[CH] Hot Pepper News
R.Solarion - Apollonius.Net (damis@apollonius.net)
Thu, 7 Sep 2000 01:52:14 -0600
The Scotsman - 5 September 2000
> Indians take hotly contested chilli prize
>
> James Kirkup
>
> INDIA yesterday laid claim to the most hotly contested prize in the
> cooking world: the hottest chilli on earth.
>
> For many years, Mexico had claimed the tongue-torturing title, with
> its Red Savina Habanero chilli peppers. That devilish delicacy is
> around ten times hotter than the comparatively mild jalepeÒo peppers
> commonly used in everyday cooking.
>
> But the terrifying Tezpur chilli makes even the Habaneroís raging
> inferno of culinary combustion seem a damp squib by comparison.
>
> When trying to quantify the heat of chillies and peppers, scientists
> use a scale invented by a German scientist, Wilbur Scoville. The scale
> measures capsaicin, the active agent that gives chillies their heat.
>
> According to a team of Indian scientists, the Tezpur chilli scored a
> scorching 855,000 Scoville Heat Units. The Habanero is normally rated
> at no more than 600,000 units.
>
> The Tezpur takes its name from the region where it grows, on the banks
> of the river Brahmaputra in Indiaís Assam province.
>
> The Indian scientists are investigating chillies at an Indian
> government defence laboratory in Guwahati, Assamís regional capital.
>
> The government declined to explain why its defence researchers are
> examining chillies, but the burning-hot vegetables have used by
> security forces in the past: capsaicin is the principle ingredient in
> the pepper sprays used by several British police forces today.
>
> Scientists have harnessed the power of the chilli for other purposes
> too. Two years ago, the New Mexico Tech Research Foundation in the
> United States began using the habanero pepper as a pest repellent. The
> active ingredient of the peppers is mixed into caulks, paints, glues
> and rubber-coating, giving animals a fiery incentive not to chew them.
>
>
> The institute tests showed that birds - perhaps understandably -
> avoided pecking fence posts treated with the peppery material. Rats
> likewise shunned cables coated in the substance.
>
> India is the world's biggest chilli exporter, selling 35 tonnes a
> year, and now the possessor of the hottest raw chilli. But the United
> States still claims to sell the hottest manufactured chilli sauce, in
> the shape of Daveís Insanity Sauce Special Reserve. The sauce holds
> the dubious honour of being the only product ever to be banned - on
> safety grounds - from the Fiery Foods Show in New Mexico, the
> undisputed world championships of culinary masochism.
------------------------------
The Scotsman - 5 September 2000
> Scoville Heat Scale
>
>
> 0: Bell pepper, sweet Italian, Pimento
>
> 100-500: Pepperoncini
>
> 500-1,000: New Mexican, Anaheim, Mulato
>
> 1,000-1,500: Espanola, Poblano
>
> 1,000-2,000: Ancho, Pasilla
>
> 1,000-2,500: Cascabel, Cherry
>
> 1,500-2,500: Rocotillo
>
> 2,500-5,000: Jalapeño, Mirasol, Guajillo
>
> 5,000-10,000: Hungarian
>
> 5,000-20,000: Serrano
>
> 15,000-30,000: de Arbol
>
> 30,000-50,000: Cayenne, Tabasco
>
> 50,000-100,000: Chiltepin, Santaka, Thai
>
> 100,000-200,000: Jamaican
>
> 100,000-350,000: Habanero, Scotch Bonnet
>
> 575,000-600,000: Red Savina
>
> 16,000,000: Pure capsaicin