[CH] Calvin's Powder - Reproduced
Tom Greaves (tomg@airmail.net)
Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:36:15 -0500
OK, I finally got around to documenting our results in the attempt to
reproduce Calvin's Powder. Here is what we determined.
We were just about out of our last bottle of Calvin's Powder, so we tried to
come up with a reasonable replacement for it. We got the letter from Frank
Hashek where Calvin lists the approximate list of peppers used in his
powder. It is approximate since he states that "These pods and
concentrations vary with availability.". So we set about collecting all the
pepper types and doing taste tests of various combinations of peppers to try
to find something similar to the Calvin's Powder that we had.
Results: We think that we accomplished our goal and had many epiphanies
along the way. I'll give the final recipe, but first a couple of the
epiphanies.
1. Just about every combination we tried (about 10) was awesome! There is
something about combining the powders that makes the result far superior to
any of the peppers used. We dried and ground all the peppers in a coffee
grinder (cleaned between each variety). Each powder was stored in a Freezer
Zip Lock bag and they filled a 5 gallon can. The absolute best fragrance
comes when you remove the lid from the can. The fragrance fills the room.
2. We smelled and tasted all 26 varieties of peppers that we used. The Wild
Tepin had the best fragrance followed closely by Tabasco. The Bhut Jolokia
and Naga Morich fragrances were vile. The Habaneros were all very
distinctive and the only one that we could separately identify in the smell
of the original Calvin's. All the rest were somewhat similar.
3. We did not like the taste of any individual pepper. Every blend was
wonderful. We also made several blends adding combinations of garlic
powder, onion powder, oregano and curry powder. These were also very tasty
and we could visualize uses for each on vegetables, eggs, etc.
4. We finally concluded that we really liked nearly all of the blends. We
feel that what Calvin discovered was that pepper blends are far superior to
individual peppers. Why? We don't know. The recipe is not very important.
Use 5-10 different varieties choosing heat levels that you like most and you
will probably get something better than you can buy anywhere.
Here is the blend that we feel hits the smell and taste of the original
Calvin's Powder:
20% Rocoto/Manzano
10% Red Savina Habanero
10% Chinese
10% Tepin - wild
10% Aji Amarillo
10% Cayenne
10% New Mexican
10% Thai (Bird)
10% Tabasco
All of these can be found on the internet except the Rocoto. This we had to
search out at several Mexican markets as fresh peppers and dehydrate them
ourselves. The Rocoto and Red Savina (or other habanero powder) are the
only key ingredients. The others could be replaced. But even without the
Rocoto, it would be a wonderful hot powder.
BTW, the Wild Tepin are REALLY expensive. We have since planted a bunch of
them and will do a lot more experimenting with them this fall.
I have a LOT of pepper powders now, so if someone has an idea of a blend let
me know. If it turns out good, I'll send you some.
Tom Greaves