Did you know there was NO spicy (capsicum-based) food outside the Americas prior to Columbus?

[AZJonnie]

I hate to give CC credit for anything, but it's actually really interesting thing that I just learned. Pretty much every hot pepper you know of (and this even includes bell peppers) was native to Central and South America, and basically unknown in Europe, Africa, and Asia, prior to a Columbus trip the Caribbean.

Apparently, around 1492 Columbus encountered a trade in various chilis/peppers cultivars that had gone on for 1000+ years in New World, and he brought back the Chiltepin pepper plant from that trip, apparently believing it was the valuable spice black pepper (or something very close).

Turns out wild chiltepin plant is now recognized as the original plant from whence ALL of the hot but not-super-spicy peppers we know of today (such as bell pepper, jalapeno, serrano, ancho, gaujillo, etc., as opposed to Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Ghost Peppers, which originated from a different Amazonian plant) came from. All these other chilis were created from Chiltepin in Mexico and Central America over 2-3 thousand years, as a result of purposeful and selective breeding, with farmers turning them into the chilis we know today.

CC bringing it back to the Old World led to Portuguese traders circa 1500 making trips to the Gulf/Caribbean region to bring back other plumper, juicier varieties (not Jalapenos and Serranos, but something along those lines i.e. simpler, smaller-fruited varieties, not Chiltepin itself). These then diverged into completely new regional forms across Asia via Portuguese trade. Asian farmers essentially re-domesticated the peppers independently once they arrived, selecting for traits that suited their own cuisines and climates:

* Bird's eye chili (C. annuum or C. frutescens) in Southeast Asia — small, thin, intensely hot, developed through local selection in Thailand, Vietnam, and surrounding regions after Portuguese introduction

* Indian varieties like Kashmiri, Guntur, and Byadagi — bred for color, heat level, and drying qualities by Indian farmers over just a few generations

* Korean gochugaru — developed from introduced peppers into a distinctly mild, fruity variety suited to kimchi fermentation

* Chinese varieties including the Sichuan facing heaven pepper — all post-1500 developments

So in short: Asia got the raw genetic material from early post-Columbus trade, then developed its own distinct pepper cultures independently — bird's eye chili is essentially an Asian creation built on American raw material, just like Korean kimchi heat or Indian curry heat are entirely post-1500 inventions built on the same foundation.

I had NO IDEA that the reason a lot of Asian food is capsicum-based spicy can be directly traced back to a voyage of Christopher Columbus, or even that it was never 'a thing there' until after 1500.

[tonkatoy8888]

1. Yep

The Colombian Exchange.

And, if I remember correctly, no beans either. I think I recall that lentils were the only beans in Europe before the exchange.

[Ponietz]

2. Black and white pepper are native to India though to be fair

[WestMichRad]

3. Completely different plant species, though.

Not at all related to the Capsicum peppers.

Maize (corn) was also unknown to Europe and Asia prior to European expeditions to the Americas. So too tomatoes.

[AZJonnie]

4. True, hence why I specified capsicum-based heat :)

Black Pepper is native to the Malabar Coast of India as you say, but black pepper's heat comes from piperine, not capsaicin

[ProfessorGAC]

5. The Active Ingredient Is Piperene

It's a piperidyl aside with a pretty long unsaturated chain terminating in a cyclic diether.
Capsaicin is also an aside, but the nitrogen is not part of the ring, and the ring is resonant.
Radically differently structured chemical compounds.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Another Fun Fact

Varieties hotter tgan Ghosr, like Carolina Reaper & Pepper X were not cultivated for food use.
The were bred to have peppers so much higher in capsaicin that extraction fir use in pepper spray & capsaicin based analgesics was far more efficient.
Then some macho types decided that nothing was too hot for them and started using them in foods. But, there was never an intent for these superhot peppers to be used in cooking.
A bit of it was a competition among the hybridizers to see who could make the hottest pepper on a viable plant. But, the dollar sign visions were about selling them to the extraction industries

[AZJonnie]

7. Thanks Prof! I'd do all that in very small quantities, but I'm NOT a ghost pepper fan

To me it tastes musty, just not an enjoyable flavor in my book. Never had the Reapers.

The hottest stuff I really like (and will dollop on fairly generously) are the Green and Red Yucateca Habanero sauces. The Mango Habanero wings at Wingstop are right at my heat limit (for something that's like coating my meal), I can't do the VERY hottest one they have, one notch above it. Or one decent size birdseye chili in a single dish of Thai stir fry. Those buggers are HOT.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. The Hottest Thing I Ever Had....

..was a sauce made from malagueta peppers in Brazil.
One of our manufacturing sites there had a fantastic commissary and the sauce was a condiment made in their kitchen.
The people who made it wore gloves because the liquid could raise welts in the tender areas between the fingers.
Just the tip of a serving spoon mixed into the meal was enough.
About 100k Scoville, IIRC.