Are you finding yourself ordering that In-N-Out Double-Double with chilies? Is the Five Guys Little Cheeseburger suddenly incomplete without jalapeño? How about that chip craving? Fiery hot or bust?
If you want more kick to your cuisine these days, you’re not alone. Americans are demanding spicy food now more than ever, and it’s getting the attention of food manufacturers, industry analysts and researchers.
In 2013, restaurant market research firm Technomic released its Consumer Flavor Trend Report, which found 54 percent of people prefer hot or spicy sauces, dips or foods, compared to 46 percent in 2009. And millennials are driving this trend, with 60 percent between 18 and 34 reporting a hot or spicy preference.
Grocers are seeing the shift as well. The 2011 Packaged Facts Food Shopper Insights Survey, saw 58 percent of 20 to 30-year-old grocery shoppers somewhat or strongly agree that they like hot or spicy foods.
This trend is not lost on Aziz Baameur, the Farm Advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension (an arm of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources) in the Santa Clara and San Benito counties. For the past few years he has been tinkering with the right combination of critical nutrients to grow a hotter jalapeño.
UC Cooperative Extension advisor Aziz Baameur is studying ways to make hotter jalapeños. Credit: The Regents of the University of California
Yet heat isn’t the only measure of a good pepper—taste counts too. While the jalapeño is far from being the spiciest pepper out there, it’s considered one of the most flavorful. It is found on 25 percent of restaurant menus today, and its demand will likely only grow as pizza makers add it to crusts, and sandwich chains put it in subs and sandwiches; not to mention an ever-growing list of burger recipes that include the punchy pepper.
Baameur’s challenge is to increase the heat level of jalapeños without altering the unique flavor profile. “You cannot replace jalapeños,” he noted. “They are very special in the way they are produced and used.”
A Pepper’s Perfect Diet
Three years ago, Baameur began delivering different combinations of potassium, nitrogen and water to jalapeños on a one-acre section of a pepper farm. He then measured effects on flavor pungency and overall crop yield.
Previous studies from Spain, Taiwan, Mexico and Thailand claimed withholding water created a jalapeño with more capsaicin. However, Baameur was surprised to find that when he cut water by 15 percent, capsaicin levels dropped 50 percent and overall crop yield fell by 10 to 30 percent.
Other reports tied higher potassium levels to pungency. But in Baameur’s studies, a 50 percent increase in potassium didn’t increase heat and even reduced crop yield by 15 percent.
Baameur saw the greatest success with a 50 percent nitrogen boost, which caused a 20 percent increase in pungency and a 10 percent increase in overall crop production.
A Spicy Solution?
While the data is encouraging, Baameur is concerned too much extra nitrogen is needed to bring such small pungency gains. “Nitrogen is really one factor that drives growth, size, thickness and vigor of the plant,” he said. “But you could be reaching a point of diminishing returns, a declining rate of production increase.”
Baameur hopes to experiment with smaller nitrogen increases in the future.
Even though funding is not yet in place for another study, the jalapeño researcher would like to continue his quest for a pepper with more sizzle.
Another factor Baameur would consider is the need to bring more consistency to the capsaicin levels of jalapeños grown in California’s Santa Clara County region. Growers suspect the cooler climate may play a role in why the region’s jalapeños bring different heat levels.
“We would like to come to some reasonable understanding of what is lacking and not only look at production but at the nutrient content of the pepper as well,” Baameur said.
By Brian Sodoma