Why some jalapeños are SO much spicier than others

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A HUGE thank you to all our jalapeño taste testers & raters: Melanie, Ashley, Liz, Ryan, Roopa, Lisa, Austin, Scott, Tim, Neuman, Toshi, Maeson, Taytum, James, Bodhi, and Ethan
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆-𝗴𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆:
-Cervantes-Hernández F, Alcalá-González P, Martínez O, Ordaz-Ortiz JJ (2019). Placenta, Pericarp, and Seeds of Tabasco Chili Pepper Fruits Show a Contrasting Diversity of Bioactive Metabolites. Metabolites 9(10):206. doi.org/10.339...
-González-Zamora A, Sierra-Campos E, Luna-Ortega JG, Pérez-Morales R, Ortiz JCR, García-Hernández JL (2013).Characterization of Different Capsicum Varieties by Evaluation of Their Capsaicinoids Content by High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Determination of Pungency and Effect of High Temperature. Molecules 18(11):13471-13486. doi.org/10.339...
-Guijarro-Real C, Adalid-Martínez AM, Pires CK, Ribes-Moya AM, Fita A, Rodríguez-Burruezo A (2023). The Effect of the Varietal Type, Ripening Stage, and Growing Conditions on the Content and Profile of Sugars and Capsaicinoids in Capsicum Peppers. Plants 12(2):231. doi.org/10.339...
-Harvell, KP & Bosland, PW (1997). The Environment Produces a Significant Effect on Pungency of Chiles. HortSci 32(7): 1292-1292. doi.org/10.212...
-Mahmood T, Rana RM, Ahmar S, Saeed S, Gulzar A, Khan MA, Wattoo FM, Wang X, Branca F, Mora-Poblete F, Mafra GS, Du X (2021). Effect of Drought Stress on Capsaicin and Antioxidant Contents in Pepper Genotypes at Reproductive Stage. Plants 10(7):1286. doi.org/10.339...
-Sweat KG, Broatch J, Borror C, Hagan K, Cahill TM(2016). Variability in capsaicinoid content and Scoville heat ratings of commercially grown Jalapeño, Habanero and Bhut Jolokia peppers. Food Chem 210:606-612. doi.org/10.101...
-Zewdie Y & Bosland PW (2000). Pungency of Chile (Capsicum annuum L.) Fruit is Affected by Node Position. HortScience 35(6): 1174-1174. doi.org/10.212...
-Zewdie Y & Bosland, PW (2000). Evaluation of genotype, environment, and genotype-by-environment interaction for capsaicinoids in Capsicum annuum L.. Euphytica 111: 185-190. doi.org/10.102...
𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 (𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲) 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀:
www.theatlanti...
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𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰:
-Dr. Ken Sweat, Lecturer in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at Arizona State University
-Danise Coon, Research Coordinator & Senior Research Specialist, New Mexico State University
-Dr. Dennis Lozada, Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University
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[@theCodyReeder]

In my own garden I've noticed that the hottest peppers come from plants that were infested with aphids. I assume the pepper was making more spicy due to being stressed.

[@snosibsnob3930]

Makes sense, since capsasin is a pesticide. Don’t know if it repels bugs like it does mammals though.

[@Justgoodvids]

Reminds me of juicy and sweet oranges having more bugs on them

[@zumabbar]

wonder if it's the same case with coffee beans and its caffeine content

[@letsdoodlesomethinghome3404]

@@Justgoodvidsthat’s more of correlation rather than causation, sweeter oranges will attract more bugs meanwhile judging by this commenter’s theory the increased capsaicin levels could be caused by increased defense against bugs.

[@petersmythe6462]

TIL I can use aphids to enhance spiciness.

[@WBradleyRobbins]

Pepper grower here. Some admittedly anecdotal suspicions of mine: Corking is caused by sudden swelling of the pepper from water intake that causes micro splits and scars. Capsaicin production peaks a bit before the pepper turns color. But many peppers taste better once they change color as the clorophyll diminishes and its vegetable/bitter flavor is reduced. Thas changes tha balance of flavor and often adds a hint of sweetness. It is the difference between a green habanero tasting like fire and dirt, and an orange one that while really hot has a smoky complexity underneath,

[@rich1051414]

A fully mature orange habanero, to me, briefly has an apricot like taste right before I regret every decision I have ever made.

[@chewielewis4002]

@@rich1051414 loving cooking with habaneros, lends a nice fruity tasty and some heat

[@Playingwith3D]

@@rich1051414 lol

[@ardenthebibliophile]

​@@rich1051414 Check out the Habanada variety. It's super flavorful with almost no heat

[@alexhajnal107]

@@rich1051414 Try corn soup. The heavy cream cuts the heat and lets you enjoy the peppers' flavour.

[@babilon6097]

So you're saying that those hot jalapeños are peppered among the mild ones with no way to tell?

[@SarahAbramova]

Nice pun

[@interiot2]

The seeds of your destruction are buried within.

[@doob62]

⁠@@interiot2Your destruction lies not in the seeds, but the piths of hellapenos.

[@nidodson]

My favorite trick, if the recipe wasn't that hot when I first had it, wait a couple days of the left overs being in the fridge, it will get more heat. My stir fry recipe, half the time has almost no spice the day I cook it. A few days later it's the last day I can tolerate eating it, it gains so much heat. One benefit of peppers, want it hotter? Just wait. (Within the standard food safety ranges of course.)

[@doob62]

@@nidodson They got a video on that. “Why do some leftovers suck?”

