Re: [chile-heads] Chile-Heads Digest V4 #7

Steve Thomas (sthomas@seidata.com)
Wed, 9 Jul 1997 09:30:33 -0400

>I'm a several-year lurker who very rarely posts, but I've got a store
>bought "Fire Chile" that is just starting to bear some fruit. I know
>nothing about the plant except it's name and the preposterous claim
>on the marker "Hottest pepper ever!" I'd like to find our more.

>It's clearly a pubescens plant, very similar in size and appearance to
>a serrano. The fruit is too young to really describe, but it is also
>bullet-shaped like a serrano, though I have no idea what size it will
>ultimately become.

>Has anybody else grown these? What about heat, flavor quirks, oddities
>history? Thanks all!

I've grown those fire chiles for several years. I didn't plant them this
year because I discovered the ChileWoman and Jim & Abbie Campbell who have
filled my little garden space with all their wonderful peppers! The fire
chiles were very prolific!! The fruit was about half the size of the
serranos I grew, and more fire per cupful than serrano. I chopped them up
green in a bowl with lime juice salt and onions for a table relish, and I
made them into a sauce when they were ripe red like "sirache" (sp) or
rooster sauce. The dried really nicely and were included in the general
hot ground chile mixture. I always thought their flavor had a tough edge
when dried-- like chiltepin or pequin. They'll keep on producing outside
right up until the frost, and now that I know I can over winter plants
inside, I'd bet they'd do real fine that way- my plants tended to stay
fairly compact. Let us know how you liked them