WOW! 2 Million Scoville Units Hot

[barkeater]

US (NM): Hot off the press: strongest chilli identified

New Mexico University has identified the hottest chilli on Earth. According to a study carried out at the institute the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is steaming ahead of its rivals.

"For this study, we wanted to establish the average heat levels for super-hot varieties. That's something that hadn't been scientifically set," said Paul Bosland, an NMSU Regents Professor and director of the Chilli Pepper Institute. "We also wanted to see which chile pepper truly has the highest heat levels."

For the study, Bosland and his partners Danise Coon, a senior research specialist, and Gregory Reeves, a graduate student, looked at several chilli breeds reputed to be among the hottest in the world, including Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Trinidad Scorpion, 7-pot, Chocolate 7-pot and Bhut Jolokia - a previous world record holder identified by the Chile Pepper Institute and certified by Guinness World Records in 2007.

Each of the tested varieties was cultivated at the university, in a standard way to ensure normal heat levels. Mature fruits were selected, harvested, dried and ground to powder so that the compounds responsible for the heat could be extracted and examined.

When they examined the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion things really started to warm up. It was found to have more than 1.2 million Scoville Heat Units. Chocolate 7-pot came in at almost 1.17 million SHU. 7-pot placed third with more than 1.06 million SHU. Trinidad Scorpion packed almost 1.03 million SHU and Bhut Jolokia had almost 1.02 million SHU.

Chilli peppers of the same variety will often vary in heat, even when grown in the same field or picked from the same plant. This study saw similar results, with some individual plants scoring much higher than the mean heat levels. Two individual Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper plants registered more than 2 million SHU - almost twice as hot as an average Bhut Jolokia pepper.

"Part of the reason we conducted this research is that rigorous scientific testing is required to ensure accurate determination of super hot heat levels," Coon said. "The Chilli Pepper Institute, as the leading authority on chilli peppers, was a logical place for this research to be conducted."

Food producers are already hot off the mark and warming up the idea of new products based upon the findings. CaJohn's fiery Foods is already creating Sancto Scorpio sauce for those interested in burning off their tastebuds!

Source: www.ktsm.com


Publication date: 2/14/2012

[Fusion_power]

Given the natural levels of variation present in super hot peppers, it was bound to happen. It is also somewhat heritable. Seed of a super hot pepper would tend to be even hotter than average, meaning with a bit of breeding work they can raise average heat levels up to at least 2 million. It helps for me to remember that pure capsaicin has a rating of 16 million. There is still plenty of room to turn up the heat.

DarJones

[ContainerTed]

Holy Cow!!!! And to put things into perspective, I get wimpy on a standard jalapeno. All I can say is "to each his own". My tastebuds can still discern minor amounts of delicate spices in a dish and I plan to keep it that way. Y'all have fun with the "heat".

[livinonfaith]

I'm with you, Ted!

The only good thing I can see coming out of something that hot is home made bear spray.

[Petronius_II]

Holy Cow!!!! And to put things into perspective, I get wimpy on a standard jalapeno.

I sometimes had a bit of problem with jalapeno heat, when I first moved to New Mexico, but as you might expect I got over that.

One thing that hasn't changed in those 35 years is, I just don't care much for jalapenos. When I taste an average jalapeno, I taste hot, and that's pretty much all I taste.

There are specific pepper flavors that have nothing to do with heat, and are more than sugar levels alone, same way as there is a specific tomato flavor that is present in all tomatoes to one degree or another, and that has nothing to do with sugar/acid balance.

I much prefer serranos to jalapenos. About the same heat level as jalapenos, ounce per ounce, but it actually tastes like a pepper.

All I can say is "to each his own". My tastebuds can still discern minor amounts of delicate spices in a dish and I plan to keep it that way. Y'all have fun with the "heat".

We eat a lot of hot peppers in New Mexico. For most of us, it's not a few-times-a-year thing, it's x number of times per week. If we grow the superhots, it's usually because we're fascinated by the genus Capsicum and all its amazing variations, and they're very pretty plants and a lot of fun to grow. It's not bloody likely it's because we have any design to actually eat superhots on a regular basis.