[@indeedgrasshopper]

Last year I grew some banana peppers. The first flush of peppers were all delicious with mild-to-medium heat. As the season progressed and the second flush developed... that was a different story. I made stuffed peppers with them and they were inedibly hot. Same plant, same garden, same watering schedule and pretty much the same weather conditions. Pepper plants are just jerks. 😂

[@blairhoughton7918]

The soil conditions will change because of the plants, and light will also change. Or maybe they realized what you did to the first ones... Actually that's the best hypothesis: they reacted to the stress of those being picked by raising their defenses.

[@Aura_Mancer]

In Spain we have a saying for "Pimientos del padron" i.e Peppers of padron (an area). It's a rhyme, "pimientos del padrón, unos pican y otros non" which is "some are spicy and some are not" so it's a cultural thing here that you can't know!

[@diegobarna]

En galego: “pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non”

[@twistedsim]

Those are awesome 😁

[@lonestarr1490]

I always trim out the pith and leave the rest to the forces beyond my comprehension.

[@CarlosKTCosta]

En Portugal se dice lo mismo

[@Broockle]

A birb once said "And that's why we do science"

[@matthewdebeer8453]

The Decoder Ring podcast did an interesting episode about how variance in spice is being bred out of jalapenos. The driver is that companies which bulk produce hot sauces etc want more consistency in their products. And because of economics, pepper farmers usually grow the same pepper varieties for those companies as they do for supermarkets.

[@Homer-OJ-Simpson]

If you’re making salsa or anything where jalapeno is used mostly for the spice and only a little for the jalapeño flavor, serranos are a much better option as they are more consistent and still have a jalapeño like flavor. But for foods here the jalapeno is the star, you can’t use Serrano. Jalapeño poppers are about the Jalapeño so it’s best to use that pepper and just remove some of the pith / seeds

[@ConstantlyDamaged]

@@Homer-OJ-Simpson I guess, if you really wanted a consistent heat for your poppers, you could remove all the pith and use something else to provide heat (I keep a big jar of dried birds eye chilis for when I'm making curry).

[@ZetaPyro]

Came here to say this, glad someone else beat me. I just listened to that episode a few weeks ago, and it was absolutely brilliant.

[@davesutherland1864]

I heard the same report. They breed the spice out of the jalapeños so that they are primarily providing taste to the sauce. They then add capsaicin in controlled amounts. That way the manufacturer gets consistent taste and consistent heat.

[@blairhoughton7918]

​@@Homer-OJ-SimpsonSerranos taste way better than Jalapeños. And they're a lot more expensive, and about 5X hotter. But if you mix them 1:4 with Bell pepper, I bet you nail the profile.

[@fakjbf3129]

4:43 This is something people need to understand more. You don’t need super rigorous standards for a test like this because the entire point is that you are looking for a signal strong enough that you can reliably pick up on it while shopping. It doesn’t matter if technically there was an effect that your testing wasn’t reliably able to pick up on, because that means that in your actual life you wouldn’t pick up on it either.

[@letao12]

The concern is with the inverse scenario - that due to lack of rigor, the test accidentally identifies a strong signal that isn't real. That has been the case with criteria like color, corking, etc. that were mentioned in the video. They have all been "tested" to be reliable indicators, but turned out not to be so reliable when real life comes around.

[@blairhoughton7918]

With results as muddy as this, you do could do some rigorous testing, but all you'll end up doing is getting wide distributions with a lot of overlap. The bottom line on this video is you can't tell for sure by looking. So even if you carefully sort by external features, all you'll get is a distribution in each basket. The solution is for producers to develop a device that can sniff a pepper and determine how much capsaicin is lurking inside and then sort them before they're delivered to the stores. But that would probably make each pepper cost 10 times as much as it does. Though I don't doubt someone will try it and someone will buy it, there will always be a market for saving your money and taking your chances.

[@NutchapolSal]

i remember this from Adam Ragusea's video on de minimis

[@JasminUwU]

​@@blairhoughton7918 If you're that determined to have a consistent experience you can just use hot sauce instead

[@blairhoughton7918]

@@JasminUwU That isn't how cuisine works. It's how McDonald's works. You want McDonald's? That's how you get McDonald's.

[@dhampson545]

This is why recipes are actually just "guidelines". When I make salsa, I add a few peppers, wait an hour and taste. I will add more peppers if needed. I've learned about this variability the hard way.

[@raznaak]

But then it may be too mild.

[@themushroominside6540]

@@raznaak In cooking you can always add more but never subtract, for salsa it can be easy to change the amount of spice if needed, especially considering the variation in heat seen in jalapeños here

[@harshalshah4685]

This why I use mostly Serrano peppers as they tend to have consistent heat levels.

[@logicalparadox2897]

Yeah this is why it's funny that people who want things mild gravitate towards the jalapeno. there's that one in a hundred jalapeno that dwarfs Serrano lol. I've had ones that tasted like damn bird chiles.

[@Jeff_PNW]

I grow lots of peppers, and I agree that Serranos are very consistent, both in heat level and flavor. I think they taste better than jalapeños as well. My Serrano bushes also far out-produce any other peppers in my garden except maybe Shishito.

[@blairhoughton7918]

​@@Jeff_PNWSerranos are so much better than Jalapeños, but the higher average heat keeps people away. Oh well. More for me.

[@SimuLord]

Serranos replaced jalapenos in my go-to salsa recipe 15 years ago and I never looked back. Tastier and more consistently just the right level of heat.

[@thedoctoradvocate8251]

I like serranos but to be honest they have the same issue as jalapenos

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

For another reference point for pepper X, pepper spray can be as low as 3 million Scoville units, so eating that thing is like being sprayed in the mouth with pepper spray 😮

[@TaylorfromPapaLouie]

So its like the closest thing to edible pain?

