by Dave DeWitt (Photos by Molly Wales) Recipes: Chuletas de Cerdo en Chile Rojo, Estilo Cervantes Grilled Green Chile-Stuffed Pepper Steaks Wrapped in Bacon It’s called the “set-up,” the underlying theme of an appearance on a cooking show like “BBQ with Bobby Flay.” And since the official State Question of New Mexico is “Red or Green?” it made perfect sense …
How to Make Hot Sauces
By Dave DeWitt and Chuck Evans Recipes: Homemade Tabasco®-Style Sauce Keeping “Pace®” with Picante Sauces “Hotter Than Heinz®” Ketchup Caribbean Sun-of-a Beach Hot Pepper Sauce Chuck’s Chipotle Sauce Transplanted Sriracha Sauce Editor’s Note: One question that is asked over and over again in email to us is: “How do I make hot sauce?” Well, Chuck Evans and I wrote an …
Burning in the Mouth, Fire in the Belly: Why Some Like It Hotter Than Others
by Dave DeWitt Excerpted from The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia (William Morrow & Co., 1999). The sensation of heat created by capsaicin in chiles is caused by the irritation of the trigeminal cells, which are pain receptors located in the mouth, nose, and stomach. These sensory neurons release substance P, a neuropeptide chemical messenger that tells the brain about pain …
Out of the Ash: The Prehistoric Chile Cuisine of Cerén
By Dave DeWitt On an August evening in A.D. 595, the Loma Caldera in what is now El Salvador erupted, sending clouds of volcanic ash into the Mayan agricultural village of Cerén, burying it twenty feet deep and turning it into the New World equivalent of Pompeii. Miraculously, all the villagers escaped, but what they left behind gives us a …
Why Chiles Conquered America
Why ChilesConqueredAmerica by Dave DeWitt I am constantly asked to explain the exponential growth of interest in chile peppers and the boom in fiery foods products in the U.S. over the past two decades. How did a meat and potatoes America become enamored of hot sauces, salsas, spicy snack food, chili con carne, and hundreds and hundreds of other …