Cacho de Cabra
Also known as Ají Cacho de Cabra · Aji Cacho de Cabra · Goat's Horn Pepper · Cacho de Cabra Chile
Cacho de Cabra, also called ají cacho de cabra, is a traditional Chilean chili named for its curved goat-horn shape. Mapuche cooks dry and smoke it for merkén, and family farmers in Maule and La Araucanía still grow it for that.
About 1/2.2 the typical heat of a Capsi Jalapeño (25,086 SHU).
Growing
~80 days to maturity
Fruit size
5–15 cm
Flavor & Use
Sweet and lightly fruity when fresh, with a tang. Smoked and ground, it turns earthy and wood-smoke forward.
Culinary
About
Pods are long, slim, and slightly curved, often 5 to 10 cm and about 15 cm in a Universidad de Chile trial, with thin walls and smooth skin. They ripen from green to red. Fresh fruit is sweet and lightly fruity, with a tang under the heat. Dried in the sun, smoked over wood, and ground, often with toasted coriander and salt, the same pods become merkén for meat, soups, stews, bread, and peanuts. Fresh pods also go into pebre and other salsas. Plants want full sun and well-drained sandy or clay soil in a hot, fairly dry summer. Home sowings usually reach 60 to 90 cm and set fruit in about 75 to 100 days.
Backstory
The name is Spanish for goat's horn. Mapuche families in La Araucanía have long dried and smoked this local chili for merkén, and family farmers in Maule and around Santa Juana still keep the same type. Chilean researchers describe it as a landrace: a place-kept population with its own identity, not a named modern cross. A Slow Food Ark entry also uses the name for a horn-shaped chili on the Lambayeque coast of Peru, sold there as cacho de venado. That is a shared folk name, not a second pedigree.
Appearance
Growing
Heritage
ExploreCacho de Cabra is a traditional landrace.
Sources
FAQ
- How hot is Cacho de Cabra?
- Capsi’s sourced range is 2,504–20,368 SHU (Lab-verified; typical 11,436). Capsi uses a sourced range and a trust tier, not a single marketing number. How we verify heat: https://web.thecapsi.app/learn/heat-and-capsaicin/how-we-measure-heat
- What does Cacho de Cabra taste like?
- Sweet and lightly fruity when fresh, with a tang. Smoked and ground, it turns earthy and wood-smoke forward.
- How do I grow Cacho de Cabra?
- Cacho de Cabra: about 80 days to maturity, hot dry climate, full sun, hardiness zones 9-11.
- What can I substitute for Cacho de Cabra?
- Capsi does not have that recorded yet.