Aw, man, Ken - I'd throw you out on the porch for that one!! DH is banished to the porch when he wants to use the deep fryer, but I'd rather take that then hot pepper and garlic stew!! Anyway, if you visit the spice aisle, sometimes cayenne is sold as 'red pepper', it's the same thing. Going that route would be expensive, though. It's probably less expensive to buy the dried chili peppers and grind them yourself. I'd venture any hot pepper will do....some habernero will probably do the trick

To be clear, the claim that Guy made about smaller=hotter does not apply when comparing 2 different types of peppers, but only applies to the same type of pepper. In other words, if I pick a jalepeno from a plant that is mature, but half the size of another equally mature pepper on the same plant, the smaller of the two will be hotter. That's the claim anyway. The other claim comes from chefs who are well regarded for their Chile relleno using poblano peppers. Their claim is that some poblanos are quite hot and others quite mild and that the stem tells the difference. If it's straight, it's mild. If it bends sharply, it's hot. Again, that's the claim. I *could* post this on the hot pepper forum, but I grow peppers myself and have for years and can honestly say I have never paid attention to size versus heat level or stem straight or bent versus heat level. I figured you culinary types might be a better judge of these claims ;) Perhaps another question would be if you go to the store to buy a chile pepper, how do you try to determine the overall heat level of the pepper? Obviously habeneros will be much hotter than jalepenos, but within the same type such as poblanos does anyone have a method to select the hotter or more mild ones (other than taking a bite out of each which I hear store owners frown upon ;) ?

What shape are the peppers? If they look like little oriental paper lanterns then they would be the Red Savina Habenero or if they are about the same color but flatter, a Scotch Bonnet.If not one of these shapes they could be anything. Without a picture it is impossible to tell.

Karen, try Horrocks on Saginaw Road in Lansing, they have just about every item of produce grown in Michigan and they always have habaneros. You might try a small local hispanic grocery too, I'm sure you have one somewhere in Kalamazoo. I'll bet Sherry would know too... I'd offer you some of mine, but mine are currently waiting while the apricots steep in vinegar so they can become Habanero Gold! If you do buy habs, just be aware that you can dice them and freeze them for more batches of jam later. Annie