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Re: Pepper off: Jalapeno vs Habanero

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2026 4:33 pm
by pldms
caga tio wrote: The habanero is great, especially in Caribbean food,
Doesn't Caribbean cooking use Scotch bonnets? The shops where I live are full of them rather than habaneros, but I think they are closely related.

Re: Pepper off: Jalapeno vs Habanero

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2026 9:09 am
by caga tio
pldms wrote: Tue Feb 17, 2026 4:33 pm
caga tio wrote: The habanero is great, especially in Caribbean food,
Doesn't Caribbean cooking use Scotch bonnets? The shops where I live are full of them rather than habaneros, but I think they are closely related.
You are right! I always assumed it was habanero based on how the heat hit but looking around online, the Scotch Bonnet is the pepper of choice for Caribbean food.

Re: Pepper off: Jalapeno vs Habanero

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2026 9:32 am
by joelb
I had an actual hot jalapeno come out of my fridge the other day. Mostly they taste like green peppers now, to the point that I always leave the seeds and pith in, but I always check with a little nibble before I start cooking. Glad I did.

If you can moderate the heat, as in a jerk sauce, the fruity, lingering habanero and Scotch Bonnet flavor is just delightful and I prefer it to jalapenos. Don't use them nearly as often though.

Re: Pepper off: Jalapeno vs Habanero

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2026 9:04 am
by losthighway
Y'all covered the bases here, I appreciate the serrano shout outs. One side bar, I often enjoyed the anaheim pepper when I wanted something halfway between a bell pepper and a mild jalapeno. It was cool to find a pepper that's the lowest setting on the 'discernible spice' scale although some randomly have none at all. Probably has a lot of potential uses in the raw due to it's subtle hint of a kick.

Re: Pepper off: Jalapeno vs Habanero

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2026 9:14 am
by rsmurphy
Crap! All chili peppers are for the birds. I don't want to eat something with the flavor profile of a murder hornet. That said, a couple of weeks ago I made a delicious pot of mulligatawny and used one serrano because I wanted to follow the exact recipe and live dangerously. Made sure to scrape out all of its hornet-y insides. It was fine.

Re: Pepper off: Jalapeno vs Habanero

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2026 12:01 pm
by rsmurphy


I did not know this. Wish I were a birb

Re: Pepper off: Jalapeno vs Habanero

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2026 2:37 pm
by kerble
joelb wrote: Wed Feb 18, 2026 9:32 amI had an actual hot jalapeno come out of my fridge the other day. Mostly they taste like green peppers now, to the point that I always leave the seeds and pith in, but I always check with a little nibble before I start cooking. Glad I did.

FM Tree was explaining to me that there was some jabroni in California that was cultivating a milder jalapeno for the soft-ass American palette. I kinda switched to serrano to keep the heat, but if you find ones that come from Mexico, those will be spicy like they are supposed to be. Our local Tony's gets the Mexican ones, so I'm set. As to the poll, Jalapeno, but I use any and all peppers that look good in my cooking. Fresh, dried, ground in all varieties. NC.

Re: Pepper off: Jalapeno vs Habanero

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2026 7:29 am
by twelvepoint
caga tio wrote: Wed Feb 18, 2026 9:09 am
pldms wrote: Tue Feb 17, 2026 4:33 pm
caga tio wrote: The habanero is great, especially in Caribbean food,
Doesn't Caribbean cooking use Scotch bonnets? The shops where I live are full of them rather than habaneros, but I think they are closely related.
You are right! I always assumed it was habanero based on how the heat hit but looking around online, the Scotch Bonnet is the pepper of choice for Caribbean food.
I was just in the virgin islands as this thread was going strong so I paid closer attention the hot sauces, which these days seem to use a lot of ghost, reaper and scorpion for the heat which surprised me because overall they weren't especially hot.

This is my fav hot sauce, and it uses habs:
https://stjohnspice.com/products/valley ... inal-sauce