I know I can rely on this place for an answer:
I'm a recent adoptee of a Chili plant seedling and it is now sprouting
a crop of very large green chilis.
How long do I have to wait until picking them?
This link says when they turn red: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...3075805AAL9j77
any thoughts?
cheers,
Steve
Last edited by kinetic; 17-04-2010 at 09:29 AM.
Reason: chili has one L stoopid!
My mate grows them and he said that you can eat them whenever. But as they change colour they get a fuller flavour. It just depends if you want them green or red.
Hi Steve i have a chilli plant and the green ones are hot and if left to go red are very hot. I usually pick them when they look full size and have a full body. Picking them also makes the plant produce more.
I've started a collection of chillie plants at home, some commercially sourced, others from family and friends, others the fruit 'spontaneously' appeared in my pocket, .
Each has there own characteristics of heat and flavour. Habaneros are murderously hot, but I'm not a big fan of their taste. The humble Birds' Eye is nearly as hot, but I prefer its taste. I've got some shaped like little lanterns that I'm waiting to ripen before I taste.
But when you pick them depends on your taste preference and what recepie you are following as the fruit's level of ripeness has a big influence on its heat and flavour.
Have a go. Pick one green and have a chomp, . Then try a ripe one, as colour when ripe depends on the type. Habaneros when ripe can be red or orange or yellow or white or purple or nearly chocolate in colour. Depends on the plant you have.
Did you now that the feeling of spiciness is pain not taste??
It's a pain reaction to being 'poisoned'. The body is reacting to 'capsaicinoids' which fools the body that it is being poisoned. They are a complex collection of chemicals.
It is the same stuff used in 'capsicum spray'.
Reminded me of a recent incident here in Oz where some dumb private security guards used this spray in a fight in a family court that had an enclosed air conditioning system, causing the evacuation of the entire building! It hadn't been the first time it had occured there either.
Steve, you know I am a geologist and I know a bit about volcanoes. As you know, the Pacific Basin is surrounded by chains of volcanoes in the so called "Ring of Fire".
We hardly ever get any - the Possums eats them!!!! I mean like they were Rolos.
There are literally hundreds of types of Chilis. The most common here is the "Birdseye" variety, usually found in Thai cuisine. They are equally hot green or red, but the green have a more distintive, stronger flavour, as opposed to being just 'hot'.
So if you want to taste the chili itself, quite distinct and yummy actually, pick when green. If you want to dry them for flakes, then wait until they are red.
There is a scale to measure the 'hotness' of Chili, based on how much you have to dilute the raw caspican until you cant taste it, but I forget the name.
There is a scale to measure the 'hotness' of Chili, based on how much you have to dilute the raw caspican until you cant taste it, but I forget the name.
It's called the Scoville Scale. Starts at 1 and goes through to 10...one being barely detectable, 10 being able to initiate nuclear fusion.
Thanks people, I will take the plunge tomorrow and pick them
progressively.
Carl, btw, we just had a minor quake here in Adelaide.
Approx 11:27pm...started quietly like distant thunder and
became quite a scary tremor. A bit like the underground firings
I was used to feeling in Broken Hill.
After about 10 seconds it subsided and I could still feel it
after about 20secs but very faint.
Wow....the last time I've felt a quake in Adelaide was about '87
Thanks people, I will take the plunge tomorrow and pick them
progressively.
Carl, btw, we just had a minor quake here in Adelaide.
Approx 11:27pm...started quietly like distant thunder and
became quite a scary tremor. A bit like the underground firings
I was used to feeling in Broken Hill.
After about 10 seconds it subsided and I could still feel it
after about 20secs but very faint.
Wow....the last time I've felt a quake in Adelaide was about '87
Steve
Yeah...just heard!!!!. Didn't look like a large one...3.2 or thereabouts it seems.
Ohboyyyy!! I just had my first one.
It's about an inch long. I've eaten about half so far.
Very Hot!....I don't think I can describe any flavour
to speak of because the heat is so overwhelming.
If it's any indicator of how hot they get when red....
hmmmm
I have a local bush which looks to be a version of a birds eye variety only smaller and a notch or two hotter if thats possible .
On the colour , I find once the seeds and there cases
( where the heat is) are mature so are the peppers no matter what there colour is.
On eating them if you can avid any of the pepper touching your lips or licking them after, you can tolerate a lot more heat .
On handling them, A chef where my wife worked discovered that while
hygine in food preperation is well known, if youv'e had your hands in a bowl full of chopped peppers prior to dashing off to take a leak , its a really good idea to wash well before as well as after .. lest you have to go home sick in agony .. and are even seen in the carpark prior to leaving with a garden hose spraying down the front of your trousers
It's called the Scoville Scale. Starts at 1 and goes through to 10...one being barely detectable, 10 being able to initiate nuclear fusion.
Hi Carl, Hi Steve,
I reckon they could make room for No. 11 on the scale. ( Actually its not as hot as a chilli itself.) There is another one which they describe " Mild For Sissys".
I made some salsa last night with fresh Habenero & Halapeno chilis - nachos, for the dipping thereof.
Today it would be unwise to wander more than 50 metres from the house, I think.
.
. Then try a ripe one, as colour when ripe depends on the type. Habaneros when ripe can be red or orange or yellow or white or purple or nearly chocolate in colour. Depends on the plant you have.
Ohboyyyy!! I just had my first one.
Burn Baby Burn 
