Chillie

[lizzie]

Hi peeps, not sure if this is in the right bit but here goes anyway.

Tigger, Chantal and the wonderful Pwellie sent me some chillie plants earlier in the season after my greenhouse collapsed, fabulous people that you are.
I was sent a Mushroom chilli and a Peprunicino (think that's how it's spelt, pencil smudged) chilli.

How hot are these chillis? The mushroom one has green, shrivilled fruits (like a Scotch bonnet) and the other one has loads of very small pointed fruits.

When eating, do I need to alert A&E first or should I send some to Mr PH to taste first

Any help appreciated, have trawlled seed catalogues to no avail. Thanks

[Chantal]

Hi Lizzie

The small one is Peperoncino Ardorno from Seeds of Italy (www.seedsofitaly.com)and is an early very hot variety. The mushroom one is also hot but I don't know a lot about it, other than it looks like an inverted mushroom.

[loznkate]

Lizzie,

On my subject here. A bit Chemical! But I don't know the specific chilli's characteristics........but its how you use them (broadly).

The recepetors that 'feel' the heat are defined by proteins in the mouth which 'receive' the chemicals in chillis that are 'hot'. Heat (temperature) will change the configuration of the 'hot' chemical and, fro my knowledge of proteins, I gues it might change the receptor too. This could explain why a curry gets hotter when it get colder/hotter.

It seems (anecdotally, but its not scientifically proven to me) that different people react differently to different Chillis. This may be a result of slightly different configurations of the protein receptor or simply the brain's processing of the messages.

In order to establish if a particular chilli is going to be stressful, get a couple that you're ok with and the new ones together. Then with a different finger for each, rub the placenta of each fruit (ignore the seeds that's rubbish) and place the loaded finger on the side of your tongue. This will give you a relative measure of 'heat'.

Have some full fat milk to hand to calm the heat (beer wont work sadly) and repeat at a different site on the side of your tongue.

The reason that removing the seeds makes chillis less potent is because you also remove most of the placenta. The hottest bit.

All that said, if you can stand the heat you'll rarely come across a more healthy food, in all forms.

Loz

[loznkate]

A scale developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, to measure the heat level in chillies. It was first a subjective taste test, but since, it has been refined by the use of HPLC, the unit is named in honour of its inventor.

The test officially measures the pungency level of a given pepper. There are other methods, but the Scoville Scale remains the most widely used and respected. The greater the number of Scoville units, the hotter the pepper. Of course, being a natural product, the heat can vary from pepper to pepper, so this scale is just a guide.

*The hottest pepper recorded was a Habenero.

Pure Capsaicin measures 16,000,000 Scoville units.

The original Scoville test asked a panel of tasters to state when an increasingly dilute solution of the pepper no longer burned the mouth. Roughly one part per million of chilli 'heat' rates as 1.5 Scoville units.

This was lifted from........

http://www.chemsoc.org/exemplarchem/ent ... oville.htm

Have a look.

Loz

PS HPLC stands for High Pressure Liquid Chromatography. (same as putting food dye on filter paper at school and watching it develop) (ish)

[peterf]

A scale developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, to measure the heat level in chillies. It was first a subjective taste test, but since, it has been refined by the use of HPLC, the unit is named in honour of its inventor.

The test officially measures the pungency level of a given pepper. There are other methods, but the Scoville Scale remains the most widely used and respected. The greater the number of Scoville units, the hotter the pepper. Of course, being a natural product, the heat can vary from pepper to pepper, so this scale is just a guide.

*The hottest pepper recorded was a Habenero.


the red savina habenero has now been outdone by the naga morich,im growing 2 in the greenhouse so i will let everyone know the outcome

Pure Capsaicin measures 16,000,000 Scoville units.

The original Scoville test asked a panel of tasters to state when an increasingly dilute solution of the pepper no longer burned the mouth. Roughly one part per million of chilli 'heat' rates as 1.5 Scoville units.

This was lifted from........

http://www.chemsoc.org/exemplarchem/ent ... oville.htm

Have a look.

Loz

PS HPLC stands for High Pressure Liquid Chromatography. (same as putting food dye on filter paper at school and watching it develop) (ish)

[Tigger]

All of the ones I sent you were hot, or very hot. Didn't include any sweet peppers. Maybe next year I'll be better behaved.

[lizzie]

No probs Tigger. All have thrived and have buds on every stem.

Maybe I should bring them to Malvern with Grock