A chef friend of mine is in the process of opening up a restaurant in the Dallas area. The theme of the restaurant will be upscale Mexican cuisine and I am looking forward to my next trip to Texas to check it out. BTW, good luck Fernando with Anejo (opening next month)
After we talked I got to thinking about spices and the different types of peppers used for cooking. I still remember the hottest pepper I ever ate during a meal; it was on a trip to Haiti when a colleague of mine took us to his favorite place in Port au Prince.
The meal was typical Caribbean fare, it was a fish and rice plate served with beans. The sauce was a wonderful blend of heat, spices and sweetness but it was served with a warning. The warning was not;
After we talked I got to thinking about spices and the different types of peppers used for cooking. I still remember the hottest pepper I ever ate during a meal; it was on a trip to Haiti when a colleague of mine took us to his favorite place in Port au Prince.
The meal was typical Caribbean fare, it was a fish and rice plate served with beans. The sauce was a wonderful blend of heat, spices and sweetness but it was served with a warning. The warning was not;
" be careful of the hot plate", but "be careful of the hot peppers".
Since I was living in Texas at the time I thought that I could handle the heat of peppers and did not heed the warning. Maybe it was that cockiness, or maybe it was the Haitian dark rum drinks that were being served one after another, but when I bit into what I thought was a bit of conch, I discovered what a wallop a Habanera pepper can pack. After I drained my drink and recovered. I became interested in the many different types of peppers that are available.
From the relatively bland bell pepper to the mouth burning scotch bonnet, most of us know that peppers add heat and taste to dishes. Some even claim that they also provide health benefits and they certainly are popular in hot climates to help cool off. But did you know that we should all thank Wilbur Scoville for the work he undertook on peppers in the early 1900’s. Scoville devised a scale; that is still in use today, to measure the heat of peppers. Although his methods were not precise, his theory was to measure the amount of diluted sugar water that was required to hide the heat. Therefore a green pepper required no dilution and hence was zero on the Scoville scale. The hottest peppers such as the habenero and scotch bonnet required several hundred thousand units of dilution and were rated in the 250,000 – 300,000 range.
How does this relate to the real world? Well when cooking with peppers, be sure to take into account the Scoville scale of the pepper. If a meal is too hot, it can ruin the taste for your guests. Add a little at a time when cooking and remember that not everyone likes the heat. You can always add some later on but it’s hard to tone it down if it’s too hot.
Sometimes I have to remind myself of this as I like spicy foods and was trained in Southwestern cooking where heat is expected. What may be considered a mild bowl of Chili in Texas may be hot in New England. Know your audience, cook to their likes and dislikes, not yours. Have fun cooking and thank you Wilbur
Since I was living in Texas at the time I thought that I could handle the heat of peppers and did not heed the warning. Maybe it was that cockiness, or maybe it was the Haitian dark rum drinks that were being served one after another, but when I bit into what I thought was a bit of conch, I discovered what a wallop a Habanera pepper can pack. After I drained my drink and recovered. I became interested in the many different types of peppers that are available.
From the relatively bland bell pepper to the mouth burning scotch bonnet, most of us know that peppers add heat and taste to dishes. Some even claim that they also provide health benefits and they certainly are popular in hot climates to help cool off. But did you know that we should all thank Wilbur Scoville for the work he undertook on peppers in the early 1900’s. Scoville devised a scale; that is still in use today, to measure the heat of peppers. Although his methods were not precise, his theory was to measure the amount of diluted sugar water that was required to hide the heat. Therefore a green pepper required no dilution and hence was zero on the Scoville scale. The hottest peppers such as the habenero and scotch bonnet required several hundred thousand units of dilution and were rated in the 250,000 – 300,000 range.
How does this relate to the real world? Well when cooking with peppers, be sure to take into account the Scoville scale of the pepper. If a meal is too hot, it can ruin the taste for your guests. Add a little at a time when cooking and remember that not everyone likes the heat. You can always add some later on but it’s hard to tone it down if it’s too hot.
Sometimes I have to remind myself of this as I like spicy foods and was trained in Southwestern cooking where heat is expected. What may be considered a mild bowl of Chili in Texas may be hot in New England. Know your audience, cook to their likes and dislikes, not yours. Have fun cooking and thank you Wilbur
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