Hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes
The
cayenne pepper
is a type of
Capsicum annuum
. It is usually a moderately hot
chili pepper
used to flavor dishes. Cayenne peppers are a group of tapering, 10 to 25 cm long, generally skinny, mostly red-colored peppers, often with a curved tip and somewhat rippled skin, which hang from the bush as opposed to growing upright. Most varieties are generally rated at 30,000 to 50,000
Scoville units
.
[1]
The fruits are generally dried and ground to make the powdered spice of the same name, although cayenne powder may be a blend of different types of peppers, quite often not containing cayenne peppers, and may or may not contain the seeds.
[2]
Cayenne is used in cooking
spicy
dishes either as a powder or in its whole form. It is also used as an
herbal supplement
.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The word
cayenne
is thought to be a corruption of the word
kyynha
, meaning "capsicum" in the
Old Tupi language
once spoken in Brazil.
[3]
It is probable that the town
Cayenne
in
French Guiana
is related to the name,
[3]
and the town may have been named for the pepper.
[4]
English botanist
Nicholas Culpeper
used the phrase "cayenne pepper" in 1652,
[5]
while the city was only renamed as such in 1777.
[6]
It also is possibly named for the
Cayenne River
.
[1]
Taxonomy
[
edit
]
The cayenne pepper is a type of
Capsicum annuum
, as are
bell peppers
,
jalapenos
,
pimientos
, and many others. The genus
Capsicum
is in the
nightshade
family, (
Solanaceae
). Cayenne peppers are often said to belong to the
frutescens
variety, but
frutescens
peppers are now defined as peppers which have fruit which grow upright on the bush (such as
tabasco peppers
), thus what is known in English as cayenne peppers are by definition not
frutescens
.
[note 1]
Culpeper, in his
Complete Herbal
from 1653, mentions cayenne pepper as a synonym for what he calls "pepper (guinea)"
[note 2]
[5]
[8]
By the end of the 19th century "Guinea pepper" had come to mean
bird's eye chili
or
piri-piri
,
[7]
although he refers to
Capsicum
peppers in general in his entry.
[5]
In the 19th century, modern cayenne peppers were classified as
C. longum
, this name was later synonymised with
C. frutescens
. Cayenne powder, however, has generally been made from the
bird's eye peppers
, in the 19th century classified as
C. minimum
.
[7]
Varieties
[
edit
]
Cayenne peppers are long, tapering, 10 to 25 centimetres (4 to 10 in) long, generally skinny, mostly red-colored peppers, often with a curved tip and somewhat rippled skin, which hang from the bush as opposed to growing upright.
There are many specific
cultivars
, such as Cow-horn,
[9]
Cayenne Sweet, Cayenne Buist's Yellow, Golden Cayenne, Cayenne Carolina, Cayenne Indonesian, Joe's Long, Cayenne Large Red Thick, Cayenne Long Thick Red, Ring of Fire, Cayenne Passion, Cayenne Thomas Jefferson, Cayenne Iberian, Cayenne Turkish, Egyptian Cayenne, Cayenne Violet or Numex Las Cruces Cayenne.
[1]
Although most modern cayenne peppers are colored red, yellow and purple varieties exist, and in the 19th century yellow varieties were common.
[1]
[10]
Most types are moderately hot, although a number of mild variants exist.
[1]
Most varieties are generally rated at 30,000 to 50,000
Scoville units
, although some are rated at 20,000 or less.
[1]
In cuisine
[
edit
]
Cayenne powder may be a blend of different types of chili peppers.
[11]
It is used in its fresh form, or as dried powder on
seafood
, all types of egg dishes (devilled eggs, omelettes, souffles), meats and stews, casseroles, cheese dishes,
hot sauces
, and
curries
.
[11]
In North America, the primary cultivar in
Crushed Red Pepper
is cayenne.
[12]
They are also used in some varieties of hot sauce in North America, such as
Frank's RedHot
,
Texas Pete
and
Crystal
.
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Database of Chilli Pepper Varieties"
.
The Chileman
. Retrieved
9 November
2017
.
- ^
"11 Amazing Health Benefits of Cayenne Pepper and Turmeric"
.
Nccmede
. Retrieved
9 November
2022
.
- ^
a
b
"Cayenne (n.)"
. Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper. 2021. Archived from
the original
on 21 October 2022
. Retrieved
9 November
2017
.
- ^
Small, Ernest (2009).
Top 100 Food Plants
. NRC Research Press. pp. 157?.
ISBN
978-0-660-19858-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
Culpeper, Nicholas (2013).
"Guinea Pepper"
.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
. Lulu Com.
ISBN
978-1-291-28486-7
.
- ^
"Cayenne, French Guiana"
.
Britannica
. Retrieved
9 November
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
Ridley, Henry Nicholas (1912).
Spices
. London: Macmillan, Ltd. pp. 360?383.
- ^
Parkinson, John (1904).
Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris
. London: Methuen and Co. p. 431.
- ^
"Cow Horn"
.
Pepperseeds
. Retrieved
21 December
2020
.
- ^
Hudson, Selma (1971).
About Spices
. Melmont. p.
38
.
ISBN
9780516082103
.
- ^
a
b
"Cayenne Pepper"
.
The Epicentre
. Retrieved
9 November
2017
.
- ^
"Wait, What Are Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, Anyway?"
.
Bon Appetit
. 22 May 2019
. Retrieved
23 August
2021
.
Further reading
[
edit
]