HelpfulGardener.com

He called me up and asked me for something like a jalapeno, but with a different taste... meaning same size, but he would like a bit less heat. I thought of a Fresno. I didn't ask why, as he isn't afraid of heat.... he eats ghost peppers. He also asked that if possible, maybe it not be green when ripe.

All I could come up with in my head was Fresno.

Any other choices?

My guess is he wants to make a variation on jalapeno poppers.

There is a jalapeno called "Fooled you" that is a mildly hot pepper. I've never grown it-never tasted it, but know some who have. Burpee may handle it, I'm not sure. I know I have seen it in some of my seed catalogs.

What about lipstick?
https://www.rareseeds.com/lipstick/

...I haven't tried it yet, but it's on my wishlist for next year...

Fresnos are great peppers (I have been growing them ever since they were suggested as the ripe pepper in Malaysian dishes in Cradle Of Flavor), but a little hotter than the average jalapeño - about 10k. Much of the heat is taken out with the core, however, and they are usually seeded, due to that solid core at the top. They are good green or red, though I harvest almost all of mine red.

There has been a lot of hybridization with Jalapenos. Many of the numex varieties are made much milder like Early jalapeno and Fooled you. Texas A&M has TAM Jalapeno varieties that are not very hot. Peri Peri is a mild bird pepper. There are many bird peppers and many of them are pretty hot so it depends on which ones you get. Numex Primavera, and Numex Jalmundo are milder jalapeno peppers.

I find serrano's have more consistant heat than Jalapenos which can vary from hot to not on the same plant. It is slightly hotter and narrower but used the same way as the jalapeno. They are the closest in flavor to a jalapeno and they are in the same heat range as the jalapeno or a bit hotter like the fresno pepper.

Joe E parker has a lot of flavor but is not very hot. It is more like a hotter version of the mild Anaheim. It is also around the same size as an Anaheim.

Mirasol are also good chile's for cooking and salsa. It is a little smaller than jalapeno and more pointed. It grows upright intead of dangling like a christmas light bulb. Dried it is called guajillo peppers. It has mild heat but is fruity in flavor.

Thanks.... OK, I found out what his plans are.... he wants to make Poppers that have less heat..... but rather than fry them, he has this contraption for putting them in a grill.

The Tam Jalapenos , false alarm, and fooled you would have less heat.

Gardener123 wrote:Thanks.... OK, I found out what his plans are.... he wants to make Poppers that have less heat..... but rather than fry them, he has this contraption for putting them in a grill.

I have always said that this is the reason there are so many milder jalapeños out there, because of the popularity of poppers (no pun intended), and that they had to produce them for the general public to eat - not just pepper lovers - so they could sell more of them. So there are a lot of them out there!

I made some poppers this past summer from the jalapenoes I grew. They were rather large ones. We seeded them, stuffed with cream cheese and cheddar. I double dipped them and fried them.. They were so hot you cried when you ate them. A few of the 20-somethings crowd ended up with blistered lips, myself included! Next year I'm gonna try a milder jalapeno myself!

The Anaheim chilis are the right size for this, but they are very mild. Maybe not enough heat for people that like HOT.

Would a banana pepper work? It is a sweet pepper but good for frying.

Banana pepper is kinda big for what I do with them. The kids want the heat of the jalapeno-just not as much as those I had last year! My plant was very prolific this year, I have enough pickled for the winter through next summer.

Then probably the TAM Jalapeno and the milder varieties.

I just use the old standard Jalapeno M heirloom great jalapeno flavor and its the original a bit smaller then the big hybrids and not near as hot but still good heat

I had problems with Jalapeno M. It was very inconsistent with heat on the same plant. One in five peppers were hot, the rest had almost no heat to them at all.