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Q: Dave,
I’ve always thought that an ancho chile was simply a dried poblano. Most of the time when I run across ancho chiles this tends to be correct. Occasionally, however, I’ll run across references to ancho as its own variety of pepper. So, my question is: Is an ancho chile its own variety or is it simply a dried version of the poblano?
See you in Albuquerque in March!
–Greg Jensen
A: Greg:
Ah, you have touched on another nomenclature problem. You are correct that the ancho (Spanish for "wide") is the dried form of the poblano chile. However, some chile breeders, trying to emphasize that certain varieties of poblano should be used only in their dried state, have chosen to call cultivated varieties of poblanos "anchos," such as the Mexican variety, “Ancho 101." All of this was so confusing that in our book, "The Pepper Garden," Dr. Paul Bosland and I decided to call the pod type "Ancho/Poblano."
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