How Hot?

I enjoy growing peppers, and I have varieties of all heat levels. and as anyone who has ever grown peppers knows, there is no such thing as a pepper shortage this time of year, all the plants are pumping out peppers! For me, part of the enjoyment of growing anything is being able to share.

So, here's the problem, I have found that "hot" is a relative term. I brought in some peppers to one of my co-workers who insisted he liked hot peppers. "These are really, really hot, now," I warned him; but he assured me he liked 'em hot.

Apparently he doesn't like 'em *that* hot, cause he was back in here complaining about my devil peppers. I didn't have the heart to tell him those weren't even close to the hottest ones I have.

Anyway, I'm starting to use what I call "The Old El Paso" scale. Almost everyone has had Old El Paso salsa at some time or another, so I ask them what level - mild, medium, or hot- of Old El Paso salsa would they eat, or would they consider Old El Paso far too wimpy.Yes, I know there are far better salsas out there, both homemade and commercial, but Old El Paso seems to be so ubiquitious, it's a handy reference. It has narrowed things down a lot, but there are still a few who are convinced they like much hotter peppers than they really do.

And then there are those annoying people who think that liking hot peppers somehow makes them kewl. I will confess to making pepper poppers out of Devil's Tongue peppers to take to parties just to watch that sort start making all kind of excuses about why they can't have anything hot tonight! Some of them even get all scaredy at the Lemon Drop poppers, and they're merely hot.

Penelope

Reply to
Penelope Periwinkle
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Is the "scoville" unit scale not working for you? I doesn't sound nearly as "kewl" as the "Old El Paso" scale but it is a good reference point. Try this link.

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Reply to
Thomas

btw.... according to the scoville scale no pepper is hotter than the habanero, some of them over 300,000 scoville units.

for what it's worth...

Reply to
Thomas

What are Devil's Tongue peppers? I've seen you mention them several times.

Thanks, regards, Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

Uh, no.

What do you think those numbers mean to someone who's never seen the scale and barely knows the difference in a bell pepper and a cayenne? The idea is to get a feeling for what

*they* define as hot or mild so I am better able to give them peppers that they'll enjoy. The problem is a matter of translation, not of lacking information about the peppers.

list I've ever seen. Besides, I already know how hot they are.

Penelope

Reply to
Penelope Periwinkle

Define "habanero"

Penelope, who has at least 10 varieties of _C chinense_ this year.

Reply to
Penelope Periwinkle

For whom? Most of my peppers aren't on any Scoville

Reply to
Thomas

Reply to
Thomas

They're a yellow habanero-type pepper, _C chinense_, and right up there with the hottest of the hot peppers. I think Reimers seeds and Dave DeWitt's company both claimed to have tested some and had them come out hotter than Red Savinas last year. You can go to , click on "Chile Chart" and scroll down and click on "Devil's Tongue" is you want to see a picture.

Once they're that insanely hot, I don't see what difference a few Scovilles one way or the othe; but then I'm a pepper geek, not a chilihead. The brother of one of my co-workers *is* a chilihead, and he says they taste hotter than Red Savina's and Chocolate habs. I think they impart a nice flavor to the hot pepper oils and vinagars I make, but I'm not about to munch one!

Penelope

Reply to
Penelope Periwinkle

Yuck yuck...

I use the Bidet scale... it does not matter how much the mouth gets burned, it is the other end that matters. Habs digest, cayennes and Japs do not.

I do like your scale though. I figure more people would understand a scale with 3 numbers rather than one with 300,000... And more people have eaten El P salsa than have heard of Scoville. And as we all know, that scale is based on how much of another substance it takes to counteract the heat...

John!

Reply to
GA Pinhead

Thanks. That sounds a lot like "fatalii", which I like and is supposed to grow well up here but I haven't had any luck with them. I wouldn't believe everything I read at Reimers. I bought some of their Indian PC-1 peppers a few years ago and they weren't all that special, just hyped.

My interesting pepper this year was "dundicut", scavanged from some dried peppers I bought at an Indian market. I got very poor germination and a weak start with those pepper seeds, but I have fresh seeds now for next year. The peppers have a good flavor, are quite hot but not much more so than a good jalapeno, and they are *very* seedy so I mostly ate them green while the seeds were still soft. They look about like red and green gumdrops. :-)

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

Oh hon, I'm a pepper geek. It's pathetic; I'll natter away for hours about everything from the growing of peppers to what to do with the harvest. I'll merrily argue the relative merits of _C chinense_ vs _C baccatuum_ until people's eyes glaze over and they desperately flag down Ronald, their Trekie friend to escape the onslaught of pepper trivia.

Exactly, which why I need a reference point for friends who don't know a Scoville from a hole in the ground, but who would like to have some peppers they can enjoy.

Why? Even when I talk to other pepper geeks and chiliheads, we don't talk Scovilles. I'll be gushing about how wonderful the Pimento De Chiero pepper is, and they'll ask me if it's hotter than a jalapeno, and I'll say it's more like a cayenne. They don't say "is it between 2500 and 5000 Scovilles?" and I don't answer "More like 30,000 Scovilles."

And then there's the problem of different peppers having the same or similar names. I've seen two versions of the Pimento De Chiero, both known as a scent pepper, but one spelled "ie" and the other spelled "ei" The one I'm growing (ie) has a small, smooth yellow pod, while the other (ei) appears to have a larger, more habanero-type pod. So, having a handle on the heat of the actual peppers in my backyard does me more good than referring to a very general, non-specific chart that may or may not have the pepper I'm growing.

ObAside: Of course, being a pepper geek, I'm going to have to track down the "ei" one and grow it to compare to the "ie" one so I can drone on endlessly about which is likely the true scent pepper.

Yes! And so, if you want to be able to give "bubba" a pepper he'll find hot, you need to know what he considers hot, not how many Scoville units are in that particular pepper.

It means the list is not very useful to me.

Penelope

Reply to
Penelope Periwinkle

Bidet scale, I like that! That's such a delicate way to word something that's anything butt delicate!

There are a lot of ways I sort my peppers, butt that's not one I used. Do you really find habs more digestible or are you pulling my leg?

Penelope, or the toilet paper...

Reply to
Penelope Periwinkle

Yes! And so, if you want to be able to give "bubba" a pepper he'll

find hot, you need to know what he considers hot, not how many Scoville units are in that particular pepper.

An added variable which makes the scoville unit rather less definit anyway is that different varieties are hotter or less hot depending o how they are grown. Simply assuming that a habanero will be rated as zillion on a standard scale makes too many assumptions. I was happil munching on some relatively mild chillis the other day ( grown b myself ) and suddenly came across one that hurt. If all your friends d tests each time they eat a pepper so that they know exactly how man units on the scale suits them, and if you then test your peppers a well, bingo, otherwise the Old El Paso method is probably more 'rea world' useful

-- DJBrenton

Reply to
DJBrenton

I was going to use it's actual name, the s&*% fire scale... but we are in mixed company!

yes, the chinesis peppers do not burn twice, perhaps not every one but all my pepper eating friends would rather eat habs than cayenne or japs. Japs only seem worse I guess because I eat more at a time.

John!

Reply to
GA Pinhead

That was impressively diplomatic... PENELOPE FOR PRESIDENT ! ! !

Reply to
Ken Anderson

So we know what Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" is really all about?

Reply to
Ken Anderson

"and it burned, burned, burned..." LOLOLOL

Reply to
GA Pinhead

No...no! What did I ever do to you!

Penelope

Reply to
Penelope Periwinkle

You guys are sick!

Penelope, I like that in a man.

Reply to
Penelope Periwinkle

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