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Thelma Biggens from Oklahoma wrote asking for more information on Mexican Chile Peppers. We found a lot of interesting news. Here it is: May 2001 Hot News at the Supermarkets: The Mexican Chile Pepper By Dixie Davis Mexican chile peppers are the hottest news in the international health food market today. Fresh, hot peppers that could be found only in ethnic markets and specialty stores in the southwest of the US until recently are brightening the produce department of supermarkets all over the world. The purple, black, red, yellow, green and hot orange plants in strange and intriguing shapes dazzle shoppers in the produce sections of most big cities today. The chile pepper's new popularity is not only based on Mexican food being in second place (after Italian) as the favorite US ethnic food, but also because chile growers have found a way to regulate the strength of the peppers, thus making their product more palatable to consumers. Besides that, the demand for chile peppers is on the increase as more people discover it as a flavorful low-cal, low-sodium substitute for the rich sauces they are trying to give up. Technically, chile peppers are a fruit. Once dried, they are considered a spice. Capsaicin, the main chemical ingredient in chile peppers, is an invisible, odorless substance, which resides in the fleshy membrane inside each chile pod. It has long been available in the US in such products as canned jalapeños, hot sauce and chile spices. But fresh chile peppers, used as a spice, condiment or vegetable have become popular not only because their flavor is so much more sensational, but also because their sodium content is so much lower than canned products. They're a great diet food since you can hardly get so much taste and nutrients anywhere else for only 24 calories a cup. Chile peppers have been known as an excellent source of vitamin C since 1937 when the Hungarian scientist Albert Szent Gyorgi won a Nobel Prize for his experiments with these plants. Fresh chiles contain more vitamin C than oranges: 94 mg. per 74 grams in comparison to only 37 mg. found in the same amount of oranges. Once dried, the peppers lose most of their vitamin C content, however their vitamin A content increases 100 times. More good news about fresh chile peppers has been pouring in from the scientific community in the last few years. They're not only a great source of vitamin A, but also contain a little magnesium, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin. The hotter and redder the chile, the more vitamins and minerals it will have. Beneficial health effects such as lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, protecting against blood clots, etc. have all been attributed to the chile in its new wave of popularity. Chile peppers have recently become the object of several scientific research projects around the world. There is evidence that the healing properties of the chile pepper include its ability to lower body temperature, sooth sore throats and aid in digestion and respiration. Research in Sweden has proven that the peppers ease pain if held on a wound because it blocks messages to the nerve center. Capsaicin both stimulates and blocks pain receptors. After repeated doses, nerve endings become desensitized to the pain. A capsaicin cream has been produced that relieves the itching of psoriasis and the pain of shingles. Some cancer patients are eating taffy with chile peppers inside to reduce the pain of mouth sores caused by chemotherapy. There is also evidence that capsaicin improves digestion and stimulates the appetite because it increases the production of saliva and gastric juices. In an attempt to explain the low incidence of life-threatening blood clots among his compatriots, Thai researcher Sukon Visudhiphan, fed noodles with and without freshly ground chile peppers to US and Thai volunteers. By checking the fibrinolytic (clot-dissolving) activity in blood samples before and after meals, he proved that chile-eaters experience a rise in clot-dissolving activity, supporting his theory that since Thais eat chile at almost every meal, their blood is continually being cleaned of clots. In a recent study in England, volunteers under cure for duodenal ulcers who ate red chile peppers with every meal were cured in the same percentage (80%) as a control group who ate no chile. Most doctors now believe that except for people who are allergic or highly sensitive to spicy foods, chile peppers don't harm the digestive system and may actually improve it. Psychologists have gotten into the act of investigating capsaicin recently. Since eating chile peppers causes pain, watery eyes and runny noses, the experts have caught on to the fact that, although the peppers are healthy, people don't eat them for their health. Psychologist Paul Rozin of the University of Pennsylvania believes the physiological pain response to capsaicin stimulates the production of euphoria-producing chemicals that give mind and body a lift. Like riding a roller coaster, eating hot peppers signals the body to a danger that doesn't really exist. The resulting sensation of apprehension and the body's reaction to it are a completely harmless "high" according to Rozin. This wonderful feeling, according to the chile aficionados, is the result of endorphins, natural painkillers released by the body to put out the presumed fire. These are also released after heavy physical exertion, like a long run. Endorphins provide a pleasant, floaty feeling, which may be why people get hooked on eating spicy