Scoville

Now we’re talking. I love to grow and eat chilli peppers. I’m born British, hence the spelling – if I were born elsewhere, I’d call them chile (US), chili (various European countries), mirchi (Hindi) or ají (Spanish/Mexican – the plant is still a ‘chile’, but the fuit is ají). Other spellings include chilly and chily. Please bear with me whilst I present a potted history of the chilli (yes, it was an awful gag, wasn’t it?), it is relevant.

It was our old friend Christopher Columbus who, in 1492, stumbled across “The Indies”. Here he found a plant with spicy seeds which the local Arawak people called axi or ají. He mistook the plant for a form of black pepper (he was completely wrong) and called it “pepper” accordingly. The chilli pepper is a capsicum and a member of the solanaceae family. Regular readers of this blog will know that this family includes tomatoes, potatoes…and deadly nightshade. The first visual record of various chilli types was made by Leonhart Fuchs – after whom the fuchsia is named – in 1542.

I doubt there is anyone reading who has not experienced the pleasure of having the lining of their throat ripped off by a particularly vicious chilli. In order to avoid confusion as to just how hot these things are, a scale was devised by the American chemist Wilbur L Scoville in 1912, called the Scoville Organoleptic Test. This test measure the “heat” of any given chilli. Whilst Scoville’s test was scientific, it remained a little subjective. He would ask a panel of volunteers to taste the solution of a chilli, then dilute it gradually until the solution no longer burned them. The degree of dilution gave the chilli its place on the scale. Although this proved a very reliable method for creating a scale of chilli heat, it has since been surpassed by a newer technology called High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). This method uses bio-chemical tests and mathematical formulae to measure the heat – but it just doesn’t sound as much fun. The results are often published in Scovilles, as chilli afficianados rely on the scale to keep their bragging rights. The general rule is that the HPLC test results are taken and multiplied by 15.

So, what’s the hottest chilli? I hear you ask. Before knowing that, it’s best to know how they work. The substance in them that “burns” is called capsaicin, and pure capsaicin has a Scoville rating of between 15 and 16 million Scoville Units (SU). It burns because the trigeminal cells (pain receptors) in the throats and mouths of mammals are receptive to the alkaloid compound in capsaicin. It irritates the digestive tract and causes the body to release endorphins – the body’s own painkiller. This has the side effect of creating a mild “addiction” to spicy foods. The real reason for the capsaicin is to stop mammals from eating the fruit, leaving more seeds for birds to distribute. Birds have no trigeminal cells, so cannot feel the burn of even the hottest chilli. It’s simply nature’s way of saying “Back off: birds only!”.

Now for the good stuff: hot chillies. I suppose the most common capsicums would be the pepper (paprika) and the jalapeño (as used in many Tex-Mex dishes). A paprika pepper has an SU rating of zero. Only for kids and people who like them for their taste, not their pain value. A jalapeño has a rating of around 3,000 to 4,500 SU – still pretty tame out of a possible score of 16 million. The tiny, pointed birds eye chilli from India and Thailand weighs in somewhere around 125,000 SU. The hottest one found so far is also from India. Its called Bhut Jolokia – the Ghost Chilli. It is an eye-watering (and worryingly precise) 1,001,304 SU. It’s not called “ghost” because it’ll kill you though – although you may feel you are dying. The story goes that after eating it, one gives up the ghost. The good news is that it would take around 13 grams of pure capsaicin to kill a regular-sized human.

Finally, a tip for those foolish enough to ask for “the hottest thing on the menu” (you know who you are). The alkaloids in capsaicin are soluble in fat, not water. If you proceed to suck down three litres of water/beer, all it’ll do is open the pores and let more alkaloids into your pain receptors. Drink full-fat milk or do what the Indians do and drink a mixture of yoghurt and fruit called a lhassi. Bon appetit!