(Clockwise from top left) Chile flakes: Piment d’Espelette, Gochugaru, Aleppo, Crushed red pepper flakes and Urfa biber. Photo by Scott Suchman for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post
There’s a wide world of chile peppers out there. But mild bell peppers, the scorching hot Carolina reaper and everything in between are all the same species.
"So there’s obviously a ton of diversity,” said Ethan Frisch, co-founder and co-CEO of spice importer Burlap & Barrel.
When it comes to your spice cabinet, that variety goes beyond simply the types of peppers you can find and into how they are processed, jarred and eventually added to all types of foods.
One of the most well-known jars of ground peppers is cayenne, which packs a major amount of spice in a tiny package. Often, just a pinch is all you need, and it’s easy to go overboard. For more mild to moderate levels of heat, here are five types of chile flakes to consider adding to your spice arsenal.
Crushed red pepper flakes - Perhaps even more ubiquitous than ground cayenne, crushed red pepper flakes are my go-to when I want to add heat to just about anything, including slices of pizza, soups, stews and pasta sauces. The jars you’ll find at your local pizzeria and in grocery stores are most often a mix of peppers, with cayenne typically chief among them. The downside is that crushed red pepper flakes have only their spice to offer and are the hottest of the options listed here. "One way to tell quality when you look at a jar of crushed red peppers is fewer [white] seeds,” Frisch said, which also means less spice. (Scoville unit rating: 15,000 to 45,000.)
Gochugaru - Also referred to as Korean chile flakes, gochugaru is relatively mild in terms of spice and has a flavor that is earthy, smoky and has a touch of fruitiness. Perhaps most famously used to make kimchi and gochujang, lending its fiery red color, it can add wonderfully complex flavor to anything it touches. "It captivated me so much I started sprinkling it on everything: eggs, avocado toast, turkey burgers, fish for my fish tacos, potatoes, pizza - you name it,” Nourish columnist Ellie Krieger wrote when she first started exploring the spice. (Scoville unit rating: 5,000 to 10,000.)
Aleppo - "Aleppo and Urfa chile are the same pepper,” Frisch said. "It’s a kind of oblong bell pepper from southeastern Turkey.” There are a lot of subvarieties, but Aleppo has historically referred to those grown in and around the city in Syria after which it is named. However, Frisch’s company calls it silk chile and describes it as having a "warm, tomato-like flavor and a medium heat.” Whatever you call it, it has a brick red color, and "often it’s stone-ground with a little oil or salt, so it has kind of a softer, chewier texture.” It’s very versatile - Frisch suggests it as a great alternative to standard crushed red pepper flakes. (Scoville unit rating: 2,500 to 7,500.)
Urfa biber - Sometimes simply called Urfa, Urfa chile or Urfa pepper, it comes from the city of the same name in Turkey, where the fruit is cured rather than dried. (Yes, chile peppers are a fruit.) Through the curing process, the pepper’s color changes to what Frisch describes as a "very dark, dark orange.” It also changes the flavor, giving it deep umami notes of chocolate and raisins. It has a heat level similar to that of Aleppo and also shares its versatility, but because of Urfa’s flavor profile, Frisch says that it is particularly great with sweets and chocolate. Sprinkle some atop your next batch of brownies to see the wonders it can work. (Scoville unit rating: approximately 7,500.)
Piment d’Espelette - "The dried red, mildly hot pepper takes its name from the village of Espelette, where the freshly harvested chili peppers are tied into braids and hung to dry against whitewashed houses before they’re ground,” cookbook author Dorie Greenspan wrote for The Washington Post. The village is in the Basque region, which encompasses both sides of the Pyrenees mountain range, including parts of France and Spain, and has vast agricultural variety. Sweet, smoky and slightly citrusy, the spice is heavily prevalent in the region’s cooking, so much so that it’s often used in place of black pepper. (Scoville unit rating: approximately 4,000.)