[@factorfitness3713]

Sounds delicious.

[@raznaak]

@@TaylorfromPapaLouie Mad Dog Plutonium. 9 millions Scoville. THIS is edible pain.

[@Wrugoin13]

Thank you! Finally! This solves a mystery from a few years ago. I enjoy spice in my foods, and LOVE the taste of jalapeños. They've always ranked in the tolerable scale of spice for me, so I never think twice about dishes on menus that contain jalapeños. We have an excellent local Mexican restaurant that has the best skirt steak w/roasted jalapeños. I've had it at least 3 or 4 times before this incident. I order it again, and this time the roasted pepper is among the hottest pepper I've ever had. I couldn't finish it. I was visibly uncomfortable and my friends questioned my spice tolerance from "just a jalapeño" I let one of the other guys try a bite and they immediately coughed. We all started to speculate if the restaurant substituted the jalapeño for another pepper because no jalapeños ever get that hot (according to us at that time). This video finally explains that evening.

[@Tinil0]

Yeah, the top end Jalapenos get as spicy as Cayennes, which people use a LOT less of when spicing something usually. When making chili I once accidentally misread the chili powder amount as the cayenne amount so it got a quarter cup of cayenne and it was almost inedible since none of us were spice heads lol.

[@zitools]

skirt steak is the best in mexican. it's perfect for fajitas. also i've noticed the jalapenos with the tightest-packed seeds and most numerous seeds are the spiciest. although chile de arbol is spicier. its also better-tasting than habaneros. though i'd put jalapenos better-tasting than both, even though they aren't as spicy. can't beat shredded jalapenos in that queso dip.

[@blairhoughton7918]

I noticed in the graphics they put shishito peppers way on the low end of the scale. And normally they are really close to the low end. But every once in awhile you'll get one that just blows your head off. Like right up into habanero territory. All you can to is learn to test nibble like you're in the wild with Bear Grylls.

[@Avendesora]

The gas station where I used to live sold jalapeño poppers that were miraculously devoid of any spice whatsoever every single time, so I can only assume they could tell by looking. Edit: I feel very bad for the people in the comments who have apparently never had a spicy jalapeno popper. My sincerest condolences.

[@lonestarr1490]

Or they weren't jalapeños at all.

[@taylorsalas6]

They de-seeded and de-pithed the jalapeños, thats why.

[@Avendesora]

@@taylorsalas6 That does make them way less spicy, but I de-seed and de-pith the ones I make at home and they've never been 0% spicy like the gas station ones were.

[@quark_137]

In the wise words of The Internet: Let's go gambling! Aw dangit Aw dangit Aw dangit

[@Homer-OJ-Simpson]

Jalapeño poppers means it was opened up - they were removing the pith and seeds. The flesh is only mildly spicy

[@PhaTs00p]

Just so you know, peppers are hottest close to the stem. So if they're still too hot after removing the pith, remove the top until the heat is tolerable. If you wanna impress your friends, always bite the tip as it's the mildest part of the pepper.

[@MiguelY22]

Yeah i recently had that happen. First bite at the tip of a jalapeno was fine. Then it was very spicy when i got close to the stem

[@TechDogeth]

Just don't say or do that in front of Mexicans haha. The culture is centered around double entendres and saying you are just going for the tip of the chile can have different implications :) edit: or do, if you don't mind some fun and word games, but don't tell us we didn't warn you!

[@michaelhuang2477]

So true . Recently, my shashito peppers became spicy. The tips were great. Near the stems, it was intolerable.

[@crusader-j4126]

I remember picking up some Jalapeños from Walmart a couple weeks back and making poppers out of them. 5 of them were mild or at least had little heat at all! but one of them was like straight LAVA for some odd reason, almost as hot as a Habanero! This video helps alot because now I will be able to pick them out for either an enjoyable meal or super spicy to put in my Chili or soup!

[@StephenByersJ]

I like playing roulette - sometime the dish is spicier or milder depending on the day. Variety of spice is the spice of life.

[@Homer-OJ-Simpson]

2:20 Rick Bayless said for salsas he uses Serrano peppers instead of jalapeño because jalapeños have to much variance on the spiciness making it difficult to make salsa that’s the spice level you want. I’m Mexican American and the issues of how much jalapeños varies is something often discussed when talking food and cooking. Lots of people will use jalapeños when they want the flavor but then Serrano if you just want the spice with a little jalapeño like flavor.

[@Kehy_ThisNameWasAlreadyTaken]

hilariously I hate the flavor of jalapenos, but love the flavor of serranos and have low heat tolerance. I can grow the serranos to be super mild, but also very consistent- more so than I can do with jalapenos. I'm even the sort of person who overwinters their favorite peppers- I've got a 2 year old serrano and a 3 year old cayenne that I'm overwintering indoors

[@TechDogeth]

As a Mexican that grew up both in Mexico and the US, I can tell you he is right. People even have ratios of their favorite salsa's in terms of Tomatillos (green tomatoes) or Tomate/Jitomate (red tomatoes) vs chiles (peppers). They just say chiles as that implies it is a Serrano pepper. You can always adjust the type of Chile depending on what you are chasing, but I would say we mostly used Jalapenos in pickled form which tends to average out the spiciness. Note: different regions of Mexico call green and red tomatoes different things. Above is just what I knew growing up with. Green refers to the type of tomato, not how ripe it is, you always want a ripe tomato for optimal flavor.

[@FreedomAndLiberty2024]

@@TechDogeth Depending on the salsa I'm making, I use jalapenos or serronos or both, and if I want it to be hotter, I adjust the heat with ground scorpion chili. Scorpion is great for adjusting the heat level because it's so hot that you don't need much, so it doesn't change the flavor at all - it just makes it hotter. Not authentic Mexican, but it works.

