To a true chilehead it often comes as a shock to realize that most people they meet have never had anything hotter than a nacho jalapeno slice in their mouth.
Why? Because as hot as that jalapeno may seem to you, there is actually more heat levels above it than below it.
What Exactly is a Chilehead?
The term "chilehead" is used by people who love hot peppers and spicy foods to describe themselves. Of course, this is from chile pepper -- the main source of much of the mouth burning heat they love.
Don't be confused with chili -- the beef and bean stew that cowboys love. Most chileheads probably love chili -- but they are really two very different things.
Chile peppers are the most common source of heat in foods -- thus the name chilehead. But mustard, ginger, horseradish and several other foods can also deliver delicious eye-watering heat.
Hot Peppers
Now, let's look at the nacho jalapeno slice.
The burning sensation in chile peppers comes form a chemical called capsaicin. The level of apparent heat we feel is measured on something called the Scoville Scale and the amount is given in Scoville Units. It's much too complicated to explain how this is determined here -- but basically, the more capsaisin in a pepper the hotter it will feel and the more Scoville Units it will be given. The Scoville Scale is linear -- so a pepper with a 1000 Scoville units will feel twice as hot as one with 500.
Your normal ballpark nacho jalapeno slice will typically rate about 1,000 Scoville Units. A fresh, unpickled jalapeno about 5,000.
If you gasp for breath, break out in a sweat and have to blow your nose after eating these -- you may want to stop reading now.
A Thai Chile -- used in many traditional Chinese and Southeast Asian dishes -- weighs in at around 75,000 Scoville Units. Or about 15 to 75 times as hot as that jalapeno. Don't expect to get too many in your basic cheap Chinese takeout. They know their market and usually use less hot varieties. But if you get some high end or authentic Oriental food you may encounter them. You'll know it if you do.
On the extreme upper end of the scale is the habanero pepper. Sometimes called the Scotch bonnet, this pepper rates as high as a head exploding 500,000 Scoville Units.
Reaching Higher and Higher
Amazingly this is not the hottest food. The habanero variety, Red Savino, is considered the hottest pepper on the planet -- but it is nothing compared to some of the extreme hot sauces being marketed today. By extracting the capsaicin and and concentrating it, hot sauce creators have achieved the unbelievable heat levels of 3,000,000+ Scoville Units.
It has been said that these sauces are to your typical jalapeno what Mount Everest is to an ant hill.
And this level of heat is the realm of the true chilihead. The kind of person who puts this on hamburgers, sandwiches, chicken wings -- and in chili.
Heaven help us all. - 42572
Why? Because as hot as that jalapeno may seem to you, there is actually more heat levels above it than below it.
What Exactly is a Chilehead?
The term "chilehead" is used by people who love hot peppers and spicy foods to describe themselves. Of course, this is from chile pepper -- the main source of much of the mouth burning heat they love.
Don't be confused with chili -- the beef and bean stew that cowboys love. Most chileheads probably love chili -- but they are really two very different things.
Chile peppers are the most common source of heat in foods -- thus the name chilehead. But mustard, ginger, horseradish and several other foods can also deliver delicious eye-watering heat.
Hot Peppers
Now, let's look at the nacho jalapeno slice.
The burning sensation in chile peppers comes form a chemical called capsaicin. The level of apparent heat we feel is measured on something called the Scoville Scale and the amount is given in Scoville Units. It's much too complicated to explain how this is determined here -- but basically, the more capsaisin in a pepper the hotter it will feel and the more Scoville Units it will be given. The Scoville Scale is linear -- so a pepper with a 1000 Scoville units will feel twice as hot as one with 500.
Your normal ballpark nacho jalapeno slice will typically rate about 1,000 Scoville Units. A fresh, unpickled jalapeno about 5,000.
If you gasp for breath, break out in a sweat and have to blow your nose after eating these -- you may want to stop reading now.
A Thai Chile -- used in many traditional Chinese and Southeast Asian dishes -- weighs in at around 75,000 Scoville Units. Or about 15 to 75 times as hot as that jalapeno. Don't expect to get too many in your basic cheap Chinese takeout. They know their market and usually use less hot varieties. But if you get some high end or authentic Oriental food you may encounter them. You'll know it if you do.
On the extreme upper end of the scale is the habanero pepper. Sometimes called the Scotch bonnet, this pepper rates as high as a head exploding 500,000 Scoville Units.
Reaching Higher and Higher
Amazingly this is not the hottest food. The habanero variety, Red Savino, is considered the hottest pepper on the planet -- but it is nothing compared to some of the extreme hot sauces being marketed today. By extracting the capsaicin and and concentrating it, hot sauce creators have achieved the unbelievable heat levels of 3,000,000+ Scoville Units.
It has been said that these sauces are to your typical jalapeno what Mount Everest is to an ant hill.
And this level of heat is the realm of the true chilihead. The kind of person who puts this on hamburgers, sandwiches, chicken wings -- and in chili.
Heaven help us all. - 42572
About the Author:
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