food and feel so elated by it. Countries throughout the world have become increasingly aware of the medical and scientific possibilities of capsaicin. Many non-food uses are being developed. Resins from chile plants are now being used as the red coloring for lipsticks, rouges, cornflakes and rum. Extract from the peppers is used internationally to add taste to all types of tobacco. Capsaicin is a potent skin irritant, which is used to make dog and mugger repellent. The ingredients of chile peppers has also been the subject of modern chemical warfare research which has developed a penetrating chemical substance based on capsaicin which causes people to gag and choke. The ancient Aztecs also had many uses for the chile plants. They have been an integral part of Mexican culture for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence of wild chile plants dating back to 7000 BC has been found in the state of Puebla. Aztec codices preserved during the conquest show that chile plants, as well as beans, were collected from the conquered tribes as tax payments during the expansion of the Aztec empire. Some pre-conquest tribes worshiped the plant and gave offerings to the god of chile peppers in order to obtain good harvests. This ritual is still practiced by the farmers of the Otomí group in the village of San Pablito, Puebla, where a ceremony for the chile plant is held every three years. Some pre-Hispanic groups wove the chile plants into chains to be used as collars to adorn the images of gods and goddesses. In the village of Olinala, Guerrero, cempazuchitl flowers and costeños chiles are still used to adorn San Francisco during the yearly first harvest festivities. In other parts of Mexico, chile plants still have their special celebration days. On harvest days everyone involved in the production of the plants celebrates Mexican style and gives all their friends and acquaintances little bags of chile. Many pre-Hispanic villages were named for the chile they grew. The Aztecs believed chile peppers had magical qualities and placed them in doorways to ward off evil spirits, accidents or disgrace. They were eaten as a defense against the entrance of evil spirits in the body and used to punish wrongdoers who were forced to breathe the irritating smoke from a fire made of chile plants. The medicinal qualities of the chile plant as a cure for diarrhea, coughs, ear infections, sores on the tongue and digestive problems were known to the ancient tribes and are still employed among the indigenous populations of Mexico. The chile plant, known scientifically as Capsicum and a member of the nightshade family, was native only to the Americas. Spanish sailors took barrels of chile encurtido, pickled chiles, aboard their ships in order to prevent scurvy during their long journeys. Christopher Colombus misnamed the plant as the chile pepper and Cortéz was so impressed by the plant that he took the first seeds to Europe. The initial reaction there was that the plant was some exotic aphrodisiac. It was used only as a decorative shrub for some time. The eating of chile peppers didn't become popular in Europe until the Turks introduced the plant to Hungary in the Sixteenth Century and the distinctive Hungarian paprika evolved. Later the Portuguese traders introduced the chile peppers to Africa and India where they became an integral part of the local cuisine. The staple diet of Indonesia is also based on the chile plant. Chile peppers are today as much a part of Mexican life as ever. Mexican cuisine would be a meaningless muddle of bland beans and dry corn patties without them. They appear at every meal and are eaten in incredible amounts. According to one estimate, the average yearly per capita consumption is six kilos of fresh chiles, half a kilo of dry chiles and a kilo and a half of canned chiles. If accurate, this estimate means the Mexicans eat more chiles than onions or tomatoes. Mexicans eat chiles in cold climates to keep warm; they eat just as many in warm climates to keep cool, claiming they stimulate sweat, especially from the face and scalp, which cools as it evaporates thus giving a cooling-off effect. Food that is spicy-hot is called picante or picoso in Spanish; caliente refers only to the temperature of the food. It's best to start nibbling on the end away from the stem of a chile pepper. The fire will be concentrated in the interior veins near the seed heart, but not in the seeds themselves as is commonly believed. Sometimes the burn from chiles can be quite severe. A person who has had an overdose of chile is called enchilado and the most common cure is eating bread, tortillas or dairy products. Drinking water or other liquids is not recommended since the pain returns as soon as you stop drinking. Eating chiles has great social significance in Mexico and the line from the popular Veracruz song "Soy como el chile verde" is Mexico's reply to "as American as apple pie." Chile peppers are not only used in almost every dish, they are also the main ingredient of all ribald Mexican jokes. Chile-related innuendos are an essential part of popular Mexican language. The mention of a chile pepper by a foreigner will always get a laugh even from the most somber Mexican matrons who keep a constant patter of chile-related jokes going on in the kitchen out of earshot of their men folk. Foreigners are watched carefully at the dining table to see how they eat their chile peppers—almost as if it were a measure of their personal worth. Refusal to eat chiles in some situations could be an insult. The same Mexican machos who will goad each