The Spiciest Part of a Fresh Chilli Pepper

What is the spiciest part of a fresh chilli pepper?

  • The outer skin?

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • The pith membrain or placenta?

    Votes: 7 70.0%

  • The seeds?

    Votes: 3 30.0%

  • Something else?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .
Yorky

Yorky

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Whist preparing a few chillis for my pizza today I was reminded of the ongoing discussions that have ensued regarding the spiciest part of the fresh chilli pepper. (I'm guessing that the numerous types of fresh chillis are similar in this respect). Personally when using fresh chillis I do not remove anything except the green stalk so I've no idea of the definitive answer but I would be interested in the findings (or opinions) of others.

 
It is the placenta, or pith. That is the interior part of the pepper closest to the stem. The the seeds are attached to the placenta.

CD
 
morning glory said:
I ticked 'membrane' in the poll but I do think sometimes the seeds can also be extremely hot - as in the case of Scotch Bonnet.
Click to expand...

The "poll" doesn't appear to be working as designed. I'm having a really bad day.
 
When I'm trying to cool down a dish that involves peppers, I exclude the seeds and the pith. I picked seeds because I suspected that the pith absorbed the heat from the seeds. But, after doing some research, it seems that the pith is the spiciest part of the pepper. The great news here is that I don't need to try to get every last seed out when I want to lower the temperature: I just need to trim out the pith.
 
I am not a pepper head. I like peppers for the flavor not the heat. I am growing Sweet Banana Peppers and assorted bells green, red, purple and yellow. I like Anaheim and Poblano for stuffing. I use jalapenos most. Just enough heat and lots of flavor. I do have a nod to hotter peppers with a Serrano plant and a Dragon Cayenne. I use the Serrano sparingly and usually dry the cayenne. You will not find me near hotter chilis.
 
If I'm cooking a chilli con carne (which I intend to accomplish this weekend), I use the large red cayennes that we get here for flavour and the Thai hot for the heat. Usually 12 of each (for 12 litres of finished product).

CCC chilies s.jpg

CCC chilies s.jpg

Chillis for chilli con carne.
 
I'm not big on heat, but kids are, we grow and freeze red, green and yellow chillies. Under my requests my wife freezes 10 with pith and seeds removed with 2 with the stem green bit off, but seeds intact. That's my Thai chilly paste strength , my heat likeness. But I also serve up chopped chillies for my guests so they can add heat.
My Indian curries I put whole chopped chillies in ( 1 or 2)

Russ
 
Yes, the heat comes mostly from the pith, the "membrain" or whatever you want to call it. Since the seeds are directly attached to this, they do often have small amounts of capsaicin within in them, but usually not very much. The outer flesh and skin are what provides the main character of the chili's flavor.

Oddly enough I have 5 chilis planted in my garden. They cover a fairly broad range of heat levels. The mildest one is this:


20200611_072351.jpg


And it looks like something is eating the lower leaves. But what? And why just this one plant, and none of the others? None of the heat is in the leaves or stems, so it can't be based on the spiciness of the fruit. Odd little mystery.

mjb.
 
teamfat said:
Yes, the heat comes mostly from the pith, the "membrain" or whatever you want to call it. Since the seeds are directly attached to this, they do often have small amounts of capsaicin within in them, but usually not very much. The outer flesh and skin are what provides the main character of the chili's flavor.

Oddly enough I have 5 chilis planted in my garden. They cover a fairly broad range of heat levels. The mildest one is this:


View attachment 42160

And it looks like something is eating the lower leaves. But what? And why just this one plant, and none of the others? None of the heat is in the leaves or stems, so it can't be based on the spiciness of the fruit. Odd little mystery.

mjb.
Click to expand...

I've never had anything try to eat my pepper plants, except for some caterpillars one year. But, they didn't stop part way up, they would have stripped the whole plant had I not stepped outside at the right time and "dispatched" them. They were big and bright green.

CD
 
In my wife's greenhouse I found ants were targeting one chilly plant. I watched them for ages to see where they were coming from, and eating. Just the one plant. I squashed as many as I could. I guess they got the message. No more ants.

Russ
 
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