How hot is that hot sauce? Probably somewhere in between 1,000 and 5,300,000 scoville units. Doesn’t tell you much, I’m not surprised unless you are a hot sauce connoisseur or just a little masochistic you don’t have much of a reason to need to rate your hot sauce.
The Scoville heat scale does have an interesting history and has become the standard unit of measurement to rate piquancy, which is simply a measure of capsaician in a chili pepper. The scale was invented by Wilbur Scoville a pharmacist in 1912. There is a fine line between capsaician and pharmaceuticals so it is appropriate that the scale was invented by a pharmacist.
Scientist of the time looked down there nose at the subjectivity of the Scoville test because he used people to rate the hotness of his test specimens. A panel of 5 judges would taste a rate a predetermined amount of capsaician diluted with sugar water. The amount of sugar water that it took to dilute the spice would correspond to the Scoville rating. No more than 6 taste could be made in an 8 hour period. This test does seem a little crude at first but when you consider that the tongue is sensitive to less than a millionth of a grain of capsaicin it develops some validity and you also develop some more respect for the tongue.
There is however a fair amount of variation between tasters an a wide variation of piquancy within a particular variety of chili. People also develop a resistance to capsaicin over time so the effectiveness of tasters could diminish as they gain more experience. For these reasons today the amount of heat producing chemicals is measured mechanically and a rating is given by the American Spice Trade Association, but this rating is usually translated into Scoville units because of its wide acceptance.
A couple interesting facts about the Scoville scale or peppers in general are that when peppers are dehydrated they tend to increase in heat by about 10 times. So, watch out next time you see dried peppers in a dish you plan to eat.
The Scoville scale goes up to 16,000,000, which is pure capsaicin, police grade pepper spray is in the neighborhood of 5,000,000 scoville units and a habanero pepper is anywhere from 100,000 to 350,000 units. The scary part is that you can by pure capsaicin and that there are varieties of euphorbia cactus that naturally produce a substance that is hotter than capsaicin called resiniferatoxin. Some companies are experimenting with resiniferatoxin trying to make a better pain killer. Hopefully no hot sauce companies are conducting experiments.
Connoisseurs of any respectable hot sauce will sooner or later entertain the notion that they could possibly create a better concoction than is available at the local gift shop. The good news is that there are so many varieties of hot sauce that the possibilities are endless. All you need to get started is a great chili pepper and that can be the hardest part of the equation.
Luckily peppers are pretty easy to grow. I’m not going to pull your leg and tell you that they are as easy as fake house plants but they are not as tricky as orchids. I am going to skip over the seed germination part and move straight into the part where you put them in the ground or a decent sized pot. If you want to know how to germinate I will cover that in the future, so check back.
Planting in the Perfect Spot
Location is possibly the most important part of planting a pepper plant. You want it hot, sunny, and well drained. Some light shade in the peak of the day will be ok and help you avoid sunburn. If you are planing in the ground make sure that the soil is of good quality, full of nutrients and well drained. If you are planing in a pot any high quality soil will do the trick. Line the bottom of the pot with gravel, stones, broken pots, anything that will prevent the pot from clogging. A light organic fertilizer to help the roots with the transition will be good at this point.
Care and Cultivation
At this point, water 2 to 3 times per week, wetting the soil but not soaking. If you stick your finger in the soil and it feels damp skip another day, a little humidity is fine but you do not want the roots to rot. Once you start to see some good growth from the plant cut the first couple of inches off of the top to promote more growth below. Shortly after flowers will blossom die and turn into fruit. The peppers will start out green and slowly mature to red, orange, yellow, or some other color. You can harvest at any time even if they are green.
Perfection
This is where it gets interesting and where the finesse comes in, the longer you leave the fruit on the plant the hotter it gets. If this ripening happens to coincide with the hottest most humid time of the year because of blind luck or great experience, cheers to you. This will just make the chilies that much hotter. Off to the kitchen to brew the perfect spicy concoction
Native Populations have used natural remedies with varying effectiveness to treat sickness and ailments for millennia. One of the more successful natural remedies used by the ancients was chili peppers. The health benefits of chili peppers are numerous and pound for pound they are some of the most nutritionally dense foods on earth. They have more vitamin C than oranges and and more vitamin A than carrots, and they pack a much bigger punch.
A touch of hot sauce can improve digestion in a few ways. First, capsicum, the stuff that makes chilies hot increases stomach acid secretions. Second, it also increases blood flow, yes this is due to the over stimulation because of the burn, but it also helps digest your food by literally turning up the temperature. And third, the mucous lining of your stomach is increases by the chillies. This mucous lining is also what protects your stomach from painful ulcers and, so contrary to popular belief, hot stuff should be eaten by people with weak stomaches, they should just start out light and work up to spicier food.
Spicy food also battles depression in a few simple ways. In the same way that running releases endorphins because of the small amount of stress that you are putting on the body hot food does the same. Sounds a little masochistic I know but people do stranger things for fun. Capsicum has also been found to be a good antiseptic and has been used for pain relief for centuries.
Hot sauce is also very effective at clearing respiratory passages during a cold or other infection. Try a spicy tea with honey and citrus for a very effective nasal congestion cleanser. Along with the previous benefits this can equal a powerful punch to a cold.
I am not going to go into depth here but recent studies have shown capsicum to be an effective agent in the fight against cancer. Look for more on this in the future.
Capsicum is also a natural antibacterial and in an age of super bugs and scrutiny of the medical establishment anything natural has a nice ring to it. Adding peppers to a salad could possibly ward of salmonella and other food born pathogens. This is certainly not a free for all to not wash your vegetables but every little bit counts.
Last but not least, spicy food can help you loose weight. It not only increases your natural metabolism by literally turning up the heat but it also suppresses your appetite. Combine these facts with the nutritionally dense qualities of different chillies and you have a great way to add some flavor to a healthy diet.
