by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach Recipes: Corn and Potatoes with Two Chiles Papas con Tomates Squash Soup with Chile Sauce “The fruit [of the Peruvian Uchu chile] is as indispensable to the natives as salt to the whites.” ‑‑Friedrich Alexander von Humboldt, 1814 For more than 10,000 years, mankind has been …
Heat Scale Updated
by Dave DeWitt In 1989, with the help of Dr. Ben Villalon of the Texas A&M Agricultural Experiment Station and Dr. Paul W. Bosland of New Mexico State University’s Department of Plant and Environmental Science, I compiled and published the first chile heat scale in Chile Pepper magazine. The heat scale proved to be enormously popular and was reprinted (sometimes …
Chiles and Chocolate
by Dave DeWitt The culinary mating of hot chiles and chocolate was unforgettably revealed to me in the mercado in Oaxaca, where the molinos–grinding mills–in adjacent stalls were processing cacao beans in one stall and mole paste with chiles in the other. In this ancient city, I had this sudden epiphany that, in prehistoric times, ancient cooks would have naturally …
The Question of Origin-Controlled Chiles
by Dave DeWitt, Associate Professor (Adjunct Faculty), Department ofAgricultural Economics and Agricultural Business, New Mexico State University In July, 2004, Mexico’s National Council of Chile Producers decided to pursue the origin-control of Mexican chile varieties in order to fight competition from other countries. “We are going to work on getting designation of origin for our chiles because there are …
Spice Profile: Peppercorns
Spice Profile: Peppercorns by Dave DeWitt History “Pepper,” wrote Plato, “is small in quantity and great in virtue.” First mentioned in Indian writings more than 3,000 years ago, it was beloved by the Greeks and was the spice favorite of ancient Rome. In fact, Roman officials saved the city from Visogoth attack in A.D. 408 by paying a tribute which …