a general term, derived from the Nahuatl language, for a wide range of fruits of the genus Capsicum (but not including the larger, mild-tasting pimiento or sweet pepper, for which see capsicum).
Five species of capsicum are cultivated, but most modern cultivars are bred from either C. annuum or C. frutescens (with C. chinense well behind in third place). The second of these may have evolved later; by and large, its fruits are hotter. This hotness could be the result of natural selection, in the wild plant, as a defence against the seeds being eaten, or of selection by growers over the very long period of cultivation.
Chillies (also called chilli peppers, but spelled chili in the USA and chile in Spain, while named aji, ajies in Latin America) vary in size, shape, and colour, and most of all in taste, ranging from relatively mild to very pungent and extremely hot. Most are long, thin, and pointed, but there are many other shapes, and sizes vary over a wide range. In Laos, the smallest kind are known as ‘mouse droppings’; whereas some Cayenne chillies are 30 cm/12″ long.
Wild chillies were being gathered and eaten in Mexico c.7000 bc, and were cultivated there before 3500 bc. Columbus came across them on his first voyage, and may have brought plants back to Europe. At any rate, the Spaniards and Portuguese took them to India and SE Asia within a few years, and they spread quickly to the Middle East, the Balkans, and Europe—to Italy by 1526, Germany by 1543, and Hungary (see paprika) by 1569. In short, they were welcomed in every region where people were already accustomed to eating food with hot spices. It is now hard to imagine what (for example) Indonesia or India (at present the world's largest producer of chillies) was like without them.
Chillies are ‘hot’ because they contain capsaicin, an irritant alkaloid which is found mainly in the interior tissue to which the seeds adhere. Capsaicin has at least five separate chemical components; three give an immediate sensation in the throat and at the back of the palate, the other two a slower, longer-lasting, and less fierce hotness on the tongue and mid-palate. Each type of chilli can be rated for average hotness, but individual fruits from the same bush can vary greatly in their capsaicin content. Capsaicin is odourless and, paradoxically, flavourless; it irritates the skin and any delicate area. It is barely soluble in water, so cold drinks are little help if one has taken a mouthful of chilli. One ancient codex shows an Aztec parent propelling a (presumably naughty) daughter, arms bound and huge tears already starting from her eyes, towards the clouds of smoke rising from burning chillies. Synthetic capsaicin is used in anti-mugger sprays.
Cooks use chilli for flavour, not merely for hotness. However, people accustomed to chilli do like the heat, and as they become inured to it (usually early in life) they need more and more to generate the same sensation in the mouth. Therefore, when cooking Mexican or S. Indian dishes for people whose mouths are not so hardened, it is important to use much less than the ‘authentic’ amount of chilli in order to produce an ‘authentic’ effect.
Even people who have never tasted chilli will usually agree, when they encounter it for the first time in a mild form, that its flavour is subtle and attractive, and its gentle warmth stimulates not only the taste buds but appetite and digestion also. In larger amounts, they find that it burns the mouth and inflames the stomach. Why should a food that causes pain be so widely popular? One theory is that the discomfort in the mouth causes the brain to produce endorphins, natural opiates that give pleasure. The capsaicin present in the chilli acts on your palate and the initial bud receptors on the tongue are slightly anaesthetized or ‘hurt’ by this repeated negative or ‘painful’ stimulation. When received in either high or low doses, this stimulates the motor pathways and creates an increase in endorphins which provokes the release of more dopamine and activates the reward circuitry. For this, see also neuroanatomy of food flavour, as well as Paul Rozin (1980). Another explanation is that people whose diet is rather bland and unvarying crave something to pep it up, and chillies provide flavour and excitement at low cost. It may also be true that chillies, the chemicals within them, or the repetition of the pain-pleasure cycle, are mildly addictive. In chilli-eating areas, children usually start to eat this adult food from the age of 10 or 11, and rapidly become so used to it that they miss it quite badly if they are deprived of it.
