The Scoville Scale
Because sometimes it's good to know. (The Bus 8.19)
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED (4.13) 6 November 2023
The Stop
The Scoville Scale is a subjective assessment developed in the early years of the 20th century as a way of ranking the ‘heat’ of chilli peppers.1 Scoring chillis according to their relative heat, the ratings are linear, meaning that an habanero (350,000 SHU) is 100 times hotter than a jalapeño (3500 SHU).2
The Scoville Scale is named after its inventor, the American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville. While working at Parke-Davis, in 1912 Scoville decided to create a scale by which he could measure the pungency, ‘spiciness’ or ‘capsaicin concentration’ of different chilli peppers. The result was the Scoville Organoleptic Test, so-called because it was based on measuring a chilli’s organoleptics - those particular aspects of food that create an individual experience via the senses, including taste.
In the case of chillies, Scoville dissolved an exact weight of a dried sample in alcohol to extract the capsaicinoids - the components which create a chilli’s ‘heat’, the predominant one being capsaicin. Scoville diluted his extract in a solution of sugar water which he then gave to five trained testers in ever-decreasing concentrations until the sensation of heat disappeared. The chilli was then given a Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) score, based on the dilution required for its sensation of heat to disappear completely.
Because the Scoville scale is based on organoleptics, there is a level of imprecision due to its reliance on human subjectivity. Testers’ palates and ‘mouth heat receptors’ can vary widely, and sensory fatigue can occur when the palate becomes ‘desensitised to capsaicinoids after tasting a few samples within a short time period.’ Nevertheless, the scale is still used today to provide a relative scale of heat - ranging from the entirely heat-less bell pepper (0 SHU) to the Carolina Reaper, currently the world’s hottest chilli at an average of 2,000,000 SHU.3
For a good scale of various chillis and their SHU scores, see: Scoville Scale (Alimentarium).
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to a trailer (2:28) for the BBC’s recent documentary, Planet Earth III. Narrated by David Attenborough, this latest instalment of the series looks fabulous - and should make everyone pause to think about what we’re doing to this planet and all of its inhabitants. Worth the couple of minutes, though you’re probably going to want to watch the whole thing.
The Recommendation
Today’s Recommendation is Kay Maguire’s RHS Red Hot Chilli Grower (2015). Subtitled The complete guide to planting, picking and preserving chillies, as is typical of Royal Horticultural Society publications, this is an invaluable resource filled with everything you need to know to grow your own chillies - and more.
From the back: From ‘Hungarian Hot Wax’ to ‘Red Savina’, and ‘Scotch Bonnet’ to ‘Elephant’s Trunk’, chillies come in dozens of shapes, colours and degrees of spiciness - from sweet and succulent to blow-your-head-off hot.
RHS Red Hot Chilli Grower provides everything you need to grow your own chillies from scratch, with step-by-step instructions for sowing seeds, caring for the plants, harvesting the fruit and troubleshooting common problems. Chilli-lovers will also find plenty of background information, such as a short history of the chilli and a guide to Scoville heat units (the official measurement of spicy heat), as well as tasty tips for enjoying the fruits of your work.
Packed with charts, checklists, photographs and illustrations, this is the perfect guide to the world of grow-your-own chillies.
RHS Red Hot Chilli Grower is available from new and used bookstores, online independent stores, charity shops, and the library. If you’re interested in chillies, this is a great resource.
The Sounds
Today’s playlist is a selection of five tracks from - of course - The Red Hot Chilli Peppers:4 ‘Backwoods’ (The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, 1987), ‘Knock Me Down’ (Mother’s Milk, 1989), ‘Apache Rose Peacock’ (Blood Sugar Sex Magik, 1991), ‘Fortune Faded’ (Greatest Hits, 2003) and ‘Dani California’ (Stadium Arcadium, 2006). Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is from my brother, Greg. An avid gardener who is happy to experiment with his plantings, a couple of years ago Greg grew and harvested a large number of Carolina Reaper chillies - purely because he could. Of course, he had to taste the fruits of his labour, so he did … and after sampling a tiny sliver, this was the sum of his report:
‘It’s like French-kissing Satan.’
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!
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Until the next Stop …
I’m using the British English spelling of chillis for this Stop because, well, I’m writing this in England and every time I write the American ‘chili’, I get a red underlining telling me I’m wrong. And as we all know, red underlinings are to be avoided.
I’ve liked chilli and heat for as long as I can remember - and I trace it all back to my father putting Tabasco on his hotdogs. Following suit, it didn’t take long to develop a taste for heat which persists to this day. But while I’m happy to break a sweat, I’m not personally interested in silly heat - I wouldn’t eat a Carolina Reaper, for instance. But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate that they’re around. Sources for today’s Stop include: Scoville Scale (Alimentarium), Scoville Scale (Wikipedia) and Capsaicin (Britannica).
Though there appears to be a new contender for hottest. Known as Pepper X, it is the creation of the American chilli breeder Ed Currie - the man responsible for the Carolina Reaper - and has an average SHU of 2.2 million.
I’ve been a fan of the RHCPs for years, and though they have many great songs it didn’t take long to boil down to five favourites: ‘Backwoods’ and ‘Knock Me Down’ take me back to my first years of university, while ‘Apache Rose Peacock’ is arguably the standout funk track from an album filled with standouts. ‘Fortune Faded’ is a great track I first heard on the band’s Live from Hyde Park album (2004) - but as it’s not been released in the US, this version will have to suffice. And ‘Dani California’ is just, well, a perfect song in so many ways.
a truly ineffable savor before that wave of napalm carried it all away
That Carolina Reaper'll put some hurt on a weasel for reals