Mulato

The mulato is a dried, fully mature poblano pepper, distinguished from the ancho by its chocolate-brown to black colour and more complex flavour. Essential to mole poblano and other traditional Mexican sauces, it offers a unique combination of sweet, smoky notes with hints of chocolate, dried cherry, and tobacco that deepens during the drying process.

History & lineage

The mulato is not a stage of the ancho, which is the usual way this gets explained and the wrong one. They are two different poblano varieties. One ripens red, is picked somewhat earlier, and dries into the broad reddish-brown pod sold as ancho. The other — the mulato — ripens all the way to a dark chocolate brown on the plant, and dries almost black.

That difference on the bush is what produces the difference in the jar. A mulato is sweeter, softer and less sharply fruity than an ancho, with the chocolate, liquorice and dried-cherry notes that make it the third of the mole trinity alongside ancho and pasilla. Mole poblano uses all three precisely because they are not interchangeable, and a recipe made with anchos alone tastes thinner and brighter than it should.

The naming is a genuine trap for cooks in Britain, where both are sold simply as "dried poblano" often enough that a recipe calling for one is routinely made with the other.

Culinary uses

Essential ingredient in mole poblano and mole negro, used in traditional Mexican sauces, salsas, and adobos. Typically toasted and rehydrated before blending into complex sauce bases, or ground into powder for seasoning.