Why are some jalapeno peppers not hot?? This is very frustrating!?!
Answers:
I had this very question for a so-called "expert" on chili peppers and the only thing that he could tell me is that there is actually no way to tell how hot or mild a chili might be within the same category of chilies (jalapenos, for example). I am a big of habanero chilies and was getting frustrated because some were much hotter than others, but then I learned about the scoville scale which is a scale that measures capsacin in chilies, the compound that makes them hot or mild. The scoville scale shows capsacin in a RANGE (like from 1 to 10) instead of an absolute number so even within the same family of chilies there are going to be some that are hotter than others.
If you want to put your own heat on some chilies, then quarter them and take out all of the ribs and the seeds. Then pickle them in vinegar with a measured amount of extra hot red chili flakes. You can then control the heat of the chilies while preserving them at the same time.
I wish I could give you better data but this is all I have. We once planted some jalapeno pepper plants about five feet from some green bell pepper plants. The best we can tell they cross pollinated giving us a harvest of very mild jalapenos and green bells that were slightly pointed at the bottom and therefore impossible to use for stuffed peppers (they wouldn't stand in the pan).,
In my experience the jalapeno peppers that I grow myself are always much much hotter than the ones I buy at the grocery store. I have no idea why. I grew a bunch and made jalapeno poppers for a party and if you ate more than one you were sweating and chugging beer trying to cool it. They were amazing though.
Lol. The seeds is what makes them hot. But don't go picking the prettiest ones as most of the time they were picked to early(not ripe) if they are really hard they are not ripe. The ones ready(ripe) will be a little flexible. If you buy non-ripe ones sit them in the window for a couple of days