In the USA, the heat of a chilli is expressed in Scoville Heat Units. This scale, derived from a test devised in 1912, refers to the number of times that extracts of chillies dissolved in alcohol can be diluted with sugar water before the capsaicin can no longer be tasted. Where bell peppers would score 0, Anaheim score 1,000, and Jalapeño and Cayenne are rated at 2,500–4,000. Higher up the scale, Tabasco peppers rate 60,000–80,000. DeWitt and Gerlach state that Habaneros range from 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville units. In SE Asia there are no recognized scientific units, but the general rule is ‘the smaller, the hotter’; the strongest chillies being the little green ones often called bird peppers, a variety of C. frutescens. However, in C. America the name bird pepper, first used by an English writer in Panama in the 1680s, is applied to varieties of C. annuum and C. baccatum.
Chillies, even the hottest, are eaten fresh and whole in many countries, or are chopped up and used as a garnish, or ground up and mixed with other ingredients in a cooked dish. They may also be dried or roasted before being used in cooking; these processes affect the flavour.
When handling chillies, disposable plastic gloves should be worn or the fingers rubbed with salt. To calm a mouth which has been set on fire by hot chillies, some recommend slices of cucumber (perhaps in yoghurt, as in the Indian preparation raita), while others suggest plain boiled rice, and there are also advocates for something sweet (logical, given the criterion used for the Scoville scale).
For many dishes it is important to use the appropriate variety of chilli. Some of the commonest, most useful, or most interesting are briefly described in the box. It is chiefly in the Americas that one finds a wide range of strikingly different types and cultivars. Note that attractive names like Cascabel are often applied to different varieties, seemingly almost at random.
In India, the most important distinction is between green and red chillies, though Camellia Panjabi (1994) points out that local varieties often give quite different flavours to regional dishes—for example, in Goa. She mentions Kashmiri chillies, which are grown all over the place and are highly valued because they give a bright red colour to food as well as a moderate hotness. ‘The gourmets of northern India use a bright yellow dried chilli grown around the Sonepat area in Punjab for their white or yellow curry dishes.’
In Indonesia and Malaysia, practically all chillies are either large (C. annuum) or small (C. frutescens); the former are cabai (or lombok), the latter cabai rawit or lombok rawit. All are hot, but the smaller rawit types are especially so. Bird chillies (cabai burung in Malaysia) are also called bird's-eye chillies because they are as small, vivid, and sharp as the eye of a bird. Colour is important (merah is red, hijau is green): cabai merah are dried and powdered, or are fresh ones crushed and used to give body to a hot sauce.
Chilli products include chilli powder, which is made in many countries from any type of chilli which is locally available. It varies considerably in hotness and flavour. (In N. America, ‘chile powder’—also known as ‘Mexican’ or ‘creole’ chile powder—is a spice mixture for making chili con carne, containing cumin, clove, and garlic powder as well as hot pepper.)
The whole subject of chilli is adorned by legends, mostly to do with the heat. Jean Andrews quotes one charming legend from Bancroft (1882), as follows:
This pungent condiment is at present day as omnipresent in Spanish American dishes as it was at the time of the conquest; and I am seriously informed by a Spanish gentleman who resided for many years in Mexico and was an officer in Maximillian's army, that while the wolves would feed upon the dead bodies of the French that lay all night upon the battlefield, they never touched the bodies of the Mexicans, because the flesh was completely impregnated with chile. Which, if true, may be thought to show that wolves do not object to a diet seasoned with garlic.
See also cayenne pepper; paprika; Tabasco. Important commercial sauces based on chilli include salsa picante, ubiquitous in Mexico.
Roger Owen has worked with his wife Sri on Indonesian Food and Cookery, and collaborated with her in writing The Rice Book (1993). He is co-author, with Sri, of the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Southeast Asian Food.
Andrews, Jean (1984), Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums, Austin: University of Texas.
Bancroft, H. H. (1882), Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol ii, San Francisco.
DeWitt, Dave, and Gerlach, Nancy (1990), The Whole Chile Pepper Book, Boston: Little Brown.
Miller, Mark (1992), The Great Chile Book, Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press.
Naj, Amal (1992), Peppers, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
