Are there specific peppers reserved for specific Mexican dishes?

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BAPyessir6

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Just made tamales for the second time, and they're delicious! I had a 6 pack of different chilis: guajillo, pasval, cascabel, arbol, ancho, and Morita. I'm gonna make another 60 or so to freeze within the next week. For the pepper sauce in the pork filling (and a bit in the tamal dough), I used some ancho, about a dozen guajillo, and a few pascal. Now I'm wondering what to do with the other 3 types of peppers. Can I just. . .throw in some cascabel or Morita or whatever pepper (soaked then blended) into the next chili red sauce I make, or is this considered SACRILEGE! in Mexican cuisine?

Are there specific Mexican dishes that use, say, cascabel/Morita/arbol chilis? Or is whatever you got just fine, as long as the heat level is manageable?
 
Like anything else, it's a matter of taste. Fort instance, I like New Mexico chili powder for recipes that call for chili powder, while some people prefer Ancho chili powder. When a recipe calls for green chiles, I always use Hatch chiles, while others prefer an Anaheim, poblano, serrano or jalapeño.
 
It probably depends on where in Mexico you are. Mexican food is like Italian food, in that in different regions, food with the same name will be made differently.

I base my choices on both fresh and dried chilis on what I can get. I use a lot of anchos (poblanos), chipotle (jalapeño) and cayenne.

I make my own chili powder. I toast some dried chilis in a pan briefly to bring out the oils, then chop them in the food processor, run them through a mesh sieve, and then use my spice (coffee) grinder to make a fine powder. WAY better than commercial chili powder. My foundation is ancho, plus a mix of whatever I have at the time.

CD
 
The chili powder that I use is homemade. I don't like the ingredient lists on the commercial chili powders that I have seen. They all have salt and some have anti-clumping agents.

CD, do you add herbs and / or spices when you make your chili powder?
 
I just checked online at two grocery store chains that I get deliveries from. This is the sort of thing I can get:

  • Compliments Powder Chili (Voilá store brand): Chili pepper, Cumin, Coriander, Salt, Oregano, Garlic powder, Cloves

  • McCormick Gourmet Seasoning Chipotle Chili Pepper: Chipotle Chili Pepper, Silicon Dioxide.

  • Club House Chili Powder: Spices (Including Chili Pepper, Oregano), Salt, Garlic Powder, Silicon Dioxide.

  • Selection Chili Powder (Métro store brand): Chili pepper, Paprika, Cumin, Salt, Oregano, Dehydrated garlic, Coriander, Silicon dioxide, Ethoxyquin (antioxidant).

  • Irrésistible Chili Powder (another Métro store brand): Chili pepper, Spices, Salt, Dehydrated garlic. May contain: Peanut, Almond, Soy, Sesame, Wheat, Mustard
We don't have a lot of Mexican food in Montreal like in Texas and SoCal. That's why I grind my own dried chilis or buy "cayenne powder". That might have the antioxidant and or the silicon dioxide, but I can find just plain, ground cayenne. I notice they don't call that "chili powder".
 
I mostly use new mexico Anaheim pepper that I ordered on Amazon. It's not TOO hot for me. There's nothing I make that isn't a watered down version of mexican since we can't tolerate the heat. A little hot is good enough for us.

We use paprika, and smoked paprika, and smoked sweet red bell peppers, and smoked serrano peppers, dried and ground. The serrano peppers were fermented and then I made that into a hot sauce, not too hot for us.

@taxlady, I've tried to use cayenne pepper but I find it too harsh for me or for him.
 
There are countless peppers out there in the Mexican cuisine, though we won't see most of them, though some are becoming more available, through the internet. Some can be substituted for others, but many are pretty much unique to themselves (though different regions will have different names for the same pepper). The smoked peppers are pretty much the same, though different sizes - mora, morita, meco, as well as pasilla de Oaxaca, which looks more like an ancho, that was smoked. Chile de árbol is a pepper that pretty much just adds heat, and I use my Thai peppers anywhere those are called for (or in Indian or Szechwan cooking). They are sort of like adding cayenne - basically for heat, not flavor. Not sure what pasval or pascal peppers are - maybe a company name for a peper?
 