[@ozarksbuckslayer2484]

@@FreedomAndLiberty2024 Why not just use serranos to adjust the heat, seeing as how they're more than plenty hot enough? As far salsa goes, nothing beats serranos for flavor.

[@juliamarple3785]

That's always been a pet peeve of mine. "Don't these things have any quality control?!" ...i guess not.

[@SamClemens-id3cl]

A mexican restaurant herr serves marinated jalepenos as garnish. And one day, it was the absolutely hattest jalapeno I have ever had. I thought it came from a plant that had accidently become hybridized with a hotter pepper. It was so hot that the residual capsacin (sp?) on the fork wa enough to cause the mouth onbfire sensation.

[@factorfitness3713]

You ate a radioactive jalapeno and now you have the powers of a jalapeno.

[@rickofpolynesia8070]

I had something similar happen with a banana pepper. I got some strange mutated banana pepper; it was comparable to a ghost pepper. It was so hot it made me throw up. Thank goodness I was drinking at the time: it helped with the pain. I can’t imagine what the full experience would have been like

[@ozarksbuckslayer2484]

I'd say that's exactly what happened, it got cross pollinated. The hottest jalapenos that I ever seen in my life were giant jalapenos that came out of a guy's garden where he also had ghost peppers growing close by. Those diabolical things set my whole body on fire for 3 days. My hands hurt so bad from seeding them that it was unbearable for hours on end. Each one of my fingers on both hands felt like they got mashed with a sledge hammer. It hurts just to think about it. It was miserable. The worst part about that deal was the guy knew how hot they were before he offered to give them to me to feed to a crowd of people and he lied about them being hot before taking him up on his offer. He thought that was hilarious and that's why the doofy bastard was growing ghost peppers to start with. I still don't see any humor in it and that happened over 10 years ago.

[@MineMousse_Good]

Something I'll add on is that we have jalapeños growing in our backyard and they are (relatively speaking) much smaller than the traditional ones you get at the store, and we also usually let them ripen till they're red, and they are much, much spicier than any we've gotten from the store. I believe size could be the biggest factor (if you eat the same amount/mass from every pepper) as it concentrates the capsaicin down to just a little area, but I don't believe it necessarily gives it more capsaicin. Love the video!

[@lonestarr1490]

I'd assume that the soil also plays a role. I'm no chemist, but I'd assume that if the plant encounters the building blocks of capsaicin in abundance, it might be tempted to indulge in the debauchery of producing copious amounts of it.

[@violetviolet888]

Peppers gain spiciness as they ripen. If you grow them and you taste them along the way, then you can learn how it works.

[@morrismonet3554]

Supermarkets in the U.S. sell a giant hybrid variety that is not nearly as spicy as a true jalapeno because the average American is not heat tolerant.

[@missdenisebee]

Ok this might explain why the house-made guac I buy at Whole Foods is sometimes SO spicy, and other times, completely fine. I’m a big baby who can’t handle any heat, so buying “mild” guac & still finding it inedibly spicy always made me question whether it was mislabeled or something. I do like using rigorously deseeded/depithed jalapeños for my own homemade guac, too, because I think they add a good flavor, so this will definitely help me choose milder peppers in the future!

[@jonhilderbrand4615]

Being from New Mexico (transplanted to Georgia), we love Hatch chile peppers. Years ago, some friends went out there on vacation and brought back 30 lbs. of beautiful green Hatch peppers! Like jalapeños, Hatch's can be mild to extremely hot; unfortunately, the giant bag had not been sorted, so while frying up some rellenos, we had no way to know what we were going to get! Luckily, we all loved hot foods, so it worked out okay.

[@JoshVennix]

Excellent presentation. Very well put together

[@sharendonnelly7770]

Pepper roulette just became more stressful.

[@jpbutler1983]

I've found that tapping them is best. The ones that sound more hollow have a smaller pith, while the ones that sound more dense have a larger pith. I make several batches of salsa every year and this helps me choose whether the salsa is more palatable or more adventurous.

[@PattiWinker]

Wow! I needed this. I have a bag full of jalapeños from my farm CSA and have been avoiding using them. I will definitely taste each one first, and not rely on how they look. 👍 Great information!

[@aloadofbread]

Excellent diagrams & charts (and great teaspoon technique!)

[@pmcatnip]

Good video, thank you! We grew a single shishito pepper plant this year which led to me googling and finding your video. While the shishitos were delicious, we discovered shishito roulette is totally a thing! From this one plant we got expected very mild peppers AND unexpected jalapeno-plus levels of heat!

[@kristallfagel]

I'd say 80% of the spice variation in specific variety of peppers is from genetic differences, the other 10% being growing conditions and 10% ripeness. Most likely the stores source jalapenos from multiple different farms all with slightly different genotypes or varieties of a jalapeno some being hotter than others, and some of the stores just throw the all of them in the same area. The idea that a riper or corked pepper is spicer is generally true if you're talking about peppers from the same plant or with identical genetics, corked peppers being in the right climate for capsaicin production and ripe peppers have more time to produce capsaicin, paler green jalapenos also fall into the ripeness category since those are usually just underride jalapenos picked too early, therefore not a lot of time for capsaicin production. My source is I have grown about a 500 pepper plants and ate 10k+ peppers, also working on a bachelor's in botany.

[@blairhoughton7918]

One of my favorite botany facts is that there are really only five commercial species of pepper and almost all of the peppers in supermarkets are breeds of just one of them.

