The Powder - Chili or Chile?
July 16, 2009 by admin
I don’t really know which is correct — chili powder or chile powder — and since I’m a fan of b.s.’ing, I probably won’t ever know for certain. Instead, I will tell everyone my definition as though it’s fact so a small group will believe what I’m saying is a truth (even if it’s not). So here’s the definition:
Chili Powder: A spice mixture including chile powders, cumin, oregano, paprika, salt, pepper and possibly a few other spices depending on the culture/style of chili powder being made.
Chile Powder: A powder made from drying chile peppers, then toasting the dried product, removing the stems and seeds, and grinding them up.
In short, you need chile powder to make chili powder. Good enough?
With that said, I made some chile powders this past weekend and opted to keep them all single-variety chile powders instead of combining them to make a chili powder mix. I might want just the dundicut powder when I’m making Indian food, whereas I made a salad dressing last night utilizing the powder from ancho chile peppers. If I mixed them all together the usages are less versatile.
I made four powders:
Guajillo (Scoville Units: 2,500-5,000)
Ancho (Scoville Units: 1,000-2,000)
Cascabel (Scoville Units: 1,000-2,500)
Dundicut (Scoville Units: 30,000-50,000)
FYI: Here’s a scoville chart
The process is fairly simple:
(1) Buy dried chiles from a spice shop (I bought these from Penzey’s, who ships if needed, but there is a great spice place in the city called Kalustyan’s if you’re an NYC resident)
(2) Break off the stems and remove all the seeds
(3) Cut in smaller pieces, maybe quarter or half dollar sized
(4) Heat a large saute pan over high heat until the pan is VERY hot
(5) Throw in the chile pepper pieces and toast for about 20-30 seconds a side. Make sure you DO NOT BURN them for two reasons: one, they will taste terrible and two, the fumes are incredibly painful when inhaled. I know that from personal experience.
(6) Remove the pieces from the pan, cool them a bit, and then toss them into a spice/coffee grinder. Grind them up whilst trying not to inhale the airborne chile powder because again, it can be quite uncomfortable.
(7) Store in an airtight container!
I keep mine in the fridge since the powder is fresh and preservative free. It should keep about 6 months without losing flavor, though if you’re a heat addict like me, they won’t last that long 
I’m so glad I found this site…Keep up the good work I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say GREAT blog. Thanks,
A definite great read.. <a href=”http://wiki.hudson-ci.org/display/~bill-bartmann”
-Bill-Bartmann
Just wanted to drop you a line to say, I enjoy reading your site. I thought about starting a blog myself but don’t have the time.
Oh well maybe one day….