Cayenne peppers are long,
slender and not very fleshy. These chiles are often straight but can curl at
the end and are a dark red color when full ripe. Cayenne pepper has probably
gained its prominence do to its long cultivation and early introduction to
Europeans. Cayenne pepper plants were being grown by native Americans when
Christopher Columbus first came to the new world and some types of chile
peppers have been grown in South and Central America for thousands of years.
Cayenne Pepper is especially prominent in Indian, Asian
and American cooking were it is appreciated for its intense immediate heat
that doesn't tend to linger.
Cayenne pepper is named after the capital of French
Guiana, Cayenne. The world "pepper" comes from a century old confusion
started by Christopher Columbus when he mistaken believed he had reached the West Indies and had found a relative of
black pepper. Of course he was wrong and had actually reached the New World, but the name stuck and all fruits
produced by plants in the genus Capsicum are now generically referred to as
"peppers".