Jalapeño

The jalapeño is one of the world's most popular peppers, named after Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz, Mexico. These thick-walled peppers are typically harvested green at 5-10 cm long, though they ripen to red when left on the plant. When smoked and dried, green jalapeños become chipotles, a staple of Mexican cuisine.

History & lineage

The jalapeño takes its name from Xalapa (pronounced "ha-lapa"), the capital of Veracruz state in eastern Mexico, where it has been cultivated for centuries. The Spanish suffix "-eño" means "from", giving us "from Xalapa" - though ironically, modern commercial production has shifted away from Xalapa itself to other Mexican states.

Archaeological evidence places jalapeño cultivation in central Mexico back at least 6,000 years, with the Aztecs and earlier civilisations smoking ripened pods to preserve them - the origin of what we now call chipotle. The smoking technique was practical: jalapeños have thick walls that resist drying, so smoking became the only viable preservation method in pre-refrigeration Mexico.

Mexico now grows approximately 60% of the world's jalapeños, with Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Veracruz being the primary commercial regions. The pepper crossed into the United States in the 19th century and has become inseparable from Tex-Mex cuisine. In 1982, the jalapeño became the first chilli pepper to travel into space, carried aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia by NASA astronaut William Lenoir.

Two things every grower learns about it are worth knowing before you plant one. The first is corking — the fine, pale lines that spread across the shoulders of a maturing pod like stretch marks. In Mexico that is a mark of quality and a sign the fruit is ready; American supermarkets spent decades breeding it out because shoppers read it as damage. The second is that a jalapeño is not finished when it is green. Left on the plant it turns red and sweetens, and it is the red ones that are smoked into chipotle.

It is also the chilli most changed by commercial breeding. The heat range collapsed as growers selected for milder, more uniform fruit that could be sold to a mass market, which is why a supermarket jalapeño so often tastes of nothing much and a home-grown one can catch you out. If you want the older character, the cultivar name to look for is Early Jalapeño; the TAM strains were bred deliberately mild.

Culinary uses

Green and raw it is a workhorse: sliced into salsas and pico de gallo, pickled en escabeche, stuffed and baked, or charred whole alongside meat. Thick walls are what make it the stuffing chilli — it holds its shape where a serrano collapses — and the same walls make it a poor candidate for drying, which is exactly why smoking it into chipotle became the way to preserve a glut. Red ones are sweeter and better for cooking down into sauce; green ones are sharper and better raw. Seeding it removes more of the heat than most chillies, because so much of it sits in the pith.

Growing it in the UK

Annuum is the forgiving group, and the right place to start. Seed germinates readily in warmth, the season is short enough to finish outdoors in a good summer, and February to early March is soon enough to sow. Germination is given as 7-14 days. At 70 days to maturity it is one of the quick ones: sown in March, it will be picking well before the light goes.

At 60–90 cm this is a substantial plant. Give it a 10-litre pot or a greenhouse border, and stake it before the fruit sets rather than after. The record puts the yield at heavy, so start feeding weekly with something high in potassium as soon as the first fruit sets — a plant carrying that much will run out of steam otherwise.

Thick walls make it a poor drier but an excellent pickle, and it stays crisp in vinegar.

Read from this variety's own record — the figures are in the panel opposite.