Quantifying Chile Heat

[Tucson Grower]

The heat of Chile is primarily in a compound called capsaicin.

When I was an undergraduate at NMSU, around 1989. The Chile breeding program had an organic chemist working with them. Her job was to do chemical analysis, to quantify the amount of capsaicin in various accessions (individual seed grown plants). It was very fascinating to me. I was fortunate that she was gracious enough to let me pick her brain about the machine (HPLC - high performance liquid chromatography) and its process, even explaining to me the results, and how to read them. Her hobby was calligraphy, and she even helped me learn a little of that, too.

I remember that some Habanero Chile plants had 1,000 times more capsaicin than a typical Jalapeno.

One of my jobs, as student worker in the Chile breeding program, was to clean seeds from the fruits. We wore latex gloves, but Chile powder/dust was everywhere in the seed cleaning room. I remember, the beginning of one class, when I needed to rub my eye. I was lucky to find the bathroom after that, and spent the remainder of that class, just rinsing my eye out.

[heavyhitterokra]

I've never eaten a habanero, but I've grown them for other people who enjoy them.  One of my sons took some of my habaneros home one summer and called me up later with tears in his eyes; he thought they were the same as the serrano and jalapeno he had taken home before and had fried them up to put on a sandwich. He said his whole mouth was on fire and it felt like someone had put a cigarette out in his eye, after wiping his face while cooking. I'll never forget his next 5 words, "No more Chinese Lantern peppers!"

[Tucson Grower]

I've never eaten one either. When I first started my student employment with the Chile department, I asked about the hottest Chile and could I try it. They said it was a Habanero, and I was welcome to try it. They picked one fruit and handed it to me. Tooth pics were conveniently nearby, used for transferring pollen in breeding. I picked up a tooth pic, touched one end of it to the Habanero placenta (the white membrane where the seed are attached inside the fruit), then just slightly touched the tip of my tongue. I tasted the unique and fruity flavor, then, a few moments later the heat started - it quickly escalated, soon my mouth was running uncontrollably with saliva and my eyes were running with tears - the worst subsided in about 20 minutes, but I could still feel some of the heat even hours later. Just before I left NMSU, I deigned to try it again, several years after my first go 'round. After all I had regularly been eating regular spicy Chiles for more than a year.

I was too confident, I took a small bite, including a piece of placenta. I almost immediately realized it was a mistake to have done this. Ditto, a repeat of the above performance. Uncontrolled salivating and tears running from my eyes.

[heavyhitterokra]

I used to grow habaneros for a hamburger joint where high school kids hung out. They'd put them on a hamburger and if you could eat the whole thing, you'd get it for free. It was a good advertising stunt that was fun to watch. They didn't get too many takers after the first few tries, but it did bring in a lot of customers in the form of spectators, so it was a money-maker for the owner to give away a hamburger once in a while.

[macmex]

I've never eaten a whole habanero but I have enjoyed tiny bites with about 5 minute intervals between them. Murupi Amarela is on pare with a typical habanero but it's smaller and slender. Oftentimes the very tip has little heat. One has to reach placenta to hit the real heat. I have never eaten more than 1/2 of these, raw, and that over the course of an afternoon. Now, chopped into eggs, that's another matter. I can chop 1/2 of a Murupi into a three egg omelet and eat that with no problem.

Murupi Amarela/ aka Ají Yellow ·2

Now they have habanero types which are WAY hotter. I once purchased one of those plants, thinking it was "just an habanero.' It only produced a few fruit, but I determined to save seed and try again the following year. I cut one fruit open and removed the seed and then, as is my custom, I cut a tiny slice off the tip and popped it into my mouth. I could have swore the concussion threw me and my chair against the kitchen wall! Woowee!! I thought, "That's not an habanero!" I went out and looked at the tag more carefully. On the back side it read "Scorpion." I left the the "smoking remains" of that pepper on the plant, on the table for a few days. Every day I'd think, "Surely it wasn't that hot and I'd touch it to my tough again. "Picking myself up off the floor," I'd conclude that indeed it was! I didn't save that seed as I prefer habanero level heat for my cooking.

