Poblano vs Anaheim

These two get swapped for each other in the same dish, chiles rellenos. Both are mild Capsicum annuum, both have walls thick enough to roast and stuff, and both are sold green and roasted. The difference is that the Poblano is a Mexican landrace from Puebla and the Anaheim is an American cultivar with a paper trail that starts at a land-grant college.

The Anaheim is a New Mexican pod type. Fabián García at what became New Mexico State University began improving local chiles in 1894, and early in the 1900s he released New Mexico No. 9, the first New Mexican chile with a dependable pod size and heat level. The Chile Pepper Institute puts it flatly: all New Mexican-type chiles grown today, including the Anaheim, owe their genetic base to that cultivar. The California branch of the story is Emilio Ortega. Ortega moved to New Mexico in 1890, came home to Ventura a few years later with chile seed, and built the state's first commercial food operation on roasting, peeling and packing the pods. The seed spread to Anaheim, where it was grown widely enough that the pod type picked up the town's name. New Mexico chile people consider Anaheim a mislabel for their pepper. They are not entirely wrong.

Shape separates them at a glance. Oregon State University Extension describes the Anaheim as about 2 inches by 7 inches, long and tapered, and the Poblano as heart-shaped, 3 to 4 inches across and 4 to 7 inches long. The Poblano has a wide shoulder and a deep cavity, which holds more filling and stands up on a plate. The Anaheim is a tube, easier to roast evenly and easier to slice into strips for green chile. Both ripen red and both are dried. The Poblano becomes the ancho and the mulato. The Anaheim and its New Mexican relatives become the red pods strung in ristras.

Heat is the closest match on this page. Oregon State calls the Anaheim anything from no pungency to mildly hot depending on cultivar, and the Poblano moderately spicy at 1,000 to 2,000 SHU. Both vary pod to pod. The Anaheim varies most by seed source. Texas A&M's 'TAM Ben Villalon', an Anaheim-type released in 2010 with virus resistance, measured only trace capsaicin in Uvalde trials, while strains grown in New Mexico run hotter. The Poblano is earthier and a little sweeter. The Anaheim is greener and cleaner. Neither will trouble anyone.

Sources

• Chile Pepper Institute, New Mexico State University: Fabian Garcia
• Ortega Foods: Our History
• Bosland 1996, Purdue NewCROP: Capsicums: Innovative Uses of an Ancient Crop
• Oregon State University Extension: Grow Your Own Peppers (EC 1227)
• Crosby et al. 2010, HortScience 45(11): 'TAM Ben Villalon', a New, Multiple-virus Resistant, Mild, Green-chile Pepper (doi:10.21273/HORTSCI.45.11.1756)