Chile Tasting from Marx Foods

If you are a serious foodie, you simply must bookmark Marx Foods - the vast array of great ingredients to be had is mind boggling. Recently, Justin Marx provide me with the opportunity to sample what seemed like a bushel of varied chiles, many of which I had never even heard of before - a feat really given my propensity for cooking with diverse types of chiles. While excited by the prospect of sampling all these chiles, I was met with the fundamental difficulty of finding a way to systematical make my way through tasting each of these without scorching my palate beyond sensation.

I decided a chile tasting was in order, but how the heck to conduct one would prove challenging. After consulting various foodies on Twitter and through email, I was provided with ideas like sour cream as a palate cleanser - a start, but deeper consideration of the problem was needed. The chiles ran the gamut from mild to EXTREMELY hot, including what might prove to be my nemesis - the Bhut Jolokia; how could we sample the Bhut Jolokia, weighing in at 1 million+ scoville units? In researching the scoville system for measuring chile heat, I discovered that the numeric system was based upon perceptability of heat with different levels of dilution. More precisely, 1 million scoville means that it takes 1 million drops of water to render the heat of the chile unperceptable. I was struck that dilution in chicken broth might be a good way to deal with the high end heat monsters, while still allowing the flavor of the chile to come through. After a little more thought, and grabbing a chile-head friend to help me sample, I had settle upon a format.

For the chile tasting we would sample from mild to extremely hot in ascending scoville order, or at least that was the plan. I put together a spreadsheet of foodstuffs which might work for developing flavor pairings from the chile tasting, as well as target cleansers for varying scoville heat levels. You are welcome to share / edit this spreadsheet for your own chile tastings, let me know what you discover in your trials.

Here is a view on the ingredients we used to taste with these excellent chiles from Marx Foods..


Here are the tasting notes from the first, and hopefully not the last, Gastronomic Guesswork Chile Tasting...

Chile: Aji Limo Rojo
Flavors: Apple, Green Onion, Pear
Heat: moderate
Desirability: 4.5 of 5 (amazing)
Pairing Ideas: Carnitas (see here)

Chile: Tepin
Flavors: Bitter, Sour, Zesty, Astringent, Like Zest
Heat: On tip and back of tongue, late attack
Desirability: 3 of 5 (very good)

Chile: Aji Panca
Flavors: Cherrie, Raisin, Dusty
Heat: mild, easily overwhelmed by fat
Desirability: 4.5 of 5 (amazing)
Pairing Ideas: Lamb, Chicken

Chile: Puya
Flavors: Orange, Sage, Sunflower Seeds
Heat: mild to medium
Desirability: 3 (very good)
Pairing Ideas: Moraccan, Greek, Dumplings, Preserved Lemon, Olives

Chile: Smoked Serrano
Flavors: Smoke, Green Herbs, Extremely nice nose
Heat: nasty, not habanero, but very assertive and fairly persistent
Desirability: 2 (good, the nose was a 4)
Pairing Ideas: Soups, Carrot Soup (see here)

Chile: Chipotle
Flavors: Caramel, Smoke
Heat: healthy, not fierce
Desirability: 4 (excellent)

Chile: Aji Amarillo
Flavors: Sweet, Tropical Fruit, Guava, Lemon
Heat: Assertive, not persistent
Desirability: 4-4.5 (excellent - amazing)

Chile: Aji Cereza
Flavors: Fig, Pepper, Cassis
Heat: Ouch
Desirability: 4.5 (excellent)
Pairing Ideas: tomatillo, salsa, braised pork belly, quail

Chile: Bhut Jolokia
Flavors: sweetness against salt, makes meat sweeter
Heat: only tasted diluted broth with a dropper, incredibly hot
Desirability: 2-2.5 (good)
Pairing Ideas: providing base heat in a meat dish in combination with another chile; hospital visit possible if eaten whole

My chile compatriot Chris and I concluded the evenings festivites by making dinner ...

From gastronomic guesswork

We used the Bhut Jolokia in some chicken broth to braised a pork loin. The Aji Cereza was used in a tomatillo salsa with orange juice and roasted garlic. Pictured above is two versions of tacos: the foreground has the tomatillo and Aji Cereza salsa, the background has cointreu romesco (just add 2 oz of cointreu to the original romesco sauce during reduction). Thanks again to Justin at Marx Foods, sensational chiles, here is the complete list of their chile selection.