Capsicum annum L.
Scoville Scale: (500-2,500); Common Names: Long Green Chile, California chile (chilli), Magdalen
Anaheim chile is a cultivated variety of sweet pepper of the species Capsicum annuum L. It is a mild variety of the ‘New Mexico 9‘ commonly grown outside New Mexico. (WIKI)
It’s named after Anaheim city, the home of Disneyland Resort, in California. A farmer called Emilio Ortega brought the seeds to California from New Mexico and started the production and canning of the Ortega brand of canned peppers. (The hot sauce cookbook) (ortega.com)
The pepper is lime to dark green, slightly curved and medium sized (about 5-inches), but will grow 6-10 inches (15-25cm long) and 1-2 inches around (webarchive.org) . Its narrow, compared to bell pepper and has a mild sweet taste. Anaheim is usually harvested green and used fresh or harvested and canned when still green.
The heat varies depending on where it’s grown and it’s stage of maturity and ripening. The varieties grown in New Mexico State tend to be hotter than those grown in California and the ripe red chiles have more heat than the green ones. (webarchive.org)
Mature, ripened Anaheim is red in colour and is called chile Colorado or California red chiles (chilli). The word Colorado in Spanish means red.
The red peppers can be dried whole or dried and ground into powder. The dried whole peppers are known as Seco Del Norte. They can be strung to make ristras.
The principal use of Anaheim is canning. The green peppers are fire roasted, skinned and seeded before canning. They are sold as Ortega Brand of green ‘Fire Roasted Chiles’ since 1897. (ortega.com).
Culinary Use of Anaheim Pepper
Anaheim peppers are used in Mexican and Southwestern cooking.The cooked pepper has a sweet tangy flavour.
They can be used in stews, soups, sauces and in cooking meat or poultry.
They are excellent for salsa especially if you prefer mild heat.
Anaheim can be used in any recipe that calls for bell pepper or other sweet mild chilli.
Used to make chile rellenos
Availability: Green Anaheim is available all year round.
Common Cultivars of Capsicum annum L. and Scoville Heat Units (SHS)
Hot Peppers
- Numex (30,000-50,000),
- Cayenne (30,000-50,000),
- Chile de árbol (50,000-65,000),
- New Mexico Chili (0-70,000),
Medium Hot Peppers
- Hungarian wax pepper (1,000-15,000),
- Jalapeno (2,500-10,000),
- Peter Pepper (10,000-23,000),
- Serrano (10,000-25,000)
Mild to sweet peppers
- Paprika, Bell Pepper, Poblano (1,000-1,500),
- Cubanelle or Cuban Pepper (1000),
- Banana pepper (0-500),
- Pimento (cherry pepper) low rating,
- Anaheim (500-5,000)
Aesthetic Peppers
There are also a few aesthetic peppers like the Bolivian Rainbow, and the Black Pearl, bred by the US National Herbarium.
What is the Scoville Scale?
The amount of heat in hot pepper is measured by the Scoville scale, which measures the pungency (spicy heat) of chilli peppers, recorded in Scoville heat units. The units range from 0 (Bell pepper); 100-900 (Paprika, Pimento); 3,500-10,000 (Chipotle, Jalapeño); 30,000-50,000 (Cayenne, Tabasco), 100,000-350,000 (Habanero, Scotch bonnet) to 2,000,200 (Carolina Reaper).
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