A pepper is not hot unless your mouth is on fire, your eyes are full of tears, and your nose runs like a river. My son-in-law’s mother believes this, and she is an expert. She lives in Bangladesh, an area with the world’s hottest peppers. In fact, the current Guinness world record hot chili pepper is the Bhut Jolokia, the ghost chili from North East India. It is also known as the Cobra pepper or Poison pepper in some dialects. The New Mexico State University grew this pepper and it tested at over 1 million Scoville Units. That is very hot!! The previous record was held by the Red Savina, but that pepper only rated about 500,000 Scoville Units.
What is a Scoville Unit, you might ask? Way back in 1912, a pharmaceutical chemist by the name of Wilbur Scoville developed the "Scoville Organoleptic Test". Basically, pure ground chiles are mixed with a sugar water solution. Continued dilutions are made and tasted by a panel of testers. The end point of the test is reached when the testers can no longer detect the heat of the chili. The resulting dilution is the number of Scoville Units for the particular pepper. The test is somewhat subjective; the taste sensitivity may vary from person to person, or the taste sense may be dulled after consuming a few dilutions of the pepper. Scientists today use high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to accurately measure the level of heat producing substance or capsaicin. Pure capsaicin measures out at about 15-16 million Scoville Units. The common bell pepper has no capsaicin and measures at 0 Units. The Jalapeño peppers and cayenne peppers range in heat from 2,000 to 25,000 Units. Tabasco peppers rate at 60,000 to 80,000 units. Habeneros rate between 150,000 to 210,000 units.
Capsaicin is the oily, alkaloid compound in hot peppers that causes a burning pain in the mouth or on sensitive areas of the body. It can be very irritating to the skin. Capsaicin is the primary compound in pepper sprays used to repel bad dogs and nasty criminals. One millionth of a drop of pure capsaicin can be detected by the human tongue. The substance is not digested, so contestants in jalapeño eating contests report pain from the mouth all the way to the other end. Mammals are sensitive to capsaicin, but birds seem to be immune. If you eat a bit too much hot pepper and your mouth turns to fire, don’t try drinking water, soda, or alcohol. Milk, yogurt, cheeses, sour cream, bread, rice, potatoes, ice cream, or banana will help to absorb the oily capsaicin.
Pepper that we use in our pepper shakers is not related to our sweet or hot peppers. Black pepper (Piper nigrum) belongs to an entirely different plant family (Piperaceae), while sweet and hot peppers (Capsicum annuum and other species of Capsicum) belong to the tomato or Solanaceae family. The black pepper is a tropical vine grown in India, Ceylon, and nearby countries. Black pepper (peppercorn) is the dried fruit of the plant, while white pepper is only the seed portion. Our garden peppers come from Central and South America.
Paprika is prepared from dried sweet garden peppers. Hungarians and other central Europeans have selected varieties for flavor. ‘Alma Paprika’ is a popular variety and can be grown in your garden. Let the pepper fully ripen to a red color. Dry strips of paprika pepper in the sun, dehydrator, or slow oven. Grind the dried strips just before adding to your wonderful goulash or chicken dishes.
If you love Hispanic or Indian food, hot peppers are worth trying. Hot peppers are rich in Vitamins C and A, plus anti-oxidants. I would advise starting out with some of the less spicy or less hot varieties. All peppers are easily grown. They require full sun, warmth, and well-drained soil. Wait until after the last frost and after the ground has warmed up before transplanting to your garden in late May or early June. Putting peppers into cool soil may stunt their growth and delay maturation. In our cooler Minnesota climate, these peppers may not ripen sufficiently to produce the maximum zip of peppers grown in warmer climates. Mini greenhouses or protection may help ripen hot peppers towards the end of the growing season.
Be careful to keep these peppers away from young children. Always wear protective gloves to protect your hands when picking or working with hot peppers. Do not accidentally touch your eyes, mucous membranes, or skin while working with them. Very sad experiences and very strange dances have been reported when people had not thoroughly washed their hands with soap, before taking a bathroom break. Some so-called “experts” recommend pouring a gallon or two of milk directly into the pants for such situations, or soaking in a milk bath.
In this cold winter weather, dream of hot peppers. They warm the body and the soul.
Happy Gardening,
Joe
Baltrukonis
(Photo courtesy of Arizona State University)