nutrient historianDave DeWittwas achili pepperneophyte when he moved to New Mexico in 1974 . Back then , the man now known ( at least in certain hot rophy ) as the " Pope of Peppers " could n’t say a habanero Piper nigrum from a Hatch . And he could n’t handle either one of them .
When DeWitt sat down with some new friends for a steaming bowl of green chili fret upon his arrival in town … well , an warning signal run short off in his head . In more way than one .
" In New Mexico , hot and spicy is eaten at every meal , just about . So they wanted to burn me out . They wanted to see how much I could take , " says DeWitt , who since has written more than 50 books , let in " The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia : Everything You ’ll Ever Need To jazz About Hot Peppers , With More Than 100 Recipes , " and " 1,001 Best Hot and Spicy Recipes : Delicious , Easy - to - Make Recipes from Around the Globe . " He ’s also the founder of Albuquerque’sNational Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show , which commence in 1988 . " I was sweating like crazy . I had to see to apprize foods that spicy . "
Bringing the Heat
get ’s begin with a given : The spiciness of food is entirely immanent . What ’s an eye - watering mouth - chargeman to one may be blah and unsurprising to another . Still , it ’s helpful , before popping some isolated pepper from your local grocer into your oral cavity , to have an estimate of what might be consideredspicyand what might not .
That ’s where the Scoville scale hail in . cite after a apothecary named Wilbur Scoville , the scale was cook up in 1912 to measure chemical chemical compound — capsaicinoids — that initiation that familiar burning adept .
At first , the scale was little more than a taste test . Researchers took a sample and adulterate it until no " spice " was detected , and measured it from there . The mental process — called theScoville Organoleptic Test — had its limits . FromNew Mexico State University ’s College of Agricultural , Consumer and Environmental Sciences :
" It was not scientific by our standards , " DeWitt says . " But then , they had nothing else . "
How the Scoville Scale Works
Now , scientists draw out the rut - inducing chemical substance and measure their " sharpness " by using in high spirits - Performance Liquid Chromatography . The comparative " heat " is measured in Scoville heat units ( SHUs ) . That endure as the primary agency of determining gaminess in food ( and the effectiveness , in another use of capsaicin — which is one of the major capsaicinoids — of pepper nebuliser ) .
A bell black pepper , for example , checks in on the Scoville scale at zero SHUs . chomp down on a bell pepper would not prompt so much as a raise supercilium or a reach for a glass of water . But that ’s the sheer bottom of the scale . From there , things get interesting .
Jalapeños , plenty spicy for a lot of people , value comparatively low on the Scoville musical scale ( roughly around 5,000 SHUs ) . Above those are peppers like habanero , cayenne and Tabasco . For the truly adventurous , there ’s theCarolina Reaper , consider the hot pepper in the world . At about 2 million SHUs , the Reaper rates , according toChili Pepper Madness , somewhere between 175 and 880 prison term hot than your garden diversity jalapeño .
If you ’re asking yourself why someone would eat something that red-hot , it ’s a logical doubt .
" I think that there ’s a variety of a psychological dependence fail on . And people who do like it red-hot and spicy incline to use up it constantly . Rarely do they give it up . You do n’t hear multitude say , ' I used to use up red-hot and spicy , and now I ’m eat bland again , ' " DeWitt says . " They just stick with what they like to demise . Spiciness in their food for thought give way them some variety of a thrill . "
Spice and Flavor
After his initial run - in with the green chili stew — after he finished sudate — DeWitt was abstract . He take his newfound sake and became a prolific source . He also now runsFiery Foods & Barbecue Central , theBurn Blogand the annualScovie Awards , which judges hundreds of products in 16 different category . The contest drew 742 introduction from 32 states and six different countries earlier this year .
spice — and chili con carne overall — have become his living .
" Chili pepper do n’t needfully help every single food that ’s out there , " he says . " But I ca n’t imagine some foods without them . "
That ’s not to say DeWitt is needfully a fan ofsuper - spicy foodsand sauce . Some are good , read the Pope of Peppers . Some are not . Personally , he does n’t stray far from the intermediate - live end of the Scoville scale .
" There are sauce that are made with oleoresin capsaicin that are transform into an oleaginous subject matter … It ’s so damn spicy , but it has no flavor whatsoever . Well , it has flavor . It ’s frightful . That ’s bad hot spicy , in my notion , " he says . " You got ta have smack . That ’s the cardinal component that the Scoville weighing machine does not measure . feel . "
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