Hinkle Hatz Yellow

Hinkle Hatz Yellow is the yellow-fruited form of the Pennsylvania Dutch heirloom Hinkelhatz, a Capsicum annuum long associated with Pennsylvania Dutch and Mennonite growers in Pennsylvania. The name translates to chicken heart, referring to the small, blunt, heart-like pod shape. It was traditionally grown for pickling and pepper vinegar, and it later became part of heirloom-preservation circles through Seed Savers Exchange and the Slow Food Ark of Taste. Public history references place the pepper in Pennsylvania Dutch cultivation through the nineteenth century, with some accounts tracing mention of this pepper type to 1832.

Plants are compact, bushy, and productive, usually about 30.5 to 50.0 cm tall, which is why multiple growers describe them as well suited to tubs or container growing. The pods are pendant, slightly wrinkled to bumpy, and shaped like small chicken hearts with a blunt point. Published dimensions place the fruit at about 19 to 32 mm long and 13 to 19 mm wide. The pods begin green and mature to a warm golden yellow, while the foliage remains green. Grower and preservation sources consistently describe the plant as prolific and relatively well adapted to shorter seasons.

In use, Hinkle Hatz Yellow is repeatedly tied to pickling, pepper vinegar, chilli powder, and general cooking where a hot pepper is wanted without overwhelming a dish. Public heat descriptions place it in the moderate to hot range, commonly around 5000 to 30000 SHU, and seller descriptions emphasise a tangy flavour with a delayed, upper mid-level burn. Within the Hinkelhatz line, yellow is one of the recognised historic mature colours alongside red, with orange noted as a rarer preserved form. That gives Hinkle Hatz Yellow its clear identity as the yellow expression of an old Pennsylvania Dutch pepper maintained for both its culinary use and its place in regional seed heritage.