Landrace Chiles

It's chile roasting season again in northern New Mexico.

I was surprised to learn that chile peppers are not native to New Mexico. Like sheep farming and horse culture -- both icons of indigenous cultures in the southwest -- chiles came to the Pueblo Indians with the Spanish. 

Peppers are a New World plant, but the Spanish brought them here from southern Mexico as they came north up the Camino Real in the 1500s to conquer and settle this area. Now chiles are the very definition of New Mexican cuisine.

For 400 years plants from the original seeds introduced in 1598 by Capitan Juan de Oñate grew, adapting to local conditions, and as they did, they became new varieties with different tastes, heat, pungency, sweetness, size, colors, etc. The varieties that adapted to these northern soils and conditions are called landrace chiles. 

A landrace is any animal or plant that evolved naturally over generations in isolated local conditions so that it becomes different from the original, with distinct characteristics that are specific to its new location. 

Landraces are not genetically bred as a plant cultivar is, they are locally adapted to a specific place over time. Landrace is from the German landrasse which sort of means "country bred". It's like "heirloom" the way we talk about heirloom tomatoes, but it's an heirloom variety specific to a location and culture.

Landrace chiles have names long established and characteristics that are well known to cooks. The names are place names of where they developed, and most are names of traditional pueblo communities or New Mexican towns. Chimayo chiles are probably the best known.

'Alcalde'

'Chimayo'

'Cochiti'

'Dixon'

'Escondida'

'Espanola'

'Isleta'

'Jarales'

'Jemez'

'Nambe Supreme'

'San Felipe'

'San Juan'

'Santo Domingo'

'Velarde'

'Zia'

You'll notice there is no 'Hatch' landrace chile. Shoppers eagerly seek out Hatch chiles and marketers sell them, but Hatch is only an area in New Mexico where some great chiles are grown, not a variety and not a landrace. 

In Hatch New Mexico they grow recently developed genetically bred varieties, mostly Anaheim and Big Jim and Sandia and others. Hatch is not a landrace heirloom or even a genetic cultivar or the name of any kind of chile. Trademark and branding wars have been going on for years. Hatch is a place, not a chile variety.

The use of chiles as a menu item and not as a condiment is what distinguishes New Mexican food from Texas or Arizona or California. 

And the landrace chiles here are unique to this area and not what you'll taste elsewhere. Because it is so much more than a spice, the nuances are important, and the landrace types matter. It's so much more than just hot or green or red or Hatch.

Here's a quote from Santa Fe Culinary Academy chef Rocky Durham (from the Santa Fe Reporter paper):

"A lot of people are heat seekers when they hunt for roasted chile, and to me there isn't much logic in that. Do you go out looking for a wine based solely on its alcohol content?

No. You find a wine you like, and if you're invested in the purchase, you usually find foods to pair with it. The same should be true with chile. Red or white wine, red or green chile, it's too…basic."

Chile appreciation is like wine appreciation. 

But then there's this. Whut?

I can't even imagine.