I use three ways to measure spice intensity. The first is my own scale, the second is the Scoville Scale, and then there’s the PepperScale.
I have a few specific pepper sauces that I know exactly how hot they are but for most of them I have no idea. I’ve tried a few different methods for measuring their relative hotness.
As you can see in the pictures to the left, the first method is using sugar water. This is probably one of the easiest ways to test out any new hot sauce you buy. That’s what I did when I bought my Dave’s Insanity Sauce.
This method works well if you’re just comparing one or two sauces but it doesn’t work so well if you’re comparing more than that. The problem with this method is you can’t really compare a hot sauce with a medium-hot sauce because they both have sugar in them and that would skew your results. The other problem with this is if your hot sauce has some sweetness, like with habanero peppers, then all peppers will taste sweet no matter how hot it is… yet another reason why comparing multiple hot sauces isn’t good with this method.
The second way to measure spice intensity is by using the Scoville scale . If
The major Scoville Scale is a measurement used in food science to measure the spicy heat of chili peppers. The Scoville Scale is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, who developed the scale in 1912.
The Scoville Scale is not an exact measurement, as it relies on human tasters and can be influenced by the sweet or bitter elements of foods, as well as the presence of other ingredients such as sugar or alcohol. There are also many different kinds of peppers that are rated on different scales, since each pepper has its own unique flavor and amount of heat.
Tasting Scoville Scale peppers can be quite dangerous if you are not accustomed to eating spicy foods, so be sure to prepare yourself with a beverage before tasting any!
Are you trying to create a new and unique spice or herb blend? Are you looking for a new way to add a little extra kick to your already existing spice blend? If so, then you should know about the Scoville Scale. This scale is used to measure how spicy food is by determining the amount of capsaicin (the chemical compound in peppers that causes their heat) present per unit of liquid or mass. The higher the number, the hotter the pepper.
The Scoville Scale was developed in 1912 by Wilbur Scoville. He started by extracting the capsaicin compound using alcohol, water, sugar and glycerin. He then diluted it with these ingredients until participants in his study were no longer able to detect any heat from the mixture. This process took many trials and was not an exact science because of human variations. Today, high-performance liquid chromatography can be used to determine specific capsaicin levels in peppers.**
**Source: http://www.foodsubs.com/spicescale.html
The Scoville Scale is a measurement of the pungency (spicy heat) of chili peppers. The scale was invented by American pharmacist Wilbur L.Scoville in 1912.
The scale was created to measure the hotness of a chili pepper plant and its fruit, based on the capsaicinoid content. Capsaicin is the chemical compound found in chili peppers that makes them hot. The scale is named after its creator, Mr. Scoville, and each unit is referred to as a Scoville Heat Unit (SHU).
The higher the number of SHUs, the hotter the pepper. The sweet bell pepper has a rating of 0 Scoville Heat Units; meaning it has no taste or heat at all. A jalapeño pepper rates 5000 to 10,000 SHUs.”
**Source: http://www.world-foods-spices-recipes-etc.com/crushed-red-pepper-hotness-measured-scoville-scale.html **
The Scoville Scale is a uniform method of measuring the hotness (spicy heat) of chili peppers and other spicy foods. The scale was created in 1912 by Wilbur Scoville, a chemist at the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company, originally for use in tasting pepper extracts. It is named after its creator, and not related at all to the Scoville Organism Units scale for estimating food contamination with bacteria.
The most recent and up-to-date list of Scoville ratings was compiled by the Carolina’s State University’s Chile Pepper Institute. The list of hottest known peppers as of October 5th, 2006 is:
Nagasaki Buzz Rating: 1,382,118 Scoville Heat Units (SHU)
Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper): 1,001,304-1,041,427 SHU
Butch T: 855,000 – 877,000 SHU
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion: 855,000 – 877,000 SHU
San Pedro: 800,000-900,000 SHU
Habañero: 350,000 – 580,000 SHU
Scotch Bonnet: 125,000 – 325,000 SHU
The Scoville Scale is a measurement of how hot chili peppers really are. It was developed in 1912 by Wilbur Scoville, a pharmacologist working at the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company in Detroit, Michigan. The scale was devised as a way to determine the hotness of peppers, specifically capsaicin levels.
It was designed to be an objective measure of heat within a particular species of pepper pepper. The higher the rating, the hotter the pepper; in theory, all peppers with identical ratings should have a similar level of heat. Not only does this allow for comparison between different types of chiles and any possible crossbreeding that might occur, but it also allows for more accurate testing of capsaicinoids used as an active ingredient in topical analgesic blends and other products.
* On this scale, pure capsaicin is rated as high as 16 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Pure capsaicin is not found in chile peppers but is produced synthetically for use in some food applications like spices and pepper spray. Pure capsaicin will literally destroy your taste buds if you handle it without protective gloves and then touch your face or mouth!
Scoville Scale: (source: Wikipedia) -100 = 0 –
According to the Scoville scale, red pepper ranks around 30,000 on the heat scale. This is a ranking of hotness of chili peppers. The Scoville scale provides a method for comparing the hotness of chili peppers and other spicy foods, however heat is subjective and there is no exact measurement for this.
Red peppers are capsicum annum. This variety of pepper grows in Spain and Italy as well as in India and Thailand. The most popular form of red pepper is crushed red pepper which is used as an ingredient in many Italian dishes. It also adds a nice color to food. One can use it in place of black pepper or paprika as long as one adds extra salt to the recipe since it has no flavor when compared to black pepper or paprika.
Red peppers are bell shaped and about 2 inches long with thick walls that make them quite durable. They are picked when ripe, cured in the sun until they turn dark and then dried to preserve their flavor and color. Red peppercorns have a fruity taste that gives them a unique flavor not found in any other varieties of pepper.�
