page_title: Jalapeño
section_title: History and etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Jalapeño / History and etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Five Jalapeño peppers.
context_page_description: The jalapeño is a medium-sized chili pepper pod type cultivar of the species Capsicum annuum. A mature jalapeño chili is 5–10 cm long and hangs down with a round, firm, smooth flesh of 25–38 mm wide. It can have a range of pungency, with Scoville heat units of 3,500 to 8,000. Commonly picked and consumed while still green, it is occasionally allowed to fully ripen and turn red, orange, or yellow. It is wider and generally milder than the similar Serrano pepper. The Chile Pepper Institute is known for developing colored variations.
context_section_description: The jalapeño is variously named huachinango, for the ripe red jalapeño, and chile gordo (meaning "fat chili pepper") also known as cuaresmeño.
  The name jalapeño is Spanish for "from Xalapa" (also spelled Jalapa), the capital city of Veracruz, Mexico, where the pepper was traditionally cultivated. The name Xalapa is itself of Nahuatl origin, formed from roots xālli [ˈʃaːlːi] "sand" and āpan [ˈaːpan] "water place".
  Genetic analysis of Capsicum annuum places jalapeños as a distinct genetic clade with no close sisters that are not directly derived from jalapeños. Jalapeños were in use by the Aztecs prior to the Spanish conquest; Bernardino de Sahagún in the Florentine Codex writes of Aztec markets selling chipotles (smoked jalapeños) and mole made from chipotles, besides the sale of fresh chilies. The use of peppers in the Americas dates back thousands of years, including the practice of smoking some varieties of peppers in order to preserve them; further well preserved samples and genetic testing would be needed to determine the usage and existence of the jalapeño clade and pod type into the past.
caption: Jalapeño peppers
exif: {}