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| Science & Technology |
| New Hottest Chili Found |
| 2007-02-18 |
| Paul Bosland recalls taking a bite of a chili pepper and feeling like he was breathing fire. He gulped down a soda, thinking, "That chili has got to be some kind of record." The Guinness Book of Records agreed, confirming recently that Bosland, a regents professor at New Mexico State University, had discovered the world's hottest chili pepper, Bhut Jolokia, a naturally occurring hybrid native to the Assam region of northeastern India. The name translates as ghost chili, Bosland said. "We're not sure why they call it that, but I think it's because the chili is so hot, you give up the ghost when you eat it," he said. Bhut Jolokia comes in at 1,001,304 Scoville heat units, a measure of hotness for a chili. It's nearly twice as hot as Red Savina, the variety it replaces as the hottest. By comparison, a New Mexico green chili contains about 1,500 Scoville units; an average jalapeno measures at about 10,000. The Bhut Jolokia variety has potential as a food additive in the packaged food industry, Bosland said. It could be pickled while green, dehydrated and used as seasoning. Because the heat is so concentrated, food manufacturers would save money because they'd use less. "This isn't something you'd pickle whole and eat, but it could replace dehydrated jalapeno as an additive," Bosland said. A member of NMSU's Chile Pepper Institute who was visiting India sent Bhut Jolokia seeds to NMSU for testing in 2001. The plant doesn't produce fruit easily, so it took a couple of years to get enough for field testing, Bosland said. He then grew Bhut Jolokia, Red Savina and habanero peppers under controlled settings and found that Bhut Jolokia had significantly higher Scoville ratings. Those findings were confirmed by two independent laboratories. Bhut Jolokia seeds are available through the Chile Pepper Institute. Hot pepper aficionados take this very seriously. Some keep "family strains" of pepper plants, and claim that connoisseurs can tell the difference. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #28 MADONNA's DADDY TO MADONNA + Sibs > Well, kids, BBBBBUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRPPPPPP, there goes the Solar Cycle = Sun. WND > Joseph Farah's G2 BULLETIN > SOLAR STORMS MAY WIPE OUT CELL PHONES. Solar storms to intensify btwn now and Year 2010 - POSSIBLE CATACLYSMIC EFFECTS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-02-18 23:34 |
| #27 Yeah. That's almost as bad as diving into an over-chlorinated pool just after removing a set of contacts (14 hours on-eye). |
| Posted by: mrp 2007-02-18 22:14 |
| #26 Habaneros and contacts don't work so well. Not that I've had first-hand experience, twice as it were... makes my eyes water just thinking about it. |
| Posted by: IG-88 2007-02-18 21:17 |
| #25 LOL--Sounds like one of those occasions when you wish your toilet came with a seat belt! |
| Posted by: Dar 2007-02-18 20:03 |
| #24 I enjoyed whole Habanero once. Bled for a week. Took three transfusions to recover. |
| Posted by: john 2007-02-18 20:03 |
| #23 I learned some very valuable lessons making that picante. One was how truly DUMB young men can be. Taking a sample habanero to a coffee shop, I was showing it around when a 16-17 year old boy asked me how hot it was. Now if I had said it wasn't hot at all, here, try a bite, wild horses couldn't have made him touch it. But in all honesty I said, "Son, this is the hottest pepper I know of. It will burn your head clean off and will leave a charred stump. In less than five minutes, you will be in the restroom washing your mouth out with hand soap." Before I could say another word, like that he might try by nibbling the tiniest bit off the end, he GRABBED that whole pepper, SHOVED it into his mouth, CHEWED it up a bunch of times, and SWALLOWED that sumbitch. Bad idea. All the older men at the table froze, as if someone had drawn a gun. I will hand it to that young fella, he managed to hang at least 30 seconds before he took off to the restroom at a full run. Maybe five, ten minutes later, that poor, red faced, crying, foamy mouthed young man reappeared at the table, somewhat the worse for wear. "When does it stop?", he burbled. "It does", I replied. Then he had to run back to the restroom. I didn't have the heart to tell him what was going to happen in about a day or so. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-02-18 18:30 |
| #22 Good Lord, #11 'moose - have you ever considered bottling it for sale? I hear NASA is considering it for rocket fuel... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-02-18 16:39 |
| #21 Just to be pedantic: Scoville Capsaicin Chart 200,000 to 300,000 Scoville Units includes Habanero peppers. The "Red Savina" Habanero has been tested at over 577,000 Scoville units! Around 16,000,000 Scoville Units is Pure Capsaicin. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-02-18 16:36 |
| #20 I use canned smoked habaneros to make salsa and even then the vapors are enough to make everyone in the room cry, Omolurt Elmeaper6990 excepted. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-02-18 16:25 |
| #19 i used too work at a grocery store where we [ayed a guy too eat a whole habanero. It didn't wqork out too good for him the following 2 days when he didn't show. |
| Posted by: sinse 2007-02-18 16:24 |
| #18 How many Scovilles is Hydrochloric acid ? |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-02-18 15:57 |
| #17 Don't worry, Ship, I'll still make Satan's Toejam for tose with a more delicate pallate. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-02-18 15:35 |