Your tamales sound amazing! Don’t worry, it’s not sacrilege to mix peppers. Each one adds its own unique flavor. Cascabels are smoky, perfect for sauces or mole, while Moritas are sweet and smoky, great with meats. Arbol adds heat, so use it carefully. Feel free to experiment just adjust the heat level to your taste. There’s no wrong way as long as the flavors work together!
 
We don't have a lot of Mexican food in Montreal like in Texas and SoCal. That's why I grind my own dried chilis or buy "cayenne powder". That might have the antioxidant and or the silicon dioxide, but I can find just plain, ground cayenne. I notice they don't call that "chili powder".

Cayenne pepper powder is different than what is normally called "chili powder." It is typically considerably hotter, and think it tastes different. I use it in my cajun cooking all the time.

CD
 
Cayenne pepper powder is different than what is normally called "chili powder." It is typically considerably hotter, and think it tastes different. I use it in my cajun cooking all the time.

CD
Yeah, I agree. It's just close and something I can find here without additives.
 
I'd send you some dried chilis to make you own chili powder, but shipping from the US to Canada is ridiculously expensive.

CD
Thanks. Expensive shipping and maybe duty added on. I was going to say that I can get those here. But, the dry peppers I have are the ones I bought fresh and dried. I think there is a spice store in town that has dried peppers. They may even have decent chili or chile powders. I should check out their online stuff again some time.
 
There are countless peppers out there in the Mexican cuisine, though we won't see most of them, though some are becoming more available, through the internet. Some can be substituted for others, but many are pretty much unique to themselves (though different regions will have different names for the same pepper). The smoked peppers are pretty much the same, though different sizes - mora, morita, meco, as well as pasilla de Oaxaca, which looks more like an ancho, that was smoked. Chile de árbol is a pepper that pretty much just adds heat, and I use my Thai peppers anywhere those are called for (or in Indian or Szechwan cooking). They are sort of like adding cayenne - basically for heat, not flavor. Not sure what pasval or pascal peppers are - maybe a company name for a peper?
Well if you, the pepper head, don't know what type of pepper it is, I certainly don't know!

Wait!!

I mixed up the wording, my bad. It was Cascabel peppers and Pasilla peppers. I am not Hispanic!
 

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And I was wondering why you hadn't mentioned pasillas, after mentioning all those others, since they are one of the most commonly used Mexican peppers!

I never buy cayenne pepper, as it is basically like just adding heat, and I have so much dried Thai pepper, I grind that up, in place. But in my early days of cooking, when I went away to school, I joined a co-op, and one of the many things I got there was cayenne pepper, for $1.29/lb! Me and my roommate, who cooked with me and liked heat, would put it in just about everything, so our other roommates wouldn't eat our food. We even put it in things like brownies! :ROFLMAO:
 
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I never buy cayenne pepper, as it is basically like just adding heat, and I have so much dried Thai pepper, I grind that up, in place. But in my early days of cooking, when I went away to school, I joined a co-op, and one of the many things I got there was cayenne pepper, for $1.29/lb! Me and my roommate, who cooked with me and liked heat, would put it in just about everything, so our other roommates wouldn't eat our food. We even put it in things like brownies! :ROFLMAO:

I grow it, and use it because it is the standard chili pepper for cajun cooking, and I love cajun food.

CD
 
I remember a cajun cookbook I had in which just about every recipe had cayenne in it. But it was only in small amounts - not for flavor, so much, but for heat. If used in the amounts the milder peppers are used in, most people wouldn't eat them.
 
I remember a cajun cookbook I had in which just about every recipe had cayenne in it. But it was only in small amounts - not for flavor, so much, but for heat. If used in the amounts the milder peppers are used in, most people wouldn't eat them.

Yes, you don't use a lot of cayenne at once, but you use it in a lot of things.

CD
 
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