If Dave's Insanity Sauce can even get banned from the Fiery Foods Show, it's because a high number of New Mexicans who tasted the free samples have come to the logical conclusion that for practical purposes, there really is such a thing as "too hot," even "dangerously hot." My own experience taste-testing DIS is not one I'd care to repeat. It's an interesting enough story, but even I'm not long-winded enough to savor posting a novelette about it...

I still have a jar of Dave's Insanity Mustard in my refrigerator that I got at the show at least five years ago. I've never dared to open it, and I may end up chucking it in the trash unopened, or I may sample a few tiny drops and see if I can figure out some way to use it for an actual edible product. Which was my original intent.

As I mentioned on another thread, I'm pretty sure something like Dave's Insanity Mustard, or Trinidad Scorpion Butch T Strain, used cleverly around a corn patch so the raccoons have to step on it to get to the corn, might give them enough of a hotfoot they go away.

But if I'm cooking for myself and I'm in an Asian mood, your regular Chinese hot mustard powder works just fine for me, thanks.

I have two general guidelines for cooking and eating hot peppers:

1. The dish should never be so hot that the heat masks the flavors of the other ingredients more or less completely.

2. The dish should never, ever, ever try to use high heat to mask the fact that the other ingredients, combined and melded, basically have no flavor to speak of.

... Unless you're just testing to see how hot you can take it. If it's Dave's Insanity Sauce, Trinidad Scorpion, etc. it might be a good idea to have a video camera handy. Along with the milk product. You're going to need the milk product a lot more than you need to see your face on Youtube.

[Petronius_II]

The only good thing I can see coming out of something that hot is home made bear spray.

There has long been a theory that Bhut Jalokia was deliberately crossbred and developed by the Indian military for defense purposes. They're very active in the somewhat remote hilly regions of North India where BJ first appeared.

If so, the Indian military isn't saying. Would you?

[tjg911]

jeesh! the bhut jolokia is not all that hot compared to this, just 1/2 the shu!

i offered hot pepper seeds recently because i came to the conclusion that just because i was able to eat these varieties it did not mean they were adding anything to the food i eat except for salsa. to me most all the 200k+ shu peppers have the same taste, just the heat/burn levels vary. yeah i like to brag that i ate x or y with 700 and 800 shu and sneer at those that can't handle a 20k shu pepper but realistically why? i enjoy my long red slim cayenne (lrsc) more than the 200k to 800k shu peppers (fatali excepted i still like it the best of the really hot peppers, it has a nice pineapple flavor) in anything other than salsa. in salsa i seem to like extreme intense burn. so for use in food meals for me i don't think i need super hots.

i have a bottle of dave's insanity hot sauce i bought at least 3 years ago and until this summer i was unable to even tolerate a fraction of a drop. it is listed at 180k shu but imo it is WAY hotter than the super hot peppers i was eating this summer. this is not for human consumption imho! it is just burn, all burn, the taste is not pleasant, i don't know i guess i don't get it.

i do like the fatali pepper and it is wicked hot, probably all i need or want for salsa or whatever. i really don't taste "pepper" in these super hots just heat and sometimes it is intense heat. when i eat my lrsc from last summer that are in the freezer they are pretty darn hot but with flavor. in the summer straight from the garden i could use a towel to dry my scalp, i guess that's hot enough even tho i can eat hotter!

tom

[livinonfaith]

Originally Posted by Petronius_II

There has long been a theory that Bhut Jalokia was deliberately crossbred and developed by the Indian military for defense purposes. They're very active in the somewhat remote hilly regions of North India where BJ first appeared.

If so, the Indian military isn't saying. Would you?

Well, this gardener is somewhat active in the populated, hot and humid, lowlands of North Carolina. And I'm not saying what experiments I do in my backyard either. That's between me and the %*&@ voles!

(Who am I kidding? The voles have taken over. Where do you get those peppers again? I'll try anything!)

[Boutique Tomatoes]

The sauces that are hot simply for the sake of hot is something I don't get. I hate the taste of capsaicin extracts in a lot of the 'extreme' sauces. I do like the superhots, but because they're pretty, fun and challenging for me to grow and they do have some interesting flavors when you get past the heat. I make sauce with the majority of mine, blending with various fruits, citrus juice, cane sugar, etc. until you've got something that helps bring out the characteristics of the peppers, but in a way that it's not going to take off a layer of skin.

