Ñora Pepper, Sweet Pimentón Pod Under 480 SHU

Is a ñora pepper hot?

Barely, so you can use it by the spoonful. The variety behind it is a sweet pepper in the mild band, and the official rules for Pimentón de Murcia cap capsaicin at 0.003 % in both legal grades¹. No primary source prints a Scoville figure for the pod itself, so we worked one out from that limit for you.

Here is the math you can check yourself. 0.003 % is 30 parts per million, and labs turn parts per million into SHU by multiplying by 16³ or, in some papers, 15⁴: 30 × 15 = 450 and 30 × 16 = 480.

Even at the legal ceiling, Murcia pimentón carries, gram for gram, about a tenth of an average jalapeño's heat. The cap counts capsaicin only, so read it as a rough ceiling, not a lab result for the pod in your hand.

What is a ñora?

A ñora is a small, round, sun-dried pepper of Capsicum annuum, variety Bola²; picture a small, dark red ball, light enough that the seeds rattle when you shake it. The Murcia specification calls the same variety "Bola" or "Americano" and describes a sweet, light, nearly spherical pepper¹. The specification calls the dried pod a "cáscara", a shell¹.

1Semi-fleshy wall: at least 50 % of the dried pod's weight¹2Three equal chambers with slightly fleshy dividers¹3Seeds nearly fill the chambers: at most 40 % of the dried weight¹4Green stalk: at most 8 %¹

1. Semi-fleshy wall: at least 50 % of the dried pod's weight¹
2. Three equal chambers with slightly fleshy dividers¹
3. Seeds nearly fill the chambers: at most 40 % of the dried weight¹
4. Green stalk: at most 8 %¹

Drying takes most of the weight away, which is why your bag of ñoras feels almost empty. The specification allows at most 5 kg of fresh pepper for 1 kg of dried shell¹, so a 5 kg crate of fresh ñoras gives you at least 1 kg of shell.

Where does the ñora come from?

Today it is a Murcia pepper, and the tins you buy say so. The protected Pimentón de Murcia comes only from the Region of Murcia and listed towns in the provinces of Almería, Granada and Alicante in south-east Spain¹. If you ask where the name comes from, ICEX, Spain's trade agency, says monks spread its cultivation to their brothers at La Ñora in Murcia, the place that shares the pepper's name².

ICEX also says the pepper first came from Peru and Bolivia². The genus monograph points elsewhere for the species: research places the start of C. annuum domestication in central-east Mexico over 6,500 years ago⁶. We print the Murcia origin, which both sources support, and leave the deeper story with that conflict noted so you can weigh it yourself.

Bill Moore's Hot & Spicy Reviews, a hobby pod-review channel, shows one nora up close and tells its own version of how the pepper reached Murcia, so you can see the pod up close, and you can weigh the story against the sources above.

Play video: The "Nora" a Pod Review for Refining Fire Chiles 5:04

The "Nora" a Pod Review for Refining Fire Chiles

From Bill Moore's Hot & Spicy Reviews

VideoPlays from YouTube when you press play.Watch on YouTube

1 source

What is the ñora's year, from seed to string?

A ñora takes most of a year to reach your pan. ICEX gives the Murcia calendar: seed goes in during January, the pods come off the plants in August and September, and drying starts around October².

The strings go out under the sun day after day until they are fully dry; ICEX warns that pods left damp go mildewy and spoil². That's the same risk you face at home, and it's why the specification's hot-air dryers keep the shell at no more than 14 % moisture¹. If you want to dry peppers at home, the same moisture rule applies to your batch.

How does a ñora become pimentón?

By hand, sun and mill, in that order, and you can trace every step on the tin's label. The Pimentón de Murcia specification sets each step¹:

1. 1

   Pick at full color

   Pick by hand, in several passes, only the pods at peak ripeness: deepest red, most pigment, least water.¹

2. 2

   Dry in the sun

   Spread the pods on drying grounds in the sun for several days, then slit the wall so the inside dries too.¹

3. 3

   Or dry with hot air

   Wash the pods and run them through a belt or tray dryer for 8 to 10 hours, keeping the pepper below its critical 65–75°C, with the outgoing air near 40°C.¹

4. 4

   Check the shell

   The dried shell leaves the dryer at no more than 14 % moisture and stays in a dry room until milling.¹

5. 5

   Grind fine

   Mill until the powder passes an ASTM No. 16 sieve, a 1.19 mm mesh. Up to 8 % edible vegetable oil may go in.¹

The sun method is the old one you'll see in photos of Murcia. Growers once spread the pods on racks, open ground or hillsides until the sun dried them, and that method is still in use beside the dryers¹.

What do the grades on a tin mean?

Only two grades carry the Pimentón de Murcia name, Extra and Primera, and your tin names one of them. Color is the big difference you'll notice, measured in ASTA units¹. Buy Extra when you want the deepest red in your rice.

The red in your tin comes from carotenoids. In the Bola variety, capsanthin makes up about 50 % of them and capsorubin about 12 %, the mix that sets it apart from other varieties¹.

Do you want Murcia or La Vera pimentón?

Pick Murcia for clean, sweet color and La Vera for smoke. Both are protected Spanish paprikas and both may use the Bola variety, but they dry the pods in opposite ways¹⁸.

The smoke you taste comes from the weather. The La Vera specification explains that the climate there makes sun drying impossible, so farmers dry the pods over a fire on their own holdings⁸. If your recipe says "smoked paprika", Murcia pimentón won't give you that taste; if it says sweet pimentón for color, either tin works, and Murcia gives you the cleaner pepper flavor.

How do you cook with ñoras?

Most ñoras end up as pimentón, but you can also use them whole to flavor dishes and in sauces such as romesco². A whole dried pod needs softening first, and the method New Mexico's extension service gives for dried red chile pods works for a ñora too⁹:

1. 1

   Wash and break open

   Rinse the pods in warm water, lifting them out and changing the water a few times. Snap off the stalk and shake out the loose seeds.⁹

2. 2

   Cover with boiling water

   Pour boiling water over the pods and leave them for 30 minutes.⁹

3. 3

   Test the pulp

   The pulp is ready when it is soft and comes away from the skin easily. Scrape it off with a spoon, or blend the whole pod with a little fresh hot water and pass it through a sieve.⁹

That scraped red pulp is what you stir into a romesco or a pot of rice, and the soaking water, strained, adds color to a stock. A pod gives you only a spoonful or so, since the dried wall is thin. If you can't find them, the ñora swap list covers what to use instead. The ground pepper is fully sweet, bright red and strongly aromatic, with a lot of coloring power¹, so a teaspoon turns your whole pan of rice orange.

If you wonder how it fits the wider spice shelf, the NMSU Chile Pepper Institute defines paprika as any non-pungent chile, red at maturity, used as a spice or for color¹⁰, and the ñora fits that exactly. The wider family, from sweet to hot, is in the entry on what paprika is made from.

What goes wrong with ñoras and pimentón?

Most problems you'll hit come from moisture or heat, the two things the specification controls most closely.

If you can't find ñoras at all, the round and long pods in the dried chile guide show you what else dries the same way.