My question is about the Scoville rating of a food say a pizza for instance and the multiplying of the Scoville of the pizza say you have ten pepper all rated at 1 million now adding only one pepper obviously makes the whole pizza rate at 1million but what if you add all ten is it then 10 million or still only 1million my mind says it is then rated at 10 million but I figured I should probably ask before shooting off at the mouth with wrong info.
Question about scoville
- Thread starter Lucian
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The Scoville scale measures the amount of Capcaisin in any given pepper. The more capcaisin present = hotter pepper. More peppers doesn't make anything hotter, just more of them. It might feel hotter becuse if you bite one piece of pepper on a pizza slice, your mouth will have time to recover by the time you bite another piece. If you cover your pizza with the peppers, your mouth has less time to recover, so it may seem hotter, but in actuallity, you are feeling the full effect of said SHU of the pepper used.
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Scoville_scale.html
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Scoville_scale.html
The answer is yes, because you are adding capsaicin with each pepper.
How do you think they make pepper spray from cayennes? It's extracted and combined and when packed into a spray bottle it is 1,000,000 SHU, not 30,000, the average SHU of a cayenne.
Scoville units are a measure for capsaicin content per unit of dry mass. The more capsaicin per unit, the hotter the pepper. If you pack the heat of two jalapnos into one and have it tested, it would show that you had a "double heat jalapeno" so eating two at the same time vs. one will result in double the sensation. The more peppers the hotter, makes sense, right?
Let's say a jalapeno is 2,500. You dice it up and put in on your pizza. Now dice another 2,500 rated pepper. The pizza doesn't magically know it's a different pepper, but by Scovie's logic you just added 2,500. But you added 5,000. However this "adding scovilles" is not really correct, it's a measurement of heat, and an average per pepper.
If you want a 1,000,000 SHU pizza with jalapenos you'd have to add 400 jalapenos. And you'd have to fit it all in your mouth at once to equal the sensation of one slice with a naga.
How do you think they make pepper spray from cayennes? It's extracted and combined and when packed into a spray bottle it is 1,000,000 SHU, not 30,000, the average SHU of a cayenne.
Scoville units are a measure for capsaicin content per unit of dry mass. The more capsaicin per unit, the hotter the pepper. If you pack the heat of two jalapnos into one and have it tested, it would show that you had a "double heat jalapeno" so eating two at the same time vs. one will result in double the sensation. The more peppers the hotter, makes sense, right?
Let's say a jalapeno is 2,500. You dice it up and put in on your pizza. Now dice another 2,500 rated pepper. The pizza doesn't magically know it's a different pepper, but by Scovie's logic you just added 2,500. But you added 5,000. However this "adding scovilles" is not really correct, it's a measurement of heat, and an average per pepper.
If you want a 1,000,000 SHU pizza with jalapenos you'd have to add 400 jalapenos. And you'd have to fit it all in your mouth at once to equal the sensation of one slice with a naga.
In the simplest terms, capsaicin is capsaicin. Same chemical in every pepper. The more (at once) the hotter, so it's about distribution/delivery. Hotter peppers pack more in.
Ask your neighbor about it. She makes Pure Evil. Not sure from what pepper, but that doesn't matter, it's the capsaicin she is after.
Ask your neighbor about it. She makes Pure Evil. Not sure from what pepper, but that doesn't matter, it's the capsaicin she is after.
Sure, adding all that peppers you could say there's X amount of SHU on it but I don't see how it's going to hit you any hotter than what the one pepper is. Obviously the burns there because of the mass quantity of pepper you used but I don't think it's going to hit you like you make it out.
"If you want a 1,000,000 SHU pizza with jalapenos you'd have to add 400 jalapenos. And you'd have to fit it all in your mouth at once to equal the sensation of one slice with a naga."
It may have a SHU total of 1,000,000 but the heat isn't going to hit you as if you just ate a single pepper that rates 1,000,000 on the scoville. At least that doswn't make any sense to me.
Got a link to back it up? Not really saying you're wrong, I just don't understand how it works like that. I'd say it's obvious you know way more about peppers than I do but when I find something I don't understand, I love to read up on it until I can make perfect sense of it. It's kind of a pain in the ass being like this sometimes lol
"If you want a 1,000,000 SHU pizza with jalapenos you'd have to add 400 jalapenos. And you'd have to fit it all in your mouth at once to equal the sensation of one slice with a naga."
