food how hot can it go

Ok a discussion on another forum started when someone posted a link to a recipe that was enough for 2 but required 24 nagas! I and others said that 24 pods in the dish would be a waste because you can't make any dish hotter than the SHU rating of the hottests pod you are using no matter how many you add.
Now there are a couple of folk that are disagreeing with this and they reckon that the dish will keep getting hotter and hotter the more pods you add.

I could go into more detail but the thread is no 10pages long!!!
I know some of you guys will have some science stuff to conclude this discussion so come on what do you think? Remember it's about adding just pods and not extract
 
Dave...I think you have to take into consideration the dilution of the solution.

if you make one gallon of whatever and put one pod in that dish, it won't be as hot as when you put two pods in it...and, it will continually get hotter until it is pure pepper...at that point, you would reach the maximum capsaicin content of the solution...and if you cook the solution down, the capsaicin remains but some of the water disappears in the form of steam or water vapor escaping from the mix...it will still get hotter.

my 2 cents...
 
+1 AJ
Although cooking it might also take away a bit of heat by blending it more evenly throughout the whole dish making it appear less hot
 
I agree...it will keep getting hotter. And like AJ said about dilution, that's what the original scoville scale was all about.
 
Yes a dish will get hotter the more pods you add, but it'll get to a point were your mouth won't be able to tell the difference.
And a dish can never exceed the SHU level of the pods.

I email the bods at warwick uni how do HPLC test and they confirmed thi so hopefully now the 'discussion' is sorted!!!!!!!
 
well yeah the dish will never exceed the SHU rating of the hottest type pepper involved, but it will take a lot to get there because of the dilution, as was mentioned. As for being able to detect the rise? That all depends on the person. A person with a high tolerance will notice change as it gets hotter for longer until they notice no more. Someone with a lower tolerance will "top out" on what they feel sooner.
 
Yes a dish will get hotter the more pods you add, but it'll get to a point were your mouth won't be able to tell the difference.

I'm sure that would depend on your taste buds and capsaicin receptors. I was chatting with Marin in nagaland, and he uses tonnes of nagas in most of his meals.

Think of the same question with making chile vodka or other products. One pod will never be as hot as using 2 or more no matter what chile you're using
 
Dave...I understand we are talking about food dishes here, but let me throw this out there...

Question: how do they make an extract out of Habaneros (~250K scovies) that rates over one million scovies?

Answer: you start with pure pods and "cook them down"....
 
I,for one, have added too much heat to a dish.


That was either my own stupidity.....or AJ's revenge. :lol:

Either way, more is more no natter how you slice it!
 
I agree with everyones posts here, the more pods or powder you put in it'll become hotter until it becomes mostly pure chile's.
kinda a same idea as your 2 vs 24 pods in a meal (BTW what kind of meal is it & how big of a meal ?) you just made 2 cheese/meat/cracker snacks...on one of them is just a small slice of bhut while the other has a full bhut on it....which one do you think will be hotter ? same theory as your 2 vs 24 pods!!
 
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