Bhut Jolokia growing at NMSU
Researchers at New Mexico State University recently discovered the world’s hottest chile pepper. Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chile pepper originating in Assam, India, has earned Guiness World Records’ recognition as the world’s hottest chile pepper by blasting past the previous champion Red Savina.
In replicated tests of Scoville heat units (SHUs), Bhut Jolokia reached one million SHUs, almost double the SHUs of Red Savina, which measured a mere 577,000.
“The name Bhut Jolokia translates as ‘ghost chile,'” Bosland said, “I think it’s because the chile is so hot, you give up the ghost when you eat it!”
For comparison, the Jalapeño – the hottest thing the average American consumes – runs around 10,000 SHUs.
The Chili ratings are abit interesting, AFTER a point the chili is considered poisonous, Eating it will swell your Tongue and choke you to death.
I’ll try it!
I made some shrimp & thai pepper soup the other day, and it was too spicy to eat. I had to increase the volume by 4 quarts to eat it lol…. and yes, the “average american” is a useless bastard who thinks that mild salsa in the supermarket is spicy.
Actually, as I write this wee post, I’ve just started some chunk charcoal alight in the grill.
I have some baby back ribs that I rubbed down with a reasonably hot chile mix – sitting and talking to themselves for a few hours. I’ll brown them a bit outdoors – then, put them in a very slow oven for a couple of hours till they fall apart.
Lunch will be a delight, today.
I grew up eating hot food and have loved it all my life. However, as you get older you discover that exit becomes much more of a problem than entry. ;->
One million – that’s nothing – At this web site they claim that the Naga Morich ‘snake or serpent chilli’ is the hottest at 1,598,227 Scoville Heat Units (SHU),
http://www.thechileman.org/naga_morich.php
Isn’t the Scoville unit logarithmic wrt to heat sensed by the tongue and mucous membranes? A 20K pepper isn’t that much hotter than a 10K pepper, but a 100K pepper is. A 500K pepper is pretty darned hot., and 1.5M units is right out there.
It’s tough to imagine a raw pepper with 1.5M scoville units. Raw savina habeneros at 1M are extremely hot, perhaps hot enough to burn the skin on the roof of your mouth. Like Scotch Bonnets, just barely edible. But they make a great salsa and wonderful chile.
The hottest substance I’ve ever tasted is distilled habenero — concentrated beyond scoville measurement. 1/16 tsp. in a quart of chile will make it very spicy. A toothpick’s worth rubbed on a slice of roast is extremely hot.
Try these concentrates, all widely available:
* Endorphin rush
* Blair’s After Death
* Blown Away
All may be ordered online from Pendery’s , Ft. Worth TX.
Wash each sample down with 2-4 tbsp. of Tabasco to kill the heat.
[Isn’t it easier to just hit yourself in the head with a ball peen hammer? – ed.]
The problem I have with peppers is that there’s so much variation between the same species, depending on about 200 different factors. I have a friend who grows jalapenos and some are MUCH hotter than others. I like the taste of jalapenos, but they’re one of the worst coming back out through the old bunghole. I don’t have access to a wide variety of peppers; around here (Flarda) it’s pretty much jalapenos and habaneros. Habaneros are good for spicing something up, but they don’t have that much taste on their own, in my opinion. (Wear gloves and eye protection when you cut up a good batch, and even after you wash your hands vigorously, be careful scratching your balls for a day or two. You’ve been warned.)
I’ve had Dave’s Private Reserve Insanity Sauce and that rates at somewhere between 500,000 and 750,000 Scoville. A decent teaspoon rates on my unofficial, yet field tested, scale as a 15 minute burn and nail marks on the porcelain later that night. A couple of drops in a vat of chili however is quite tasty. I cannot imagine something like Blair’s 3AM which rates between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 Scoville.
Here’s a cool site with the ratings of various sauces:
http://www.chilliworld.com/FactFile/Scoville_Scale.asp
There is a point where you Loose all flavor, and all you get is HOT.
I dont mind HOT, but I do find abit of flavor is NICE.
I live in Las Cruces, where NMSU is located, and when I saw this article in the local paper, I had to ask “what is the point?” I like spicy food as much if not more than the average person, but hot does not equal taste. As far as I am concerned this current craze to create/consume the hottest possible sauce is just for yahoo’s who really don’t care about food, just bragging. Obviously a sauce that causes a ’15 minute burn’ does not enhance the flavor of food.
#4. Thanks a lot, Thomas. One more horrible image I’ll have to carry.
#7
“Habaneros are good for spicing something up, but they don’t have that much taste on their own, in my opinion.”
I agree on that, there’s nothing like something spicy with flavour that just plain tongue numbing fire.
What could be worse is a spiceless jalapeno, I’ve bought a pound for pickling and thought they were spicy, but I later found out they were not and they taste awful.
I should teach a cooking class for some of you lot. A whole segment of Caribbean cooking uses the habañero – they just call it the Scotch Bonnet.
You can modulate the hotness, you can modulate the flavor. No big deal if you know what you’re doing.
[Isn’t it easier to just hit yourself in the head with a ball peen hammer? – ed.] Only if it’s a really hot hammer. 🙂 It was a joke! You’ve told us many tales of life in chili country, so you should know.
Tabasco is for breakfast. Habeñeros are for salsa and chile. Distilled habeñero sauces are mainly useful for discovering new and exciting facial expressions on people who think they can eat hot stuff.
I agree with ECA, flavor is mandatory and habeñeros have a unique flavor — hot for hot’s sake is ridiculous.
There is also nothing worse than a jalapeño with the heat of a bell pepper or a N. Mex. red with the flavor of shoe leather. Ecch. Might as well get some of that “hot sauce” from taco bell for your homemade tacos and fajitas.
Factoid: Birds will happily eat the hottest of hot chili peppers — some varieties of extremely hot peppers are popularly known as “bird peppers.”
#14…..BubbaRay….We have always grown our own peppers….so I brought seeds with me to the wilds of Northern California and discovered that soil can really make a difference in a Habanero’s flavor. I had to bring up about 8 bags of Arizona soil to get the great flavor back. I went to pickle some Jalapeno’s I grew and ran into the weak hotness problem. I went to the local Mexican market and found that everyone has the problem here of weak to so so jalapeno’s. But using the soil I brought up, my Jalapeno’s are nicely hot again.
Oh, and yep….bnirds love the peppers, they eat them out of Mom’s garden all the time.
#15, Joshua, my friend and I grow our own peppers also. You’re correct, soil makes a huge difference. Over the years, we’ve developed a mixture of miracle grow soil, TX clay, sand and compost that is fabulous for growing flavorful chilis with just the right “hot.” Jalapeños that work and habañeros that won’t quite peel the palate. Who knew?
Can you believe that TX A&M (darned Aggies) are attempting a habañero hybrid that isn’t at all hot?? Jumpin’ tortillas, find something better to do!