It may have a SHU total of 1,000,000 but the heat isn't going to hit you as if you just ate a single pepper that rates 1,000,000 on the scoville. At least that doswn't make any sense to me.
Got a link to back it up? Not really saying you're wrong, I just don't understand how it works like that. I'd say it's obvious you know way more about peppers than I do but when I find something I don't understand, I love to read up on it until I can make perfect sense of it. It's kind of a pain in the ass being like this sometimes lol
Good discussion here.
So referring back to the question in the OP, if one pepper is 1 million SHU, and you add that to a pizza, then the pizza is 1million SHU.
but, if I take that pepper and cut in in half, then it would only be 5000,000 SHU? I think for me the confusing factor is by adding it to pizza, basically a dilution of capsaicin. Because if measuring just the pepper, whether it is one cut in half, or 40 full pods, it is still 1 million SHU eg. it's just that 40 of them is more capsaicin by shear volume. Same SHU, just more of it. More cap = more burn.
ok.
So referring back to the question in the OP, if one pepper is 1 million SHU, and you add that to a pizza, then the pizza is 1million SHU.
agreed.The Hot Pepper said:
but, if I take that pepper and cut in in half, then it would only be 5000,000 SHU? I think for me the confusing factor is by adding it to pizza, basically a dilution of capsaicin. Because if measuring just the pepper, whether it is one cut in half, or 40 full pods, it is still 1 million SHU eg. it's just that 40 of them is more capsaicin by shear volume. Same SHU, just more of it. More cap = more burn.
ok.
Back what up? It's not science, well, addition I guess.Browning said:
You can't fit 400 jalapenos in your mouth at once. If you could the amount of capsaicin you would be getting would be equal to that of a superhot.
Yes because it is the average per pepper.Scoville DeVille said:
I guess I just don't understand how stacking more peppers increases the heat of a pepper when the scoville on that particular pepper is like you said, say 2,500. I understand adding more you could say you ate so many scoville units worth of said pepper, but I don't see how the heat increases in terms of the burn. I guess I assume it tops at 2,500 regardless of how much of that particular pepper you eat. I get the addition, I just don't see how eating a higher quantity of jalapeno is going to light you up like a superhot does.The Hot Pepper said:
Yes, Scovie, yes.
I never said by any means you are changing the SHU of one pepper by adding more peppers. You are changing the overall. Think of a pot of chili with 100 habaneros, and a pot with 1 naga. Take a spoonful of said chili. Which pot is a higher SHU? Yes, MORE habaneros can be hotter than ONE naga.
I never said by any means you are changing the SHU of one pepper by adding more peppers. You are changing the overall. Think of a pot of chili with 100 habaneros, and a pot with 1 naga. Take a spoonful of said chili. Which pot is a higher SHU? Yes, MORE habaneros can be hotter than ONE naga.
No no no, like Scovie said, great discussion.
It's all about the delivery of capsaicin per area.
It's all about the delivery of capsaicin per area.
Think of it in simple terms:
You are Godzilla. You're eating 1 car (the pepper). It has 4 people, 2 children and the family dog in it (the capsaicin content). Yummy yummy rawr!
Now you eat 2 cars (the peppers) and each has 4 people, 2 children and the family dog in it (more total capsaicin than the last, as you're consuming 14 units of capsaicin as opposed to the 7 units last time) - you will get more sensation from the total capsaicin.
It's simply described as a cumulative effect.
That said, as has been pointed out it would be extremely difficult to eat enough Jalapeños to equal a superhot due to the total mass (e.g. the cars.)
I suck at analogies by the way.
You are Godzilla. You're eating 1 car (the pepper). It has 4 people, 2 children and the family dog in it (the capsaicin content). Yummy yummy rawr!
Now you eat 2 cars (the peppers) and each has 4 people, 2 children and the family dog in it (more total capsaicin than the last, as you're consuming 14 units of capsaicin as opposed to the 7 units last time) - you will get more sensation from the total capsaicin.
It's simply described as a cumulative effect.
That said, as has been pointed out it would be extremely difficult to eat enough Jalapeños to equal a superhot due to the total mass (e.g. the cars.)
I suck at analogies by the way.
Lesson to be learned from this discussion: Stop worrying about the heat wars and the hottest pepper, focus on flavor, and you can just add more.