[@theunknownunknowns256]

This is such a good channel. Thanks, Kate😊. The variation is a good thing. Variety is the spice of life.

[@Underpantsniper]

I have a big serrano pepper plant growing in my back yard, the peppers vary wildly in how spicy they are all from the same plant.

[@ozarksbuckslayer2484]

I've made poppers out of those and played the roulette game with them. The flavor is unmatched but you'll be hurting for certain.

[@cs7717]

I've grown Thai Chili Padi (they put jalapenos to shame and are almost like habaneros in spice) and learned early on that those chilies that grew pointing up were the spicy ones and those that pointed down, were not nearly as spicy. Same plant, same branch and even the same cluster. Some grew pointing up and others grew pointing down. I would be very interested to know if you get the same effect on your pepper plant.

[@whitsixkiller]

My method for finding the heat level in a jalapeños has been pretty accurate for several years. Cut the top off and touch my tongue to the pit or core of the pepper it's honestly the only real way to tell. I keep a slice of lime handy incase I run into a psycho hot one. Pop the lime slice in my mouth swish the juice around helps knock the burn down.

[@Nuup3831]

This was a very spicy year for my Jalapenos.

[@gregl4244]

I think the experiment was pretty informative. Other than a few outliers the color, shade and corking were good indicators. With the additional information of the orange line in the pith, I think it would be possible to pick out a generally mild or spicy batch.

[@carlgomm9699]

Here in Florida I grow my own jalapenos, they're consistently hotter than store peppers, I've had the same plants for several years, such a nice video ❤

[@YuanLiuTheDoc]

"Game of roulette" lol. I love that you always put your skin in the game. (Face? Or skinless tongue?) The most popular breed of chili pepper in my hometown is not found here, but also has high variance of heat (though not as bad as jalapeno). I used to play mental lottery with myself. My favorite dish is a simple pan roast that I cannot reproduce with breeds I can find in the market here. The whole body is used, no pitting. And after roast, external indicators are unrecognizable. As everyone knows, it is very unsatisfying to have a bland chili pepper; conversely, overachiever peppers cannot be said to be comfortable. So, every time I got a bland one, I wished hard for a tastier one, when I got burned, I wished for a milder one. Of course the game never ended. On the bright side, I ate lots of vegetable.

[@missnaomi613]

This was all very interesting. Unfortunately, even the mildest Jalapeno I've met is too much, so I'll continue to appreciate them from a distance.

[@FluffyEclairs]

Yeah 😭😭😭

[@lilplague4857]

don't worry, just keep eating spicy stuff. I went from barely able to tolerate spice to happily eating spicy buldak ramen noodles (which Denmark has banned for their spiciness, for reference) I would recommend buying cayenne pepper and try to incorporate them in your diet, and increase the amount once you barely notice the spice.

[@FluffyEclairs]

@@lilplague4857 I'm good 😅😅😅 I really dislike spicy things. I'd rather taste the actual flavor.

[@37wheels]

Capsaicin content content is my favorite content

[@logicalparadox2897]

It's the hottest content out there

[@plasmacotton]

this is my new favourite science channel

[@mikeh2520]

I remember getting a jalapeno from a supermarket in Connecticut and dicing it up for making chilli. Then, 20 minutes later, my fingers felt like I had held them over a hot flame for a long time. I couldn't have imagined that would happen.

[@fillmainlol5973]

Pepper X!! Im so glad yall are educated. You wouldnt believe the amount of channels that still think a Carolina Reaper is the hottest pepper

[@u8myshorts]

This is the best video I've watched in the last 10 years.

[@JoJo-JoJo-JoJo]

This is why I don't use jalapeños for Chiles Toreados. I use yellow chiles, my Mom called them güerito chiles that are very constant with the heat levels. Great video, thank you!

[@pqrs_987]

6:54 all this time i've been struggling with a paring knife to remove the ribs and seeds from chili peppers, i could've just used a spoon??? hmm i gotta try that next time

[@daniel.bernard]

Spoons are absolutely the best tool, just beware of any spraying that can occur. If you have a sharper edged spoon over a blunted one. I also recommend scooping with the pepper half overturned so any spray goes on your cutting board rather than directly into your eyes. Happy peppering

[@carlday30]

In my own life I have observed the phenomenon that jalapeños just aren't as spicy as I remember them. Some seem as mild as green bell peppers. At first I thought that my tastebuds were acclimating. But then I learned that Texas A&M developed a larger, milder jalapeño (dubbed the 'TAM Mild Jalapeño') in the early 2000s that has escaped to the larger jalapeño gene pool, thus decreasing the spiciness overall. It's gotten so that Texas chefs have switched to serrano chiles for their Tex-Mex cooking (DeWitt, D. (2020), Chile Peppers: A Global History, Albuquerque: Un9iversity of New Mexico Press, p. 109).

[@ozarksbuckslayer2484]

I ordered and grew TAM jalapenos 3 different times and they were hot af every time. Jalapeno M is way milder and has way better flavor.

[@dungeondark]

The corking is from rapid growth rate and the dark green is from abundant nitrogen. Both are a result of fresh fertilizer being applied to the fields. The freshly fertilized plants make much hotter chilis. When the plants start making duds, it is time to fertilize again and burn some butts. If you want the most badass peppers, just sprinkle a little 13-13-13 fertilizer around the plant. Also rabbit manure will heat them up.

[@choccolocco]

I was told corking and dark to purple color, works. I grew 13 plants, first and second picking, no heat. Third, almost too hot, fourth not much. Yet to pick five.

