Scotch Bonnet
📷 Photo: Semillas.de
The Scotch bonnet is a Capsicum chinense chili and the defining pepper of Caribbean cooking, especially in Jamaica. A close cousin of the habanero, it shares a similar heat range of roughly 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville Heat Units, but is distinguished by its squat, crumpled shape said to resemble a Scottish tam-o'-shanter cap, and by an even sweeter, more tropical flavor. Beneath the heat are notes often compared to apple, tomato, and stone fruit, which is why it is central to jerk marinades, pepper sauces, escovitch, and pots of rice and peas across the islands. It ripens through green to yellow, orange, and red, and cooks frequently drop a whole pod into a simmering dish to lend aroma without shredding it for full heat. Its fruity perfume, more than raw pungency, is what makes it irreplaceable in Jamaican and wider West Indian cuisine.
The Scotch bonnet is a Capsicum chinense chili and the defining pepper of Caribbean cooking, especially in Jamaica. A close cousin of the habanero, it shares a similar heat range of roughly 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville Heat Units, but is distinguished by its squat, crumpled shape said to resemble a Scottish tam-o'-shanter cap, and by an even sweeter, more tropical flavor. Beneath the heat are notes often compared to apple, tomato, and stone fruit, which is why it is central to jerk marinades, pepper sauces, escovitch, and pots of rice and peas across the islands. It ripens through green to yellow, orange, and red, and cooks frequently drop a whole pod into a simmering dish to lend aroma without shredding it for full heat. Its fruity perfume, more than raw pungency, is what makes it irreplaceable in Jamaican and wider West Indian cuisine.
