Testing pepper spiciness level

August 27, 2021, 01:30 PM

OKCGene

I don't have an answer for you, but if you don't mind, let me toss something out here.

There are many people who love the flavor of Jalapenos but don't like or can't handle the heat of jalapenos or other hot peppers.

If you want to try something, and have a garden spot, look for the seeds to purchase, or the plant if it's available, of the TAM Jalapeno Pepper. The TAM stands for Texas A&M, they developed the variety. It's a Jalapeno with great flavor but no heat. I have grown them. I do NOT like those nasty evil hot peppers.
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August 27, 2021, 02:10 PM

dsiets

^^ Yes. There are different varieties of Jalapenos and part of the problem is you don't know which ones you are getting.
I've made batches of stuffed ones and some I could eat all of them and a few I had trouble eating more than one - I ain't as young as I used to be.
https://www.pepperscale.com/jalapeno-varieties/

August 27, 2021, 05:33 PM

jhe888

I don't know how to tell without eating them. And, yeah, once you bite into a good, hot habanero or Thai bird chili, your tatebuds are kind of blown.

August 27, 2021, 07:36 PM

maladat

quote:
Originally posted by Perception:
There isn't outside of a lab (the Scoville scale is subjective anyway, so even that isn't precise.) The best way is going to be to look up a heat range for the pepper you're testing online. Even that isn't perfect as sometimes a ghost pepper will be hotter than a reaper, and some jalapenos try to hurt you.

I grow quite a few peppers, and I've kind of settled into a 3 part classification. 0-100,000 SHU is mild, 100,000- 1,000,000 SHU is medium, and 1,000,000 plus is hot. It's not the most accurate, but I've gotten to the point I can kind of tell how hot I'm going to make my food within those ranges at least.

The Scoville scale actually isn't really subjective anymore, even though it used to be.

These days, a Scoville measurement is almost always taken using a very expensive piece of lab equipment (a high-performance liquid chromatograph) that directly measures the concentration of capsaicinoids (spicy chemical compounds).

The old, subjective method involves drying the pepper, grinding it up, and diluting it in sugar water until a panel of tasters can't tell there's anything spicy left in the sugar water.

That method is certainly subjective, and to attain any degree of consistency is a fussy process, but it certainly doesn't require a fancy lab.