[@user-gi6hl1jc1q]

While not always a clear method to tell if a jalapeño is mild or not, I have consistently been able to select hot jalapeños at the store by smelling them near the stem. Those that smell hotter, are hotter. This trick works for all types of peppers.

[@connorb7234]

Something I've always been way more curious about is why different peppers burn differently. Some peppers hit fast and hot and some have a burn that seems to rise slowly and then fade out. That's the reason why I love habaneros so much. I like the flavor better too, but they tend to have that heat that builds up slow and then fades the same way. Why is that, if it's all the same chemical?

[@joelspaulding5964]

As a pepperhead, enjoyed this. Nice explanation. Actually, just nice!

[@jkangaroo]

This explains a lot... I consider myself reasonably spice tolerant, and one day, I ordered Jalapeños on my dish. I thought they added some other pepper as a "I'll show you spicy" type of spite, but now I see there is a lot of variability. Days later, I had what was supposed to be a spicier pepper without any issues.

[@samgrandy2774]

Using a spoon to remove all the pith at once blew my mind. How have I not done that before

[@johnnyfog8134]

As capscaiscine is an inscticide, its quantity depends a lot of how much the plant is exposed to pathogenes and insects. Quitte surprised the video didn't mention that, since that was the title!

[@endrankluvsda4loko172]

I've been wondering about this for a while. One of my favorite snacks is to get chips with ranch dip. After eating one with a bit of avocado, I take a little nibble of a jalapeno for a little heat and flavor. Some Jalapenos have absolutely no heat. It's like drinking pepper-flavored water. But some are so hot I almost have to spit it out.

[@DeconvertedMan]

The poor plant made the thing to try to get things not to eat it and humans are like - wow that's great lets make it worse and more hot! :D

[@lonestarr1490]

That's life. One man's trash is another man's treasure, and one plant's poison is another man's way of poisoning himself deliberately.

[@kirnupiimaa]

Plant made a thing to help it reproduce and got a bunch of apes to cultivate it on an industrial scale. All is well that ends well.

[@matthewdebeer8453]

@@DeconvertedMan From the plant’s point of view this is an amazing result, though! If survival of the species is the goal (which it always is for evolution), then becoming desirable/useful to humans is like winning the lottery

[@walterw2]

if i have this right, the plant totally "wants" _birds_ to eat it because they swallow and eventually pass the seeds without harming them (thus spreading the seeds around), while mammals chew up and kill the seeds birds don't even sense capsaicin but mammals do

[@davek7753]

It’s actually evolved to fend off mold

[@kennethsanford9685]

If you want your jalapenos to be more mild you can soak them a few times in warm salted water after cutting and removing the seeds and pith.

[@LostMekka]

i dont know about jalapenos, but i am growing carolina reaper for 4 years now. they dont vary as much as jalapenos, but they still have a bit of variation. and because i have about 20 plants per year and a harvest of 1000 to 2000 peppers a year, i have a lot of data points. for the reaper, the big, dark red ones are usually the hottest, but they are already pretty when they are green. sometimes when a storm hits, fruits that have not ripened yet fall off and give me the chance to taste their heat level. i havent actually written down anything about it, but from my experience i came up with the theory that the spiciness mostly just grows with time. smaller fruits ripen earlier and are less spicy most of the time. also, when i make powder from my harvest, i separate the pith and grind it separately to not loose the awesome red color. and interestingly, the pith powder is usually a bit less spicy than the red outer shell powder. though it could be because i dont remove all seeds from the pith. this year i have started to collect and save more data though. mostly yield per plant, but i will also track ancestry lines throughout the years. maybe this way i can get a better view for what is genetic, what is environmental, an what is just random. it is a fascinating data source to build and analyze, and maybe i can get a few insights on the way that can make my lil peppers even more potent :)

[@themushroominside6540]

My mom and i have bought some jarred Vietnamese sat (Chili oil paste) and one batch was super spicy which me an my mother loved as we are spice lovers, so we bought more of that particular brand. After we had finished the spicy jar we opened a new one and were majorly disappointed on the spiciness, with the previous jar my mother couldn't even handle more than half a teaspoon but with this particular batch it was so mild, we had to use multiple tablespoons and it still wasn't spicy enough, i told my mom that it must be the difference in batches and that the peppers used in the first one was spicier somehow and the new one was of a batch that was subpar in spice, the next jar we opened up was spicier but was a little less spicy than the first but my mom and i were satisfied enough and assumed that the peppers in the previous batch were simply not spicy enough. It goes to show how important consistency in ingredients also greatly effects the product, my mom and i were disappointed in the change in flavor siracha went through as they changed their pepper supplier due to lawsuits, funnily enough they also use jalapenos but ripe or rather non smoked (fresh) chipotles, we find siracha to be moreso a garlic sauce now.

[@mikerupp2312]

ok you got me.... Now you are going thru the history of peppers and what Scoville Units are

[@nonameronin1]

I've had this experience of "some are spicy, some are not" with serranos and habaneros too. As much as I love the heat, the occasional mild habanero is nice has it packs a bunch of fruity flavor into a dish without adding a lot of sweetness.

[@infoscholar5221]

I grew up on an Alabama farm, and both my Great Depression era parents liked peppers, so we grew a variety (among many other things) on our eighty acres. One thing I can tell you, regarding peppers, Jalapenos and Habaneros, anyway; the older peppers, the ones higher on the plant, have had longer to mature, absorb nutrients, and have grown hotter, the darker skinned, unripe, will always be spicier; sometimes A LOT more. This is true whether they are green, orange, or red; red peppers are just mature, not necessarily hotter.

