The Spousal Unit bought two mambo ornamental pepper plants; one purple-orange, and one purple-red. I understand they are edible, but incredibly hot. Sounds like a challenge.
“Edible ornamentals” of any species are generally classified as ornamental because most people don’t think they taste good, Scoville units aside.
Ornamental sweet potatoes, jack o’lantern pumpkins, and squash meant to be grown as gourds, are also in this category.
Yep, they’re bred for looks rather than taste, so they’ll add heat to your dish but not much flavor. Maybe a good candidate for pickling?
While I’m not really a foodie, I can, for instance, tell the difference between a jalapeno and a habanero, and heat has nothing to do with it. They just plain old don’t taste the same.
Are they grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum?
This comes to mind every time I see the thread title.
I grew the TAM Jalapeno (TAM stands for “Texas A&M”, where they were developed, FWIW) one year, and they’re one of several low-heat jalapeno varieties.
Strangely enough they tasted just like bell peppers. I was hugely disappointed, because I was expecting less hot jalapenos, not no heat jalapenos.
If you want jalapeno flavor with less heat, use normal jalapeños, cut the jalapeño in half and cut out the seeds and the rib that connects the seeds to the inside of the pepper (contrary to popular belief, most of the heat resides in that connecting rib, not so much the seeds).
I’ll do this with maybe 1/2 the jalapeños I use if I’m making dinner for someone who is spice challenged.
There are dual-purpose peppers that are ornamental and good to eat.
Tito Puente, come back!
Dan
SWMBO said that one of the plants had bugs. (I didn’t see any.) I ate one of the peppers after removing the seeds and membrane. Only a little heat, not a lot of flavour. I cut off the rest of the peppers and will see if they dry. The other plant is in a pot, and she put it in the kitchen.