Hungarian Wax pepper....a mild heat, but with great flavor! Plus, it's a versatile pepper:
stuffed, pickled, fresh, grilled, on sandwiches, in salsa, or dried and ground into powder.

Josh

California Wonder LOL

If I could roll my eyes online, I would. I cannot eat bell peppers, which is why I didn't mention them, but thanks. ;)

Anyone have any suggestions more along the lines of a hot pepper that they have grown and found to be not too much hotter than your average jalepeno? I like pickling them and stuffing them with cheese... I'll read up on the Hungarian Wax, thanks!

Try some Tam Jalapeno which are in the range of 2000 scovilles. If you want a no-heat pepper, Zavory, Trinidad Seasoning, or Tobago Seasoning are decent.

DarJones

Just messing with you. Try the cherry hot peppers too..they are excellent when hollowed out and stuffed with ham and cheese or just cheese. Also great pickled.Poblano or Anaheim might also be good choices for you.

Maybe my Tobago Seasoning is something else, but when I add it (green) to scrambled eggs it is spicy.
Not too much, but more than I expected it to be.

I have ripe Georgia Flame and like those.
For stuffing, I like Ancho.

Thanks, guys! Simsedward, I figured you were, that's why I stuck the little smily in there. It can be so hard to convey tone online. Is it confusing that I mention both that my peppers grew hotter than expected and also mention that I grew a heatless variety?

I really can not eat regular bell peppers, I get an abrupt and violent reaction to them, so much so that the smell of them on someone else's plate in a restaurant makes my stomach start hurting. Hot peppers almost never do that to me. So I tried the Dulce, looking for a possible replacement.

I do like hot peppers, and I eat fairly spicy food, like Thai, but I don't really do a lot of spicy cooking. For home use I like a medium heat. Or what I consider medium heat, which if you eat the really hot guys is probably a tame heat. One hot chili plant (say cayenne, or this year the mirasol)can give me enough peppers to cook with for a year, but I really like pickled peppers and peppers stuffed with various cream cheeses (or wrapped with bacon and stuffed... mmmm hungry.) I'd like to both find more peppers I can grow that I like and learn how to cook more with them- I never like the salsa I make.

I'm writing down everyone's ideas, so I can have lots of fun come seed catalog time, so thanks again!

Ha! Good one, Simsedward! ;-)
I can't stand Bell Peppers....the flavor absolutely ruins an entire dish or whole pizza for me.
I'm not allergic or anything - I just abhor the flavor and the acrid, bitter scent. Gahhhh....

Hungarians, Thais, Datils....

Josh

sunnibel7,

I hear ya regarding hot Jalapenos. They're are some very hot hybrids on the market today. Sort of misleading for folks looking for a "traditional" Jalapeno.

You've got some great suggestions for other varieties to try.

I'll add the following suggestions...

For mild: Dragon's Claw and Piment d'Espelette

For a bit of bite: Tequila Sunrise (can be variable mild to hot on same plant), Chimayo, Poblano and Mulato. The latter 3 for Rellenos!

For hot and spicy: Pusa Jwala

For mild pickling: Peppadew

For mild stuffing/poppers: Alma

If you're interested, I can set you up with some seeds for all but the Poblano and Mulato. Send me an email.

Bill

My wife and I love any type of New Mexico chile. We usually plant 6-4 or Big Jim, both of which have a mild heat (perhaps a little bit less than jalapeno), but tremendous flavor.

I've grown several that are similar in heat to a jalapeno:

Cascabella (not Cascabel)
Santa Fe Grande
Fresno
Black Hungarian

... and then there's Serrano. Okay, it's definitely hotter than a jalapeno, probably about halfway between them and a Cayenne.

Bonnie

beaver dam! it's wonderful, it's a big pepper, so it's good for stuffing. It can get pretty hot, but it's usually anaheim hot. And be careful if you grow Tams. I did this year, just to see. I bit into one and it had wonderful flavor, but really not heat. So, I grabbed another one to take it in and see what the hubby thought about the flavor (to me it was so good I could live without the heat) His was as hot as a regular jalapeno. He's never going to trust me again when I tell him something isn't hot.

kuvaszluvr, LOL! My husband is suspicous of me, too! I grow certain flowers for eating and some herbs for fragrance (like sweet annie) and he complains that he doesn't know when he's supposed to smell something and when he's supposed to eat it!

I'm starting to get the impression that variation in heat is a bit of a problem with jalepenos... is this the case? Or are there some varieties that are reliably equally hot? We are working towards growing more and more of our produce for our restaurant and we have had problems getting jalepenos that are the same heat- we thought it was just that the produce purveyor was getting mixed deliveries from various growers. We were thinking of growing our own for certain jalepeno-heavy specials but if they are very variable, I'd rather focus on something less likely to cause us trouble.

I've found Jalepenos quite variable, even on the same plant.

Hungarian variants are much more consistent for mild heat. Try those.

I think if you find an older plain Jane Jalapeno you would be ok. I think a lot of the issues are from hybridization to make them bigger, hotter, not hot, etc... where they haven't really stabilized. I don't really have a specific place / variety to recommend....just a thought.

Pickle them! heat seems to subside after some time in vinegar. not completely, but it goes down.

Otherwise, try the Nepalese pepper. Milder than jalapenos, but very tasty, and look weird (in a good way).

A couple more suggestions: Fresnos are thick fleshed like jalapenos, but very mild. Rain Forest are mild and citrussy, but thin flesh.
BTW - My Hungarian Wax were rather hot this year.
John A

One thing to remember is that you can always pick peppers a little early. The riper they get, the hotter they get. Some will say that they also get more "flavorful" as they get riper but what the heck, if you can't eat 'em anyway, it doesn't do you any good. I had Hot Hungarian Wax Peppers this year too and the first crop I let get mostly ripe and they were a bit hot for my Mom. The second crop I picked after they all were mature size but only a couple had started to turn orange/red. So mine were still green/yellow for the second crop. I slice them up and cold can them for sandwiches. My Mom loved the second batch.

Oooh Bulgarian Carrots knock my socks off - love them though!
If you want mild you do not want those peppers!