I’m into hot peppers. And I make all kinds of various hot sauces with what I grow or occasionally buy. Tabasco, jalapenos, cayanne, cowhorns, chili, hot cherry, and a few other not so “famous” ones. And of course habeneros.
This year I’ve finally had a good crop of all of them. I’ve got gallons of various sauces or base pepper slurries to make sauces with later. In the past I’ve often used the habs basically to provide heat to a sauce that often has as significant amount of other components. And I’ve generally harvested them when green.
This year, because I had a good batch. I let some of them keep ripening. I was going for red, but its too hot now I think and rather than continuing to ripen to red it looked like bright orange ones were going to go from orange to rotten rather than from orange to red (which I have been able to do in the past in cooler weather).
So, I got a nice harvest of bright orange habs. Threw them in a food processor with just enough vinegar to make a slurry. Normally, I’d start adding other stuff to go directly to a sauce of some sort, but I decided to stop at the slurry part and figure out exactly what to do with it later. Got about a pint of it. Just orange habs and some vinegar.
Well, about week later I wondered what just that base slurry tasted like. I’ll be damn. I’ve always heard pepper nerds talking about the fruity flavor of the hab. Its true. I can put a bit of that slurry on a thin slice of cheese or a cracker and it DOES have a wonderful fruity flavor. Of course it is ALSO pretty darn hot but the flavor does shine through. I guess I could take out the seeds and the inner lining to make it a bit less hot but I can easily take the heat.
Normally, I love sharing my hot sauces. I’m keep this stuff to myself baby. And will probably run out in a couple of weeks for that matter
Good. I am way jealous – the ones in the grocery never seem to be to my liking and I have no green thumb. I always hought of habs as kind of fleshy citrus that can also be a defense against pizza-grabbing guests.
Take any pepper jelly recipe and substitute straight habs for all the peppers it calls for. For example, most recipes call for some bell pepper in addition to whatever hot peppers it suggests. It tames the heat just a bit, but allows the flavor to come through.
Habaneros are my favorite chile, I think. I too detect the tropical fruitiness, and as well, the heat comes through in a slightly different manner. It’s a “mouth-forward” heat, vigorous and peppery at the front of your tongue, yet it doesn’t linger forever, at least for me. Some chiles feel extremely hot (and bitter) at the back of the mouth, and the heat goes on and on.
I’ve had habaneros a few times, but I can’t say they have a fruity flavor. When I first tasted them in a salad, I commented on how tasty the chopped "bell peppers"were and got an extremely quizzical look from the person who made the salad. I get a runny nose from them, but that’s it. it was actually the first sign that I had a case of dysgeusia. When I eat them again, I’ll try to imagine a slight fruity flavor, not exactly sure which one, and see how that goes.
This year I’m growing jalapenos, trinidads, and habaneros… and yes, habaneros do have a distinctly fruity taste. They’re my favorite. And boy, are they hot- even if you scrape out the seeds and membranes.
The trinidads, by the way, have a more bitter heat- I made a spicy vinegar with them, and it’s good, but I haven’t found a use for it, yet.
As a matter of fact, I have a bag of habaneros sitting on my desk right now- a coworker has promised some sort of habanero/bacon jam.
Yes, they do have a distinctive taste, as do all the peppers of Capsicum chinense. My favorite, which I’ve grown this year for the first time, is the fatalii pepper. It’s kind of like an elongated habanero. Same ballpark of flavor, but even fruitier and, at least the ones I’m growing, spicier, although on average they’re the same heat as habs. I’m also growing Scotch Bonnets which, while having the heat of a habanero and a similar sort of fruitiness, they also have a distinctive “bell pepper” taste to them. I don’t know if this is usual or just my crop, as I’ve used Scotch bonnets and habaneros interchangeably, but this year I’ve noticed the slight different in taste, with the Scotch bonnet having more of the sweet pepper flavor to them, despite the heat level.
I haven’t tapped into my Trinidad scorpions or bhut jolokia/ghost chiles yet to give a comparison on those. From what I’ve read about people who grow all these high Scoville peppers, fataliis seem to be favorites, and I can totally understand why.
Just harvested a few today,only planted two plants but jeez,there are a lot of peppers on them.Just gonna make a simple salsa…tomatos,onion,lime juice and the habs.
For extra flavor, roast the habs. Makes a huge difference. My favorite habanero sauce is just finely chopped roasted habs, lime or bitter orange juice, roasted garlic, and salt.
My lovely bride and I used to pickle our crop.
After two years, the peppers were amazingly sweet and while still hotter than a jalapeno, they had lost their over-the-top quality heat-wise.
