"Crushed Red Pepper Flakes"

[CindyJ]

Those little jars in the spice aisle of the supermarket -- what kind of peppers do you think they are?

[BiscuitBoy]

cayenne

[linguafood]

What's irritating is that you never know how hot they will be. And I like hot.

But I remember the first time getting a foccacia at my (now) favorite spot in Berlin (http://bitchinberlin.wordpress.com/20...), and being quite generous with their pepper flakes. Ouch. I had to blow half of them off my slice because my lips were on fire.

[Perilagu Khan]

Freshness certainly matters. If the bottle has been sitting on a store shelf in sunlight for a year its contents won't have much pop. If it's fresh from the factory, however, it will light you up pretty good.

[Perilagu Khan]

Recently had lunch at a place called Enzo's in West Chester, Pennsylvania and spied a gentleman taking off the lid of the pepper shaker and shovelling the stuff onto his pasta. As he shovelled, I groveled in awe.

[ttoommyy]

My mother would often do this. There always seemed to be a "layer" of red pepper flakes on top of her bowl of pasta. Needless to say, she is my hero. :)

[CindyJ]

If Enzo's in WC is anything like Enzo's in Kennett, it's quite likely that the spices in that jar have outlived their usefulness.

[ZenSojourner]

They USED to be cayenne. Whatever they are now, they're nowhere near as hot as they used to be.

[goodhealthgourmet]

Zen, some sources like Penzeys offer different varieties of crushed red pepper based on scoville level. maybe try them?

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzey...

or just look for a bottle or package that contains a higher proportion of seeds :)

[ZenSojourner]

"Crushed Indian Red Pepper (40,000 heat units) "

NOW we're talkin', LOL!

If I sprinkle the typical stuff you get in local grocery stores on heavily, I can start to taste it - but it gives the pizza an unpleasant dry flaky texture. I'd rather use fewer flakes to get that heat I crave.

[al b. darned]

The Spice Barn carries 60K

http://spicebarn.com/crushed_red_pepp...

[ZenSojourner]

"Crushed Red Pepper 60,000 Heat Units"

Arrrrrr!

Ye be pleasin' me inner pirate!

[ospreycove]

There are many hybrid Cayenne Peppers, I use "Ristra hybrid Cayenne from Burpee Seed Co. dry them and crush as fine as you like. When the next year's crop is ready to dry,(after a few fresh are used in Abruzzo style dishes) I throw out the previous year's remaining crushed

[LongIslandChef]

its usually a combo of a few different types of dried peppers, but yes cayenne is one of them

[mucho gordo]

Interesting. I would have thought they were dried cherry peppers.

[onceadaylily]

I hope it's cayenne, because I grind them up whenever I need the ground cayenne in cooking and spice blends.

[Cherylptw]

Unless specifically labled a different type of pepper, the standard is cayenne

[Perilagu Khan]

Cayenne, I've always thought. Erroneously, perhaps.