I spent years exposed to some pretty hot peppers, while living in Central Mexico, even, one time inadvertently winning a hot pepper eating contest. One time I over did it and combined with repeated bouts of salmanela and typhoid, I ended up on a year long bland diet, which reset the heat receptors in my mouth and tongue. Returning to normal life I discovered that I had no resistance at all to capsaicin and had to work back up. The tiniest bit of hot pepper felt like my limit. My wife suggested that if that were the case I might consider keeping things a bit more tame. That way I'd get the same pleasure for less added pepper. (It would also make things easier for the rest of the family.) So I did that. I remain at a much less brag worthy level of heat resistence.

Interestingly though, I have found when I get capsaicin in my eye I just let it water and in a few minutes it clears up. That's kind of handy. 

[Tucson Grower]

macmex, Nice pic of a beautiful plant.

Recently, through the Chile Pepper Institute, I obtained seed for several of their hottest varieties, but bred to be without heat (capsaicin). In the coming season, we will see how that is. It will be difficult to trust them to be heat-free. If it's true, it should be nice. I really like the flavor, just not so much heat.

[heavyhitterokra]

Last winter I saw yellow Murupi Amarella pepper seeds going for $6.00 per pod. They were not processed seeds, just dried pods with seeds in them.

[macmex]

One of the challenges with this pepper is that they often have very few seeds to the pod. This year I've found pods with NO seeds at all! It makes it hard to get enough seed for sharing. 

[Tucson Grower]

That might be one reason why someone was selling just the fruits, without cleaning the seed first. That way the customer would take both the responsibility of any heat (capsaicin) encounter, mishap, or how many seed were in each fruit when processed. Either clever, or devious (shrewd).

[macmex]

Indeed. It also explains why this pepper continues to be hard to obtain. If it were a regular habenero seed would be easy to obtain.

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

Reading this post reminds me I picked about a hundred murupi amarelas the day it froze so hard, (Saturday?)  I don't know how good they'll be for seed, but I'll bet they're still plenty hot.  I've got them in the summer kitchen, spread out on a towel to dry.  I need to get them back to you after they dry.

[macmex]

Thanks Ron! I started seeding out a few this evening but can't wear a glove on my left hand due to the splinted finger...
I stopped after a bit, wondering how the capsaicin build up was coming on that hand. I licked a finger tip and instantly maxed out on "the burn." Will probably wait to do more until I can wear a glove.

[heavyhitterokra]

That would be a tough situation. I wore gloves to pick the ones that got frozen. They are drying in surprisingly good condition.

[glen]

Chili peppers and how hot they are is an interesting subject. I am from Florida and the hottest pepper I ever grew in Florida was Habanero peppers. Habanero was the thing back in the 80's and we really didn't have many hot peppers to choose from. Habanero is a Mexican variety and it thrives in the mild Florida climate. People are scared of how hot they have heard super hot peppers are. They are nothing to be scared of. You just have to respect them and take it slow to discover how much heat you can stand. I have numerous variety's growing all over my yard that are much spicier than Habanero peppers. I just mix them up and make sauce and paste out of em. You use a little bit. That means not much. Increase the amount slowly. Respect hot peppers but at the same time, they are a really good addition to the pallet. For me, there are 2 category's of super-hot peppers. The Bhut-Jalokia, and the Tropical variety's of which Carolina Reaper falls into. The Bhut Jalokia comes from a certain province in India. Its an old variety. Its not fruity at all. They are just hot. The tropical variety's have a fruity back flavor. One of my favorites is the Jamaican Scotch Bonnet. They are much less hot than a Carolina Reaper but very fruity. Almost apricot fruity in flavor. Plus sneaky heat. Indian peppers are not sneaky. Just hot right away. Carolina Reaper is real hot, sneaky heat and long lasting with a nice tropical fruity after taste. They are just an awesome pepper. No, they are not too hot. You just use less of it. Work your way into it. Slowly. There is no rush. I have Bhut Jalokia and Tropical variety's of hot pepper in the yard. They are both worth growing. Also, if you want you can mix super hot peppers with Ajicito peppers which are sweet chili's to make a hot sauce as hot or mild as you want. Panama has dozens of different variety's of sweet chili peppers affectionately called Ajicito's to choose from. You can tame the heat by mixing ahicito peppers with your carolina reaper peppers in a hot sauce. Its fun.