[@Bxu021]

The “Welcome! To! Minute food!” Felt like “1, 2, 1, 2, Switch!” 😂

[@twothirdsanexplosive]

Nice work! Tho for me at the point of cutting it, I'm just gonna cut off a slice and do an actual taste test. I love hot peppers -- I did this with a ghost pepper -- so maybe not the test for everyone.

[@michaelg.294]

I once worked with a Guatemalan dishwasher who asked me (in broken English) if he could have a jalapeno from the walk-in to eat with his meal. After giving him permission, he chose a large, dark green one from the case and began smacking it on the shelving. He noticed my confusion and stopped to explain "Is to make it angry!". So, I guess that's how they ensure a hot jalapeno in Guatemala.

[@knurlgnar24]

A corked red jalapeno which came from a healthy plant which experienced some stressful drought type conditions is the spiciest. Some of the jalapenos I've grown are far spicier than store bought Habaneros. That's not scientific but has been my experience. I've burned my mouth, gut, and butt on a single slice of one of these peppers in the past. I like heat but holy heck that's too much for me! It's crazy how different peppers are from the same species when not grown in a controlled commercial/industrial environment can be.

[@kingjames4886]

some varieties of jalapenos are more consistent... part of the issue is that there are about a bazillion hybrids called "japaleno" at this point.

[@robwyyi]

The pith is the key. With out cutting into pepper the tell of pith condition is the stem. You’re looking for stem that is wilting indicating pith has started to decay. The decay will lower the level. Now cutting into them finding the condition of pith is the best tell. Darker the pith less spice. Brighter pith still climbing spiciness. Great trick to lower the spice level is to cut a sliver into pepper exposing the interior to air and decay of pith increased. Yeah it’s not the seeds it’s the pith.

[@softcrunchytaco]

I like the hotter jalapeños for making salads. When picking them at the store over the years, I went from just buying 3 times the amount of peppers than I actually needed, to narrowing it down to corking. Almost all of the corked Jalapeños I buy now have the yellow/red pith and those are HOT. There is still quite a variation of spice levels so if I need a consistent heat for a recipe, I use habaneros or Serranos.

[@NighteeeeeY]

pro tip is: just buy thai chilis and use non spicy peppers for coloring or consistency-ing your food. :) always works for me.

[@marthapozo4881]

In my experience, seeds have been the catalyst of feeling spiced up when some get left behind. It even happened with a mini bell pepper, which must have been a freak accident of course. Seeds are spicy. it's why we get rid of them, along with the pith, which is also spicy.

[@blairhoughton7918]

Seeds usually come with a little shred of pith attached, and they stick between your teeth and gums.

[@Shaquex]

In Mexico the pith removal is called "desvenar el chile" (devein the chili, as in removing the veins) and some recipes tell you to do that to get a milder, less spicy sauce or dish where you still want to add the chilis flavour but not a whole lot of spiciness :)

[@blairhoughton7918]

Do you know of any recipes that call for adding the pith back selectively to tune the spice?

[@wirelesmike73]

I love a good grilled Jalapeno. The first few that I had (when I was younger) weren't really hot at all, which made me think that it had to do with the grilling that made than milder somehow. years later, I lucked out and found a Mexican food truck that served traditional Mexican food, instead of "Tex-Mex" or Americanized versions. A side with some of the meals was a big grilled jalapeno, and I was so happy to see it that I snatched it up and took a big bite... I was shocked to learn that it would be literally the hottest Jalapeno I had ever eaten. I was unprepared, to say the least. I thought it was a fluke, but I learned after several more visits to that food truck that every pepper they put on one of their plates were just as hot as that first one. A surprise, but, a pleasant surprise. I love spicy food, and that truck served some of the spiciest food I've ever had, anywhere, and I didn't even have to order it hot, it just came that way. It's rare that I find myself sweating, profusely, before I'm even halfway through a meal. But, I learned something that I never knew before. Adding fresh Lime, actually, not only made everything taste better, it also helped cut down on the burn. I had never used lime on anything before, but, it came on the plate with the sauces, and I was bound and determined to try it the way it was suggested. FYI, Traditional (or, traditionally inspired) Mexican food is way, way better than Americanized Mexican food, with more of an emphasis on fresh vegetables, whether raw, cooked, or pickled. I've always loved Mexican food, but, this was the best I've ever had, before or since. I've never been to a restaurant that could even come close, no matter how pricey. So, sooooo good.

[@txrick4879]

Here in south Texas i have seen hispanic people pick them up and. Inspect each one . I learned why and also if you open them up and the vaines are orange or yellow expect the heat . Seranos too they can be mild or wild .

[@OptimusOne]

My Mexican friend told me that the jalapenos with the round tip tends to be less spicy than the pointy one. Idk if it's just psychological but so far she gets it right all the time.

[@ardenthebibliophile]

Could you have your professor share a git repo with the data and his analysis? Would be a fun project to play with!

[@1kreature]

Have a look at Lemondrop a mostly overlooked chili with great attributes for food.

[@outpostcheerfuloyster]

Every time I order phở, the sidecar plate contains big, smooth, brilliant dark green jalapeños. Most of the time, they're mild as salad but full of flavor. And only occasionally a shocker. Same visual description.

[@watchmanknowledge4345]

What if you incorporate smell into the visual experiment?

[@Dkm337]

Ice cream in a myth for spice reduction, instead suck a lemon slice. works much better. in dishes as well as on tongue.

[@Homer-OJ-Simpson]

1:31 I just realized that in English, most people pronounce the H in habanero. I’m Mexican American so I pronounce it like it’s in Spanish but with more American pronunciation when saying it English. I don’t pronounce the H. No idea why i haven’t noticed many do pronounce the H

[@hopsiepike]

And, they say habañero, with an en-yay.

