From the Spice Cupboard: Cayenne Pepper

Want to add a little extra kick to your dish? Just reach for a jar of this fiery-red powder! But be careful - a little definitely goes a very long way...

Cayennes are a type of red chili pepper originally from French Guiana, but that spread to other parts of the world during the 15th and 16th centuries. It's a fairly hot pepper, and has a mid-range Scoville Rating of 30,000 - 50,000. We home cooks tend to use it in powdered form, though you can also find and cook with cayennes that are fresh, dried, or even made into oil.

We find that we use cayenne pepper the most in our Mexican, Tex-Mex, and Southern cooking. Just a pinch adds a sweet-spicy heat to an entire pot of beans, enchilada sauce, fried chicken, or even mac n' cheese! We also really like it in egg dishes and some dry-rubs for meat and seafood.

Cayenne also has received a lot of attention for its health benefits, and in fact it was used as a medicine before it was really considered a culinary seasoning. A diet with regular amounts of cayenne is said to have a positive affect on both the digestive and circulatory systems.

When you first start cooking with it, start off with a quarter teaspoon of cayenne for a large dish like a soup or braise, or a bare sprinkling for smaller plates like scrambled eggs. This gives you a bit of spice without feeling overwhelmed. Remember - you can always add more, but you can't take it out once it's in there!

How do you use cayenne in your cooking?

(Images: Flickr member Grumpy Chris licensed under Creative Commons and J. Crow's Market Place)

Comments (8)

We have a cayenne pepper plant growing right now with half a dozen big peppers on it.

Now that we've got them, I have to ask... how does one use the real peppers (and not the dried ground spice)? And does anyone know how to dry them?

I love cayenne. I like to add it to normal soups like chicken noodle and it is really good in curry.

this is one spice i always buy in bulk and never have a problem using up.

love to sprinkle a bit in at the end of a stir-fry, in curry, i especially love it used as a dry rub on pork, and also use it regularly to add a kick to home made soups.

It is also really good very lightly sprinkled on roasted corn, first squeeze a lime over it then sprinkle with a bit of cayenne and salt to taste

kls987 I believe you just string them up somewhere with good airflow.

My favorite is cayenne sprinkled over chocolate ice cream....yum.

Thanks, rmmarty! We'll try that!

I also have cayenne peppers growing and seem to get an abundance of them.

One of my favorite things to do is to get glass bottles(kinda like the oil/vinegar ones) and put the fresh cayenne peppers in it and fill it with vinegar and a teaspoon of salt.
Let it sit for a week or so before using. It takes wonderful on french fries, sandwiches, etc. It's a spicy alternative to malt vinegar :)

my boyfriend and i use cayenne on everything. from pastas, to homemade soups, to stir fry, and of course in indian and thai cooking. we buy it in bulk too. once you get a taste for it, it is so easy to add to dishes.