By Joseph Paxton Editor’s Note: Sir Joseph Paxton (1803–1865) was an English gardener, architect, and Member of Parliament, best known for designing The Crystal Palace. Paxton began publishing a monthly magazine, Magazine of Botany in 1834. In 1838, when Capsicum nomenclature was still in its infancy, Paxton wrote about a new chile pepper species that was called Capsicum ustulatum. “Ustulatum” …
New Find Proves Chile Sauce Use 2000 Years Ago
By Dave DeWitt Using the same technology that proved the use of chocolate at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, researchers have analyzed the contents of the residue of pots from ancient Mexico and discovered traces of chiles without chocolate. This indicates that either chile sauces were being made, or that they were used to spice up other beverages, about a thousand …
Dining in Mexico in 1909
By William English Carson If a stranger is content to embark on a course of Mexican food and can stomach the highly seasoned dishes, filled with chilis and red peppers, he can get satisfactory meals at the Mexican restaurants, for some of the things which are served are piquant and excellent. But he must beware, for the dishes have a nomenclature …
The Hacienda That Chiles Built, c. 1815
The owner of this famous hacienda is a Creole, named Don Juan de Moncada. From the hacienda he takes the title of Marques. Previous to the revolution, he was considered among the richest of the landed proprietaries of Mexico, and in the year 1810 actually possessed in his own mansion six millions of dollars. The rent he derived from his …
Chiles Around the World, 1889
This seems to be one of the few historical worldwide surveys of chiles and their consumption globally. It is interesting for several reasons. First, it is the first debunking of the notion that chile seeds are hot that I have ever found; second, it reports on adulterated cayenne, a problem in India, England, and the U.S. for centuries; and third, …