[@therealelement75]

I say ah bah nero, no ñ, no h

[@geekogen]

Qhen dad and I grew jalapenos, the amount of water given while growing can concentrate the heat.

[@silpheedTandy]

4:47 i love seeing these people in the throes of their sweaty, capsaicin-drenched suffering

[@pigjubby1]

I've been successful by choosing the pepper with white streaks.

[@FreedomAndLiberty2024]

I LOVE spicy jalapenos, so I asked my sister-in-law (who grew up in her family's Mexican restaurant) the same question and she said the same thing. "No way to know". I wonder if she knows about the yellow pith - I sure didn't.

[@VaughanMcAlley]

I still remember having my usual Thai curry at lunch with friends. I saw a pepper that looked the same as all the others, chomped on it, and it put me out of action for fifteen minutes.

[@Isaac7913392]

As a Mexican i can say from my empiric experience that it’s graphic was pretty accurate as how i choose my chiles by how much i think it is PICOSO

[@nidodson]

It seems the most undeniable external trait is that lighter ones are not as hot, and you wont see them in the top half of the samples, though they can still make it about half way up that range.

[@jinushaun]

I grow jalapeños in my garden. It’s so inconsistent. Sometimes it’s mild like green bell peppers. Sometimes it’s extremely spicy to the point that it ruins my meal.

[@joeymasterson4395]

At 5:15 yes, developed peppers that are ripening will be hotter than premature peppers. lol.

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

Never noticed much difference in jalapeños, but they are almost never on sale fresh here in Norway and I guess the pickled ones are more homogenised by the pickling juice. (And I probably won't notice much difference between them since I accustomed to eating Cayenne and Habanero which are the varieties that are most available here). But whenever I use Habanero I always taste test them... no that's not true... I at least always _try to remember_ to taste them before using it, especially if I'm cooking for others. It's the only way to be sure. Best way to test it is to take tiny slice of the very tip (which is always the mildest end) and taste it, if it tastes really mild I will cut near the stem and take a small sliver of the top including some pith. As long as I use gloves and carefully avoid touching the side of my mouth when I place it on my tongue, the heat is generally always bearable to me. If it's hotter than usual, and I'm cooking for others, I will just use half the habanero in the dish and slice the rest without too much pith and put in a separate bowl just for me to add to my own plate. If the tip also tastes spicy I will just use half without testing the top. Even though I like very hot food; I actually prefer the mild to medium habaneros because then I can use more of them and get more of the fruity aroma. I've never noticed any visible clue that reliably tells whether a particular habanero (or cayenne for that matter) is particularly hot or not. With cayenne it's a much quicker test, since cayenne (unlike habanero for some reason) seems to irritate the airways a lot when they are particularly hot; I can generally tell if it's a very hot one as soon as I cut the top off and slice it lengthwise, just by how much I'm coughing. ( I always remove the seeds even if I don't remove the pith of Cayenne, because they have pretty hard seeds. Habanero seeds are much softer so they don't bother me much).

[@Davethreshold]

LOL! Re: Bonus Tasters. The Kid on the upper left was like, "No big deal. It's like I ate a potato chip." At work, Big Rich Sanborn brought in some hotter-than-hell chili. We all had sweaty foreheads and TEARS running down our faces!

[@arthena2130]

I keep winning the game even though I want to lose. I love spicy food and jalapeño is one of the best for oily foods, but I keep getting the ones with low capsaicin.

[@HardCandy-d9q]

I had bough pimiento “the Russian roulette pepper” that are used fried for tapas and supposedly one in 20 is hot and the rest mild, I grew them and they were the hottest chilli I grew I couldn’t figure it out Ty for this video…

[@jd9119]

I mostly just use chilies like jalapeno and Fresno for flavoring. Even their high-end of heat isn't exactly very hot. If you want heat from peppers at your regular grocery store, you're going to look more at serrano and habanero varieties (again I'm referring to your average grocery store). If you're making salsas, one thing you should be aware of is how the blending of peppers with whatever else you're using (mangos, tomatoes, tomatillos, etc) is going to affect the color of the finished salsa. People eat with their eyes too.

[@Wallwall172]

6:42 This is such a good hack.

[@elektro3000]

If I want a mild pepper, I go for poblanos (and they're SO good seared, they have the smokiest flavor of any pepper I've tried) and if I want a hot pepper, I go straight to habaneros. I just don't like rolling the dice when I'm cooking. Although the diced, canned jalapenos are pretty consistent, probably because so many get mixed. I use a can of those when I'm frying ground beef for tacos.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

Try shishito peppers. Also excellent seared.

[@elektro3000]

@nonyadamnbusiness9887 Sounds good! I don't think I've ever seen them in Kroger but I'll look around other markets (maybe Busch's?)

[@jerrybessetteDIY]

In the peppers I grow, it seems the hotter and dryer the weather, the hotter and stronger the flavor of the pepper.

[@Kevin-qo6qt]

Exactly ...drier near end of season makes rm hot!!

[@joman104]

The pit and by smell are the best ways to tell how hot peppers are. The bottom of a pepper is almost less spicy than the pepper as well. If you ever cut into a pepper and the flesh feels oily, watch out!!!

[@texasslingleadsomtingwong8751]

I love peppers , eat them nearly everyday. But i really wish i could find consistency in them . I like the heat not the not hot ones .

[@thewalkingcrow8946]

Not sure you thought of this, but different parts of the jalapeno fruit have different heat levels. The tips are going to be the mildest parts of the pepper.

[@paulwormwood6414]

Very awesome. I've had this question before. I can tell you stressing marijuana plants results in potency. Thanks again.