| #16 I use pure capsicum oil for eye-drops. Bunch of wussies! |
| Posted by: Omolurt Elmeaper6990 2007-02-18 14:38 |
| #15 lol! And here I was thinking Scotch Bonnet(Capsicum chinense) was the hottest , but alas its not .. |
| Posted by: MacNails 2007-02-18 14:20 |
| #14 #7 sounds like Crack Chili :-) If it's named after a part of your body, chill'un, don' neither eat nor smoke it. |
| Posted by: rhodesiafever 2007-02-18 14:17 |
| #13 I once grew a huge crop of beautiful looking Habaneros in my back yard one very hot summer. I took a ripe one inside to check it out. Big mistake. I didn't use Moose's precautions, just cut out a 1 cubic millimeter of it to taste. Wonderful flavor, combination of flowers and lime juice, 10 seconds later my mouth exploded in flames. My mother sitting 25 feet away started coughing. I started coughing. Our eyes started running. We evacuated the house, tossed out the offending Habanero, and opened all the windows to air it out. It was like a tear gas attack. I threw out the whole crop. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-02-18 14:15 |
| #12 Good Lord, #11 'moose - have you ever considered bottling it for sale? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-02-18 13:47 |
| #11 I have a habanero picante recipe that is a bit like working with tear gas--gloves, cloth mask and glasses are a must. First run about 20 habanero peppers and a white onion through a meat grinder. Grinder reduces vapor hazard. Thoroughly pre-rinse grinder parts before running through dishwasher. Then cover with boiling vinegar, with 1 tsp salt per pint, and seal in a large glass jar. Let sit for two weeks. After aging, add 1 cup grain alcohol then blender. Bottle in small glass containers. Highly addictive. Friends will approach you, hold out the empty bottle and just say, "More." Variations include using different vinegars; different salts, like sea salt or potassium salt; different liquors, such as high-test saki, vodka, and tequila. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-02-18 13:43 |
| #10 I am growing some of those right now. I plan on replacing the habaneros in my Satan's Toejam hot sauce with Bhut Jolokia and calling it Satan's Earwax. Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Without the real DTJ I will become weak and listless, more so than usual. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-02-18 13:31 |
| #9 (not very often though, I find it gives the chili a flavor too reminscent of my spaghetti sauce). Ever a problem. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-02-18 13:29 |
| #8 I am growing some of those right now. I plan on replacing the habaneros in my Satan's Toejam hot sauce with Bhut Jolokia and calling it Satan's Earwax. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-02-18 13:27 |
| #7 sounds like Crack Chili :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-02-18 13:05 |
| #6 Oh, as to flavor - Death Chili is the kind that sneaks the heat up on you. You take a bite, savor a sweet meat, tomato, and bean goodness at first and then about 10 seconds or so later - POW! The heat starts on the back of the tongue and moves forward until it engulfs your whole head, you break out in a sweat, take a swig of beer, and pick up the spoon for another bite because the flavor is still in your mouth with the heat, but it's something you just want more and more of. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-02-18 12:50 |
| #5 who in the hell would throw something called the ghost chili in their mouth in the first place? |
| Posted by: sinse 2007-02-18 12:49 |
| #4 It's all about the "mix" you use. In my "Death Chili" (it was first called that by some friends of mine who sampled it at a local pub and the name stuck) I use habaneros, serranos, and jalapenos together in quanity for the jalapenos and then diminishing in quantity as I add the additional peppers. The peppers are added after the meat, beans, and tomatoes have been on the boil for a little while (I also try to use at least 2-3 types of meat - lean hamburger, a london broil cut into thin strips and slices, and sometimes a small amount of hot italian sausage (not very often though, I find it gives the chili a flavor too reminscent of my spaghetti sauce). I never add sugar, but do use a lot of chili powder, a small amount of garlic, some dried mexican peppers, and some salt and pepper (not too much - the mix has its own natural sweetness which can be overwhelmed by salt or garlic). Canned and uncanned tomatoes are also used in the mix. I never add carrots, but do add in a whole white onion. I use canned red kidney beans so that adds in some sugar and gives the mix its sweetness. The entire mix also has to have exactly the right color as well (I like it to be dull red almost the same color as spaghetti sauce). Takes me about 4 hours to fix up a batch. Then its sit back, grab a bowl and a beer, and let the sweatin' begin. I've been plannin' on fixin' up a batch recently too. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-02-18 12:47 |
| #3 I find Myself using much milder chiles, but in larger quantity. That way, I actually get some taste, rather than just heat. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2007-02-18 12:22 |
| #2 A million is about pure capsicum oil. I once bought a bottle but was too chicken to use it. Oddly enough, it needed to be refrigerated. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-02-18 12:07 |
| #1 For this chili, they're better off switching the Scoville units to a Richter-based logarithimc scale. Come on, a million? A Habanero is about 50,000 Scovilles; I barely use them anymore, they're just a tad too hot for me since I turned 40... |
| Posted by: Raj 2007-02-18 11:48 |