Ancho. Fruit, body
America’s Test Kitchen: wrinkled, dark red; raisiny sweetness; heat 1 of 4. Bon Appétit: jammy, plums. USDA’s ancho entry is nutrition for the dried fruit (fiber, vitamin A in the database row). Useful as identity that ancho is a named dried pepper, not as a recipe amount. In a chili pot, ancho is the sweet, thick layer of a puree.
Guajillo. Bright, tang, color
Bon Appétit: tomato jam, medium-hot, brick red, smooth skin. Saveur and ATK treat guajillo as everyday color more than fire. NMSU lists mirasol with the dehydrated types. In a puree, guajillo keeps a red from going brown-sweet and one-note.
Taste the puree
Published SHU bands for guajillo vary by vendor page. USDA FDC did not give this guide a guajillo food page this session, and UF/IFAS’s Scoville list does not name guajillo. Do not treat a 2,500 to 5,000 SHU table as a USDA fact here. Taste the puree. If it is only sweet, add guajillo. If it is only hot and thin, you used the wrong chile for body.
| Ancho | Guajillo | |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh parent | Ripe poblano (ATK, BA) | Mirasol (NMSU lists mirasol; BA) |
| Look | Wide, wrinkled, mahogany | Long, smooth, brick red |
| In the pot | Fruit, body | Color, tang |
| USDA / Extension | FDC “Peppers, ancho, dried” | NMSU dehydrated-types list (mirasol) |
Toast, soak, blend is on the dried chiles guide. Heat management (placenta, not folklore seeds) is on heat.
Ancho / guajillo pantry kit
Whole dried pods for a two-chile red.