Chile Pepper Fun Fact - The Shishito Chile Pepper
What are they and how the heck do you say it?
Unlike some other Asian countries, Japan isn’t known for its spicy cuisine. In fact, for all its unique flavor, Japanese food has very little heat at all. And that’s sort of the story of the Shishito pepper…except for when it isn’t. Shishitos are bright, flavorful sweet chilies with typically a mild spiciness (50 to 200 Scoville heat units.) But like the Padrón pepper (from which it may likely take its roots), there’s a fiery punch every so often where a Shishito breaks the norm and turns up the dial. It makes them a ton of fun to eat, and they have grown immensely popular as a quick-to-cook appetizer or side.
How chili peppers ended up anywhere outside of the Americas is typically a story of exploration centuries ago. It’s likely the Shishito has its roots from the Padrón pepper which is native to Spain. They look a lot alike, and, as you’ll see, they share the same quirky heat, though the Padrón is noticeably spicier, reaching at its maximum the spiciness of a mild jalapeño (500 to 2,500 SHU).
The Padrón likely ended up in Spain in the 16th century from South America. From there, the Japanese likely were introduced to the chili. The mix of growing the Padrón in Japanese soil along with selecting the mildest peppers in the lot for propagation, likely converted the taste and heat of the Shishito into what we have today.
With a very mild range on the Scoville scale from 50 to 200 Scoville heat units, the typical Shishito is sort of like a rounding error of hotness above a zero-heat bell pepper. Meaning – they aren’t hot at all…most of the time. It’s sort of a warm, pulsing light simmer, very much under the radar. Comparing it to the jalapeño, our reference scale, the typical Shishito pepper is 13 to 160 times milder. Though, there’s a catch.
One out of every ten to twenty Shishito peppers will rev the heat engine just a little further. They don’t reach even mild jalapeño heat, but it’s enough to catch you by surprise. Padrón chilies have a similar “Russian roulette” tendency, and they both add a level of playfulness to the eating experience that most foods can only dream of.
The typical Shishito is slender, two to four inches in length, thin-walled, and slightly wrinkled. It has a bulbous end to the pepper that some Japanese say looks like a lion’s head. In fact, its name speaks to its shape. Shishito is a mash-up of two Japanese words: shishi for “lion” and tōgarashi for “chili pepper”. Think of the giant lion heads in Japanese parades and festivals and you’ll see it.
Shishito peppers do look a lot like Padrón chilies, and they can be mistaken for one another in markets. To tell them apart: Padrón peppers tend to be a little stockier and a little less wrinkly. Shishito also tend to be slightly shinier. Both tells, though, can be hard to process without both chilies being present.
The taste is where Shishito peppers make up for their near total lack of heat. These are flavorful sweeter chilies: grassy and citrusy with a slight hint of smoke. That citrusy sweetness is not as common on the lower end of the Scoville scale, which makes the Shishito’s flavor pretty unique.