[CH] Scovies

Celeste or Dave Anderson (Gtoughchile@mail.greatbasin.net)
Sat, 23 Jan 1999 10:24:39 +0000 

> Hi Dave:
> 	It would be interesting to know the definition of a Scoville Unit and
> how it is tested. Can you tell us?

	Most Chile Pepper books have some information on Scoville Units, but 
this one from "The Whole Chile Pepper Book" by Dave DeWitt and Nancy 
Gerlach, published by Little, Brown and Company does a pretty good 
job. The book is available from Amazon.com which can be reached from 
my bookstore at: http://www.tough-love.com/page7.html 

	"Determining the precise pungency of the varieties of chiles and the 
foods prepared with them has long been a goal of cooks and 
researchers alike. In 1912, Wilbur L. Scoville, a pharmacologist with 
Parke Davis, the drug company using capsiacin in its muscle salve, 
Heet, developed the Scoville Organoleptic Test." (I also have read 
that he was a food chemist with Campbell Soup Co. but tend to doubt 
this story as I don't think Campbell ever made anything spicy.) "This 
test used a panel of five human heat samplers who tasted and analyzed 
a solution made from exact weights of chile pepper dissolved in 
alcohol and diluted with sugar water. The pungency was recorded in 
mutiples of one hundred "Scoville Units" A majority of three of the 
tasters had to agree before a value was assigned to a given chile or 
food; however, it is evident that the Scoville Test was highly 
subjective, and that is why the test was replaced with high 
technology."

	It then goes on to explain HPLC testing and then has this important 
paragraph:

	"Despite the accuracy of HPLC testing, we should remember, as Dr. 
Ben Villalon of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station points out, 
"Capsaicin can and is quantitatively measured by high-pressure liquid 
chromatography, to exactness for that particular pod only, that 
particular plant, that particular location, and that particular 
season only." Thus, chiles will sometimes deviate from one heat scale 
because of local conditions.

	The book then goes on to show an "Official  Chile Heat Scale"
which rates Chiles from 0 (no heat) to 10 (hottest). As the hottest 
is listed at 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville Units, we may need to add an 
11 and 12 go get as high as some Chiles like Red Savina and Caribbean 
Red have been tested. I think Red Savina's world record is 577K SU 
and Caribbean Red tested at 472 SU.


Dave Anderson
Tough Love Chile Co.
http://www.tough-love.com