I'm waiting for them to test the 7-pot Douglah.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by livinonfaith

Well, this gardener is somewhat active in the populated, hot and humid, lowlands of North Carolina. And I'm not saying what experiments I do in my backyard either. That's between me and the %*&@ voles!

(Who am I kidding? The voles have taken over. Where do you get those peppers again? I'll try anything!)

I've got several gallons of superhots still in the freezer that are going to be blended up for my homemade pepper spray. The deer are constantly in my community garden plots, so this year I'm going to hose things down and teach them to avoid the area.

If I wasn't afraid it would get stolen I'd put a trail camera out so I could watch.

[Petronius_II]

it [Dave's Insanity Sauce] is listed at 180k shu but imo it is WAY hotter than the super hot peppers i was eating this summer.

No way in hell is that product a mere 180k Scoville units.

(Who am I kidding? The voles have taken over. Where do you get those peppers again? I'll try anything!)

As an educated guess, I'd say plain old habaneros of one of the hotter types are prolly sufficient for getting down and dirty with the nasty little voles and messing with their minds. They're currently rather easier to find than superhots like Trinidad Scorpion, less expensive, and in many cases somewhat easier to grow.

This habanero variety is fairly easy to grow and did pretty well in the meetinghouse garden last year. First pepper to start producing after the heat wave cooled down a bit, and quite productive. Started fruiting too late to get viable seed, though, we had to pick them unripe. Cayenne, not so productive in the same row. Lipstick sweet pepper, not productive at all. The heat wave ruined Lipstick's chances. It's even just barely mild enough to show some real potential for actual cooking:

http://gurneys.com/product.asp?splid=SITE&pn=80659

(Probably better places than Gurney's to get HPL seeds but that's who we used.)

...But if you think a superhot is really what you're going to need to defeat the voles, Ebay isn't a bad place to look at all. This dealer has some fairly good deals on seed/sauce combos, or sauce alone:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/brucesghostpepperz/m.html

[tjg911]

oh something important i forgot to mention is that i don't eat meat. it seems that hot peppers and super hots are used for sauces and rubs for meat. take that (meat) out of the equation and i have less things to use hot peppers on.

and i want marktutt to understand how much i appreciated him sending me a box of super hot peppers last summer. so mark please don't think i am unappreciative of that based upon my conclusion that i pretty much don't want these things in my life. in fact it was great to try so many different wickedly hot peppers without having to grow a plant for each variety. this ability to taste so many resolved the fact that while i might grow 1 or 2 super hots there is no need to grow many each year. so you have saved me a lot of garden space that i can use for the hot peppers i do like vs tying up space and saying what the heck do i do with 150+ peppers off each of the 10 plants!

tom

[Petronius_II]

...so you have saved me a lot of garden space that i can use for the hot peppers i do like...

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/83403/

[Dukerdawg]

I actually love Dave's Insantity Sauce...but I use about 1/2 the size of a dime in a big pot of soup.....it gives a depth of heat that is just perfect....to my palate....but yes it is dangerous and 1 bottle lasted me about 10 years. I'm out now......ready for another. The hot mustard...hmmmm..not sure what that would be good in.

Duane

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by tjg911

oh something important i forgot to mention is that i don't eat meat. it seems that hot peppers and super hots are used for sauces and rubs for meat. take that (meat) out of the equation and i have less things to use hot peppers on.

and i want marktutt to understand how much i appreciated him sending me a box of super hot peppers last summer. so mark please don't think i am unappreciative of that based upon my conclusion that i pretty much don't want these things in my life. in fact it was great to try so many different wickedly hot peppers without having to grow a plant for each variety. this ability to taste so many resolved the fact that while i might grow 1 or 2 super hots there is no need to grow many each year. so you have saved me a lot of garden space that i can use for the hot peppers i do like vs tying up space and saying what the heck do i do with 150+ peppers off each of the 10 plants!

tom

Not at all. I sent out a lot of gift boxes last year for people to try them, and I strongly suspect the majority of them will not be growing any. For me with last year's bumper crop it was like they were zucchini, after I had the freezer half full of peppers and my hands were blistering from seeding them, anyone who asked about them got some. I also gave away a lot of seeds, and I'm curious to see what people think who have never tried anything in the superhot class.

The superhots are kind of like skydiving, for most people it's insane; for a small percentage it's a 'Ok, I did it, don't need to repeat it'. Then there are the rush junkies.