Chile Pepper Facts
Compiled by Eric Vinje of Cosmic Chile and Scott Roberts
• Two of the founding fathers of our country, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, are both known to have grown chiles.
• Capsaicin is a colorless, pungent, crystalline compound, C18,H27,NO3.
• The shorter the molecular chain, the hotter the pepper.
• “Chili” and “chile” are different spellings of the pungent fruit of the capsicum, also called chilli (in the UK, Australia and New Zealand), chile pepper or chili pepper. But in the U.S., the spelling “chili” is a shortening of chili con carne, a ground beef stew that incorporates chile powder or chile peppers. And Chile, capitalized, is a country in South America.
• The heat from a chile pepper is concentrated in the interior veins or ribs near the seed heart, not in the seeds as is commonly believed…