauce that only my husband uses, or I dry and grind and add in small quantities to food I cook for everyone (especially cayenne). I was thinking maybe they had crossed with something with more heat, and maybe all aren't as hot as the first one I took a bite out of but I'm too timid to test all of them from the other plants in the same manner. Or maybe it was the weather that made them hotter this year and the fact that they were in a raised bed where water drains quickly, I've read less water can make them hotter?
So I guess, my question now is going to be, are they supposed to look like ours or like cayenne? and just how hot are they supposed to be? Thread above says fairly hot, but one dissenter says not. It's too bad as I isolated them this year for sharing seeds this fall figuring they were rare and others would like to try them. But I don't like to offer before I know what I have is the real thing.

[neoguy]

Originally Posted by fortyonenorth

Lurley,

Pure Espelette's are only mildly hot - not nearly as hot as your typical jalapeno. I think they have a wonderful taste and, for me at least (and I'm a wimp), the perfect amount of heat for fresh eating or on salad, etc. I enjoyed several today on my grilled cheese sandwich.

I question the source of the heat level you are referring to as being only mildly, hot. And, how does mildly, hot compute into Scoville units? I'm not here to argue. Everything I've read, which is very limited to the information available on the web, equates the heat levels to a Jalapeno. A Wiki search, which we all know doesn't mean the end all to the truth, indicates the Scoville of the Espelettle's to be between 3,500 and 8,500.

3,500–8,000 Espelette pepper, Jalapeño pepper, Guajillo pepper, New Mexican varieties of Anaheim pepper,[15] Hungarian wax pepper, Tabasco sauce


I've grown this pepper for 3 years now. Each and every year they have grown true in each aspect as to the previous year, shape, size, heat and plant form.

My original seed source was a a kind T'ville trader by the name of Alex, perhaps he'll see this and chime in.

People mention a sweet Espelette. Can't be sweet and hot and the same time. Can't be the same pepper, can it? I understand the Espelette's are AOC protected, which means the name Espelette can't be used with any seed saved and traded.

Any French folks to tells us exactly what this pepper is to taste like?

[fortyonenorth]

I sure don's know, but it's really piqued my interest now that we're talking about it.

I looked back at the iDig thread and Blane said his were way hotter than Beaver Dam. What I have growing this year isn't as hot as Beaver Dam. I couldn't eat a fresh Beaver Dam seeds and all without significant pain.

In another thread, I asked "What Makes a Jalapeno a Jalapeno?" (http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=17143). I suppose the question could be asked, what makes an Espelette an Espelette? Setting aside the geographical constraints of the AOC, is "Espelette" akin to "Sudduth's Brandywine" - meaning a very specific selection with near-identical DNA - or is it more akin to "big pink beefsteak."

In terms of heat, the Wikipedia entry for Espelette says "This pepper attains only a grade of 4,000 on the Scoville scale and therefore can be considered not hot." Whatever that means.

Lurley, in terms of shape, if you do a Google image search, *most* of the hits are similar to our peppers, though there are a few that look more like Cayennes. This French site dedicated to the Espelette - looks like ours as well. http://www.pimentdespelette.com/wp-c...t-bilingue.pdf

[velikipop]

Just saw this thread and the peppers that i grew and shared seeds was spicy and equal to the heat of a Jalapeno. I do know that heat level can vary with conditions. Hot dry conditions will produce more heat. The pictures are exactly what mine looked like and the plants were the most prolific producers of any other chiles I grew alongside them.

In France Espellette powder and other products are readily available and I sem to recall that they were spicy. So my educated guess is that you have the real thing.

Alex

[lurley]

3,500–8,000 Espelette pepper, Jalapeño pepper, Guajillo pepper, New Mexican varieties of Anaheim pepper,[15] Hungarian wax pepper, Tabasco sauce

I think this range would be more accurate than just saying 4,000 or 4 out of 10. Mine are hotter than my jalepenos but not near as hot as some of the more fiery ones I grow, and going by the above list, tabasco chiles and hungarian hot wax are too hot for me to eat fresh whole. I think in the area they are grown in they replace black pepper with ground espelette peppers, which to me means they can be fairly hot, definitely not a sweet pepper. I will see if I can find out where I bought them from, but I do expect now that at least we have the real deal after your French link Forty. I remove the seeds from mine before I grind them so that makes a difference in the finished product also. I will probably try a one for one substitution with the espelette powder where I normally would use cayenne, new mex, or chipotle powder and see how it goes. I may try drying some on strings like in the photos, I have some guajillo peppers drying like that now and may try some peperoni di senise that way too.

[Mark0820]

Originally Posted by lurley

I may try drying some on strings like in the photos, I have some guajillo peppers drying like that now and may try some peperoni di senise that way too.

Where do you hang your peppers when you dry them on strings? Mine always seem to get moldy. I am trying to dry some of Fred's Mareka Fana peppers, and I hope it works since they are a slightly smaller pepper.

[lurley]

I hang them in my patio room that has windows on three sides. I run a portable dehumidifier in that room also. I've never tried to dry anything with flesh this thick this way before so it will be a learning experience whatever happens.

[fortyonenorth]

So...I just broke down and ordered some Espelette seeds from the UK - they are from certified AOC peppers, so they should be the real deal. I'll grow them side-by-side with what I have this year and see how they stack up.

I was going to order a ristra (or whatever they call it in France) figuring I'd let a boat load of seeds from the 12-14 peppers they say are included. But then I read that after sun-curing they "finish them off" in the oven for several hours. That would be enough to kill the seeds, I would think.

[lurley]

I can send you seeds of mine too for a heat comparison when grown side by side in same conditions

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