detectable pungency. With 100 units of water, the chili has a pungency of 100 Scoville units. That is

still a very mild chili.

Hot chilies have thousands Scoville units. Jalapeños test out at 2,500 to 5,000, tabasco and

cayenne at 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units. The hottest chili and most pungent food known is the

habanero pepper (not habañero as it is commonly misspelled), originally from Brazil but cultivated

in Cuba (the name came from Havana). It measures 300,000 on the Scoville scale! Not all

habaneros are quite that hot. The highest ratings are consistently from chilies grown on the Yucatán

Peninsula of Mexico. Habaneros from California and Texas, and similar chilies called scotch

bonnets from Jamaica, are not quite that hot but you still need to be extremely cautious to go near

them. Habanero chilies are so hot that if you cut one with a knife, then cut a bell pepper with the

same knife, the bell picks up enough heat to give you a complete surprise.

The Scoville unit is a good, reliable system for commercial purposes, and now no one relies

on human tasters. Originally, even with Scoville tests human tasters tested the diluted liquid to

judge for identical pungency levels, but today an instrument tells you not only the exact amount of

capsaicinoids present but the relative amounts of the six different types.

A chilihead introduced a new system in New Mexico called the Official Chile Heat Scale

that rates chilies on a scale from zero to ten. This has become the "in" rating for chiliheads, but the

scientific community and food processors are staying with the Scoville system.

Next time you eat hot Mexican or Thai food, remember that the capsacinoids, that give your

mouth a burn, don't dissolve in water, but do in alcohol, acetone or ether. Acetone or ether will kill

you shortly after it relieves the burning sensation (and eating some chilies you may think death is a

relief). That leaves alcohol. Rinsing your mouth with a high concentration of it helps considerably.

Tequila goes with chilies like white wine goes with fish and so does beer. Milk or any milk product

containing the protein casein is also good, as casein chemically bonds with capsaicin and removes it

from your mouth. That may be the reason why cooks often accompany spicy East Indian curries

with yogurt and hot Mexican dishes with sour cream. Remember, too, that capsaicin is an oil.

Chewing on something that soaks up the oily substance in your mouth, like a piece of bread or

tortilla or chapati, is also helpful. Water is the worst remedy—it is no help whatsoever against

capsaicin.

TASTINGS How prepared foods get pungent

The food processing industry does not use ground chilies and peppers for flavoring

or coloring. There is just too much variation from one batch to another, from season

to season, and from different growing areas. Instead, they use highly concentrated

extract of the chilies dispersed through a paraffin-like stuff called oleoresins.

Oleoresins include all the flavor and color from the chilies. Chemical companies

standardize these for pungency, color and flavor. They are more hygienic than

straight dried chilies, too. This material, unlike ground chili, does not deteriorate

with time and always available on their shelves. (See chapter on Flavorings.)

Here are some general guidelines if you don't know how hot the chili is you are about to

purchase:

Large chilies are often mild or moderately hot.

Larger chilies are milder than smaller fruits of the same variety.

Very small chilies are almost always very hot.

Chilies with pointed ends are often hotter, while ones with rounded ends are milder.

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