Peppers split from The Salt War.

diane

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The story of tabasco sauce is a great one. I heard - sure can't confirm it - that Texans introduced chili peppers to Southern cuisine but I think it was Indians trading! Wish they'd traded some of those chilis up here - sure would have helped out the acorn mush!
 

jgoodguy

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The story of tabasco sauce is a great one. I heard - sure can't confirm it - that Texans introduced chili peppers to Southern cuisine but I think it was Indians trading! Wish they'd traded some of those chilis up here - sure would have helped out the acorn mush!
Indians first cultivated them.


The original term, chilli (now chile in Mexico) came from the Nahuatl word chīlli, denoting a larger Capsicum variety cultivated at least since 3000 BC, as evidenced by remains found in pottery from Puebla and Oaxaca.[7] Different varieties were cultivated in South America, where they are known as ajíes (singular ají), from the Quechua term for Capsicum.
 

diane

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Indians first cultivated them.


The original term, chilli (now chile in Mexico) came from the Nahuatl word chīlli, denoting a larger Capsicum variety cultivated at least since 3000 BC, as evidenced by remains found in pottery from Puebla and Oaxaca.[7] Different varieties were cultivated in South America, where they are known as ajíes (singular ají), from the Quechua term for Capsicum.
The Mayans traded copper goods with people on the Mississippi - why wouldn't they throw in a few chili peppers? Some long while ago a friend of mine discovered a Mayan colony just below Natchez - it was a big deal at the time. Think they bumped ambitions with a king who was already there!
 

Jim Klag

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The story of tabasco sauce is a great one. I heard - sure can't confirm it - that Texans introduced chili peppers to Southern cuisine but I think it was Indians trading! Wish they'd traded some of those chilis up here - sure would have helped out the acorn mush!
Tabasco is a state in Mexico where the peppers originated with Yucatan Indian cultivators. Tabasco is said to be where Mesoamerican culture originated. All the Mayans and later central American cultures sprang from there. The people were related to Mayans and spoke the Mayan language.
 

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Tabasco is a state in Mexico where the peppers originated with Yucatan Indian cultivators. Tabasco is said to be where Mesoamerican culture originated. All the Mayans and later central American cultures sprang from there. The people were related to Mayans and spoke the Mayan language.
Who doesn't know that?
 

jgoodguy

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The Mayans traded copper goods with people on the Mississippi - why wouldn't they throw in a few chili peppers? Some long while ago a friend of mine discovered a Mayan colony just below Natchez - it was a big deal at the time. Think they bumped ambitions with a king who was already there!
I wondered that too.
 

Jim Klag

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Nor I until I chased peppers just a bit ago. Now I am all interested in Precolumbian trade patterns and why Spanish missionaries ignored peppers.
They were looking for souls and gold. They did take potatoes, tobacco and maize back to Europe.
 

jgoodguy

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Long read. I think the pepper went around the world until it landed in North America.

In Chilies to Chocolate, Jean Andrews notes that chili peppers “were to be found nowhere north of modern-day Mexico until after colonization by Northern Europeans.” Around 1600, Dutch and British empires broke the naval hegemony established by the Portuguese, and the market was flooded with more goods. Despite this change, the chili did not take root in North America until the plantation system and African slavery were instituted. Slaves from both the West Indies and West Africa already cooked using chilies, and they grew easily in the Southern United States​
 

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Post-article update: My friend Tyler reached out to Mark Miller, who is one of the foremost chili experts in this world. I had wanted to know about which of the theories for North America was correct, if any. His response was essentially that there were wild chilies growing in Texas and the more arid Southwest, and that they were used in Native American cooking. So the plant was known by the Native American Indians and thus there was no specific need for a more domesticated variety.
In addition, he adds that botanical trade routes from Mesoamerica to the North American civilizations are well documented for all the important varieties of subsistence crops, corn (400 varieties in North American from Baja to Maine), beans and squash — which all have their indigenous base in the Southern Valleys of Mexico where capsicum chiles were grown.
He notes, “your link seems correct as far as large scale of domesticated chilies in North America”, but he added that European explorers were poor botanists, and it is likely that Native Indians ate chilies despite their records only referring to corn

Why the pepper did not show up in northern California is not covered.
 

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Post-article update: My friend Tyler reached out to Mark Miller, who is one of the foremost chili experts in this world. I had wanted to know about which of the theories for North America was correct, if any. His response was essentially that there were wild chilies growing in Texas and the more arid Southwest, and that they were used in Native American cooking. So the plant was known by the Native American Indians and thus there was no specific need for a more domesticated variety.
In addition, he adds that botanical trade routes from Mesoamerica to the North American civilizations are well documented for all the important varieties of subsistence crops, corn (400 varieties in North American from Baja to Maine), beans and squash — which all have their indigenous base in the Southern Valleys of Mexico where capsicum chiles were grown.
He notes, “your link seems correct as far as large scale of domesticated chilies in North America”, but he added that European explorers were poor botanists, and it is likely that Native Indians ate chilies despite their records only referring to corn

Why the pepper did not show up in northern California is not covered.
I knew there were chilis native to New Mexico. In fact they have the name of New Mexico Chilis. Imagine that. It makes sense that they grew all over the southwest.
 

diane

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They seem to be popular where people were doing a good deal of farming. We didn't do that - mountains! However, the Shasta country was one of the critical trade hubs in the Pacific Northwest where things from central California, the Great Basin, the west coast and Canada came together. Had a wide valley - the coast people would come upriver to just north of Black Mountain to trade, then go on upriver to Klamath Lakes. Might be our country is too cold for them - very short growing season.
 

jgoodguy

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They seem to be popular where people were doing a good deal of farming. We didn't do that - mountains! However, the Shasta country was one of the critical trade hubs in the Pacific Northwest where things from central California, the Great Basin, the west coast and Canada came together. Had a wide valley - the coast people would come upriver to just north of Black Mountain to trade, then go on upriver to Klamath Lakes. Might be our country is too cold for them - very short growing season.
Looks like 150 days to maternity and hot weather.
 

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