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    New Mexican Chiles
    New Mexican Chiles
    New Mexican Chiles
    Ebook95 pages46 minutes

    New Mexican Chiles

    By Dave Dewitt

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    About this ebook

    As the foods and recipes of Mexico have blended over the years into New Mexico's own distinctive cuisine, the chile pepper has become its defining element and single most important ingredient. Though many types were initially cultivated there, the long green variety that turned red in the fall adapted so well to the local soil and climate that it has now become the official state vegetable.To help chefs and diners get the most from this unique chile's great taste-without an overpowering pungency-Dave DeWitt, the noted Pope of Peppers, has compiled a complete guide to growing, harvesting, preserving and much more-topped off with dozens of delicious recipes for dishes, courses, and meals of every kind.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTerra Nova Books
    Release dateNov 12, 2018
    ISBN9781948749381
    New Mexican Chiles
    Author

    Dave Dewitt

    Dave DeWitt is a food historian and one of the foremost authorities in the world on chile peppers, spices, and spicy foods. He has published fifty-six books, including Chile Peppers: A Global History (UNM Press). He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

    Read more from Dave Dewitt

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      Book preview

      New Mexican Chiles - Dave Dewitt

      Author

      INTRODUCTION

      According to many accounts, chile peppers were introduced into what is now the U.S. from Mexico by Capitán General Juan de Oñate, the founder of Santa Fe, in 1598. However, they may have been introduced to the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico by the Antonio Espejo expedition of 1582–83. According to one member of the expedition, Baltasar Obregón, They have no chile, but the natives were given some seed to plant. By 1601, chiles were on the list of Indian crops, according to colonist Francisco de Valverde, who also complained that mice were a pest that ate chile pods off the plants in the field.

      A la primera cocinera se le va un chile entero, goes one old Spanish dicho, or saying: To the best lady cook goes the whole chile. And so it is that the chile pepper is the single most important food brought from Mexico that defines New Mexican cuisine. After the Spanish began settlement, the cultivation of chile peppers exploded, and soon, they were grown all over New Mexico. It is likely that many varieties were cultivated, including early forms of jalapeños, serranos, poblanos, and pasillas. But one variety that adapted particularly well to New Mexico was a long green chile that turned red in the fall. Formerly called Anaheim because of its transfer to more-settled California around 1900, the New Mexican chiles were cultivated for hundreds of years in the region with such dedication that several distinct varieties developed.

      These varieties, or landraces, called Chimayó and Española, had adapted to particular environments and are still planted in the fields they were grown in centuries ago; they constitute a small but distinct part of the tons of pods produced each year in New Mexico.

      In 1846, William Emory, chief engineer of the U.S. Army’s Topographic Unit, was surveying the New Mexico landscape and its customs. He described this meal eaten in Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque: Roast chicken, stuffed with onions; then mutton, boiled with onions; then followed various other dishes, all dressed with the everlasting onion; and the whole terminated by chile, the glory of New Mexico.

      Emory went on to relate his experience: Chile the Mexicans consider the chef-d’oeuvre of the cuisine, and seem really to revel in it; but the first mouthful brought the tears trickling down my cheeks, very much to the amusement of the spectators with their leather-lined throats. It was red pepper, stuffed with minced meat.

      NOMENCLATURE

      For nearly a century, confusion has reigned over the proper name for the long green varieties of chile that turn red in the fall. Originally, they were developed and grown in New Mexico; however, seeds were transported to California during the early part of the twentieth century, and the pod type was given the name Anaheim.

      Since few if any chiles are grown near Anaheim these days, it makes little sense to use that name for them. Recently, chile experts at New Mexico State University have decided on a more-accurate descriptive term. In future, the name of this pod type will be New Mexican. Varieties within this type will include Anaheims, California strains, as well as the numerous New Mexico-grown varieties such as NuMex Big Jim and NuMex 6-4. To put it simply, Anaheim has been reduced from a pod type to a variety, and the pod type has been renamed New Mexican.

      CHILE HISTORY

      The earliest cultivated chiles in New Mexico were smaller than those of today; indeed, they were (and still are, in some cases) considered a spice. But as the landraces developed and the size of the pods increased, the food value of chiles became evident. There was just one problem: The bewildering sizes and shapes of the chile peppers made it very difficult for farmers to determine which variety of chile they were

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