Reaching For The Highest High - The Life Dream Of All Chileheads

Reaching For The Highest High - The Life Dream Of All Chileheads

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To a true chilehead it often comes as a shock to realize that most people they meet have never had anything hotter than a nacho jalapeno slice in their mouth.

Why does this shock them? Because to a chilehead the jalapeno is a nice, tasty little pepper. But not very hot. In fact there are far more peppers and heat levels above it than below.

What are Chileheads?

"Chilehead" is what people who love hot peppers and hot foods in general typically call themselves. Naturally this comes from the chile pepper -- a good source of tongue burning heat.

This is not to be confused with chili with an "i" That is the beef and bean concoction that cowboys love to eat. Most chileheads love chili, too, of course -- but they are really two very different things.

As mentioned above, chile peppers are the most common source of the mouth burning heat, but not the only one. Mustard, horseradish, ginger, black pepper and several other foods can also deliver the goods. But really, "horseradish-heads" sounds silly.

Hot Peppers

Now, let's discuss that jalapeno.

The heat of peppers comes from a chemical called capsaicin. The more capsaicin in a pepper, the hotter it feels on the tongue. The heat is measured by using the Scoville Scale and the amount given is in Scoville Units. It's a bit more complicated to explain than can be done in this short article, but basically -- the more Scoville Units the hotter the pepper. It's linear, too. In other words, a pepper with 100 Scoville Units feels twice as hot as one with 50.

Your normal ballpark nacho jalapeno slice will typically rate about 1,000 Scoville Units. A fresh, unpickled jalapeno about 5,000.

If this is too much for you -- if you typically gulp your coke or beer after a bite of nachos -- maybe you should stop reading now.

A Thai Chile -- used in many traditional Chinese and Southeast Asian dishes -- weighs in at around 75,000 Scoville Units. Or about 15 to 75 times as hot as that jalapeno. Don't expect to get too many in your basic cheap Chinese takeout. They know their market and usually use less hot varieties. But if you get some high end or authentic Oriental food you may encounter them. You'll know it if you do.

On the ultra high end of the Scoville Scale is the habanero pepper and the Scotch bonnet. These peppers rate as high as a mouth-exploding 500,000 Scoville Units.

Reaching Higher and Higher

Remarkably, even though the Red Savino habanero is the hottest pepper on the planet, it pales in comparison to some of the hot sauces on the market. By extracting and concentrating capsaicin, hot sauce makers have achieved the unthinkable heat levels of 3,000,000 plus Scoville Units.

It has been said that these sauces are to your jalapeno slice what the atom bomb is to the beat of a butterfly's wings.

And this is the realm of the true chilehead who puts this stuff on hamburgers, sandwiches, chicken wings -- and in chili.

Heaven help us all.

About the Author:
I hope you enjoyed those facts. If you love spicy foods, I have a website you might enjoy. Kitchen Spice Rack will help you choose the right design for your kitchen and your style of cooking. Visit us today and check out the selection of Magnetic Spice Racks



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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