Cascabel

The very pungent Mexican Cascabel looks a lot like the Cherry pepper when it is growing.[…]In the dry state the skin becomes translucent and the seeds are loose so that they rattle, hence cascabel, which means sleigh or jingle bells. Another cultivar, the elongate Catarina, is often called Cascabel because its dry seeds also make a noise within its translucent dry skin.

Cascabels are available dried in Latin American markets. Hot and nutty in flavor, cascabels are good in sauces, beans, and chilis.

Prepare the cascabels using one of the methods in the Preparing Cascabels box, at left.

The cascabel, instead of being permanently attached to the breech of the piece, is set into it by means of a screw, and thus in reality the bore extends the entire distance of the gun, so that when the cascabel is taken off one can look directly through the gun.

This iron cannon with a single muzzle band, without trunnions and with an oversized cascabel is believed by many to be the original “Come and Take It” cannon and is displayed at the Gonzales Memorial Museum and occasionally elsewhere within Texas.

I was looking at a 151 mm caliber cannon, which used the twentyfour pound cannon ball and displayed a beautiful lion′s head on the back end of its breach area. An elaborate cascabel stuck out of the mouth of each animal. The cascabel was primarily used to attach ropes that secured the cannon during the recoil blowback that came from firing.