other into drinking every last drop of Tequila in sight will also challenge each other to overeating chiles. As humorous as the chile pepper proves to be, Mexican cooks are dead serious about finding just the right one for any particular dish. There are around 100 varieties of chiles in the world. Thirty are common in Mexico. All of them have different names according to whether they're fresh, ground, canned or pickled. Besides that, every region of Mexico has variations of these different names. Some fresh chiles are also given different names as they change color from green to yellow to red during the maturing process. Chiles are grown all over the country and the difference in rainfall, temperature and soil are all deciding factors as to the size, taste and burn-potential of the plant. They range from the meek and mild to the tangy and truly dangerous. Often the smaller varieties, like the piquin are the ones that really pack a wallop. Chiles that grow on small trees, like chile de arbol, are known to be the most vicious. In general, green chiles tend to be hotter than red ones. Several scales have been developed to measure the hotness, or capsaicin content of chiles. The scale most often used—the Scoville Organoleptic test—was developed in 1902 by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville. It assigns a number between 0 and 300,000 heat units. Scoville mixed ground chiles with sugar, alcohol and water, then gave them to a panel of testers to evaluate. The number they assigned was based on how much they had to dilute the chile before they could taste no heat. There are now other scales—a computer analysis that ranges from 0 to 15,000,000 (pure capsaicin), and a simplified scale of 0 (no heat) to 10 (hottest) that was devised by Paul W. Bosland. Bell peppers, for example, measure 0 on both Scoville and Bosland scales, while the fiery hot jalapeños measures 200,000 to 300,000 Scoville units, or 10 on the newer heat scale. Mexicans from different regions who are swapping recipes can spend hours trying to identify just which pepper the other person is talking about. Chile-pepper nomenclature presents some of the most challenging problems Mexican botanists have to face. Chile peppers range in size from the tiny, but ridiculously hot red pequin to the nine-inch chile poblano or Anaheim chile used for chile relleno. It is also used in strips added to soups and sauces. The chile poblano is called chile ancho when dried and is often served whole along with certain Mexican dishes. The pungent serrano or chile verde (about one inch long and thinner than the jalapeños) is the most common chile pepper used in sauces, guacamole and ceviche. Dried jalapeños are called chipotle, which is sold in powder or paste in every corner grocery store because of its popularity in making stew-type dishes and sauces. Typical Mexican sauces and the amount and type of chile used in them vary considerably from region to region and even from family to family. They are chopped up for salsa, stuffed, (as in the tasty and popular chile relleno), baked with fish or meats and tossed into the breakfast eggs as in huevos a la mexicana or huevos rancheros. Discussing these variations in detail is what women from different regions or families generally do a lot of when they get together socially. According to the best cooks, the main secret of cooking with chiles is never to limit yourself to using one type only, but to combine two, three or more, creating a unique flavor that results from the intermingling of the group. They say that each and every chile has another that complements and augments its taste. An irreplaceable kitchen tool for grinding up the chiles and other ingredients is the metate (a rectangular flat stone) or molcajete (a bowl made of stone and used for grinding). These are available in different sizes and styles and give the finished salsas different textures. When working with chile peppers in the kitchen, it's important to recognize that you are literally playing with fire. While some are sweet, mild and richly flavored, others are of the five-alarm variety. A lot depends on the growing conditions and subsequent handling of the plants. Chiles that are mashed or not handled gently during transportation to the market get hotter and hotter. The pressure exerted on the outside of the chile causes the liquids in the veins to disperse throughout the pepper. Besides that, the capsaicin is very persistent: neither freezing nor cooking diminishes its intensity. If you enjoy a particular chile or want to use it in a recipe, but suspect it is too powerful for you, try removing the seeds and the veins. Soaking the plants in salt water or a five to one water-vinegar solution for about an hour can also reduce the heat of the peppers. In general dried chiles are hotter than fresh ones (because drying concentrates the capsaicin), while canned chiles are the least hot. Washing the chiles well and placing them in a strong paper bag usually remove the skins. Fasten the bag closed and put in the oven at 400F for about 20 minutes. You can also burn the skins off by rolling the chile around on a flat pan or skillet or roasting them over an open fire until they burn. Let cool. Carefully scrape off the skins to avoid splitting. Rubber gloves are recommended to prevent severe burns when handling large amounts of fresh chiles. Here's another good tip: when working with chiles over high heat, avoid breathing in the harsh fumes, which can irritate the throat, nose and eyes. For More Information:
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