Cayenne peppers are a hot fruit native to the New World and used in cuisines worldwide. They can be found fresh or dried and powdered, and are hotter than serranos but not as hot as Thai peppers. They can be used to spice up dishes and grow best in warm climates.
Cayenne peppers are the fruit behind the popular cayenne pepper, which is used in cuisines around the world. Peppers are native to the New World where they have been used extensively for centuries and were introduced to Europe in the 1500s when early explorers began bringing back botanical specimens. Many grocery stores carry cayenne peppers in a dried and powdered form, and they’re also available fresh in some regions. Gardeners in warm areas may also try growing cayenne itself.
The flavor of cayenne peppers is hot, falling in the upper half of the Scoville scale, a heat rating used to describe peppers. They are hotter than serranos, another well known pepper, and not as hot as Thai peppers. Like many peppers, cayenne peppers can be used fresh or dried, although most consumers are familiar with the dried form.
Fresh peppers can be chopped off to make them less hot, and cutting the white ribs of the pepper will also reduce the heat. Once chopped, the peppers can be tossed into an assortment of dishes for flavor. Gloves should be worn when handling fresh cayenne peppers, as they can irritate skin and mucous membranes. Dried cayenne peppers can be found whole or ground into a powder. Some manufacturers actually dust fresh peppers, turning them into cakes of material that can be powdered as needed.
Powdered cayenne peppers have a multitude of culinary uses. The peppers themselves don’t have much flavor, aside from heat, so they can be used to spice up a dish without drastically altering the flavor otherwise. For cooks unfamiliar with cayenne’s work, dried Capsicum frutescens, as the peppers are also known, should be used sparingly. More spice can be added, but it’s hard to remove it from a dish that’s too hot.
Like other peppers, cayenne peppers grow best in heat. They have been known to grow up to USZA zone seven, but prefer zones nine through 11. In well-drained fertile soil, a cayenne bush can grow up to six feet (two meters) tall each year. Once a seedling is planted in a sunny spot, it will usually produce peppers within 70 days, especially if kept moist. Since cayenne peppers are sensitive to frost, plant them after the last chance of frost has passed.
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