SC - Paprika-History of

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 97-11-07 11:15:47 EST, you write:

<< Out of curiousity, what makes it a "sweet pepper"?  Is it due to the
 particular variety of plant it isd or flavor?  >>

Actually both. Peppers in general are from the Nightshade family as are
potatos. tomatoes. eggplant, tobacco, Belladonna and Henbane . They are grown
for the thick-walled berries they produce. 

Simplified, The group as a whole is classied as Capsicum frutescens with the
following varieties> var. fasciculatum (red cluster peppers<hot>); var.
longum (long peppers <semi-sweet>); var. conoides (come peppers <mild to
hot>; grossum (sweet pepper< mild>); var. cerasiforme (cherry peppers <hot).

v. fasciculatum includes most of the peppers we are familiar with as "hot"
peppers with the noteble exception of Habeneros which some place in the
conoides group (which IMO is in error).

v. cerasiforme is , of course the round globe shaped peppers we call cherry
peppers.

v. grossum is the Bell pepper which we are all familiar with  and it is very
mild to sweet in flavor and pimiento..

v. longum is semi-sweet and includes Italian frying peppers and paprika.
longum was originally classified as a grossum from the information I have at
hand.

As a side the majority of the hot peppers dry easily and those of the grossum
and longum varieties are more thickly fleshed  tending to rot if not
carefully monitored during the drying process. Bells and pimients rot most
readily of all the peppers.

al-Sayyid Ras al Zib
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