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Why do we like or dislike chillies?
Chillies contain a phytochemical, capsaicin, which itself has no taste or smell. It is often thought that if you remove the seeds from the hot chili, you reduce the pungency. However, capsaicin is not stored in the seed of the chilli, but in the veins, or more precisely in the glands in the veins that produce and store it.
This capsaicin, once in our mouth and on our tongue, activates our heat and pain sensory nerve endings, so that our brain perceives the pungent taste as pain.
However, our receptors can get used to this, and after a while the nerve cells stop responding and the pain stops. This process eventually leads to the release of endorphins, the happy hormones. And it's precisely because of this happy hormone that we're so fond of chilli (and chocolate, by the way).
But if you don't like chillies, why not? The pain sensation induced by capsaicin can last for several minutes, causing discomfort. The good news is that the pain and burning sensation caused by chilli - which many people think our brains interpret as a burn - starts to subside after 3 minutes and goes away in about 15 minutes.
But let's talk about chilli!
The pungency of chilli is measured in international comparisons using the Scoville unit system developed by American chemist Wilbur Scoville. The Scoville unit is the number of times a solution of chilli has to be diluted in sugar water before it loses its pungency. This is based on human perception, by the way, so it is quite subjective as to how long the solution no longer feels hot. But, it is zero for sweet green paprika. However, the Scoville value for Habanero chili can be between 100,000 SHU and 500,000 SHU, and the Scoville value for pure capsaicin is 16,000,000 SHU.
International chilli companies often work with the SHU value and give it in the product specifications, but at our spice wholesaler, when we measure the chilli variety in an accredited laboratory, we measure the capsaicin content. The result in mg/kg is multiplied by a variable number, 16, to get approximately how many SHU the chilli has.
The best known super-strong chilli peppers:
Carolina Reaper > 2,200,000 SHU
Dorset Naga > 1,200,000 SHU
Bhut Jolokia or ghost chilli > 1.000.000 SHU
Trinindad Moruga > 2.000.000 SHU
Trinidad Scorpion > 1.400.000 SHU
Habanero chilli 100.000 SHU-500.000 SHU
For comparison, the strength of 3 other well-known chillies:
Bird's Eye chilli 50.000 SHU- 100.000 SHU
Cayenne pepper 30.000 SHU -50.000 SHU
Jalapeno chilli 2.000 SHU - 10.000 SHU
But how did the cayenne pepper get here?
Cayenne pepper is not really a pepper, but a type of hot chili, botanically a species of Capsicum annuum. Although the English word cayenne pepper is most often translated as pepper, it can also mean paprika, but in Hungarian we use the name pepper.
Cayenne pepper originated in South America, there are several cultivated varieties and the name is also used in its original place for chili powder made from a mixture of several chillies.
And although cayenne pepper is one of the most common and popular chilli powder used around the world, it is a fact that it is much more prominent in some regional cuisines than in Europe. In addition to jalapenos, Mexican cuisine uses cayenne pepper in many dishes, including salsas, but it is also sprinkled on Arabic Shakshoukas, an important secret ingredient in many Indian curries, used in egg dishes, beef, chicken and fish.food.
How do we use chilli in our food?
As we are not only big spice fans, but also huge chilli fans, we can only suggest: use it with anything you like (less recommended for children or people with stomach aches).
Add the dried chillies, chilli powder or granules gradually to the food and wait a little because the spicy sensation will only come on a little later. If after half a minute you still feel that the dish is still holding, you can add more before the next taste. It's important to get to know the chilli product in this way, because every chilli has a different spiciness, not only from variety to variety, but also from pepper to pepper, and of course, for us, it's also different from batch to batch.
What can you do if it's too spicy? A few tricks can help:
-dilute it: for example, with water or by adding more vegetables
-if it suits your taste, you can add cream or yoghurt: the milk fat, surrounded by milk protein molecules, absorbs some of the capsaicin molecules and so softens the spiciness
-honey or sugar can also help: these reduce the sensitivity of the heat receptors and thus the intensity of the hotness.
Once you know the strength of a particular chilli, you can use it more liberally, with a variety of preparation methods:
In soups:
-we offer you one of our little favourites, Bird's Eye chillies. One of our favourite bird's eye eyes, Bird's Eye Eye, is one of our favourite birds eye eyes.
-For Asian soups, try chilli sauces or chilli pastes, we also make our own Thai spice mix for Thai soups, which you can not only use as a spice mix for sprinkling, but also make a paste: add a little fish sauce/coconut milk and lemon juice or lime juice, and salt to taste
-Roast meats:
-chicken breasts can be sprinkled before frying with, for example, chilli crisps, which are not too spicy, the chilli crisps turn into small chips in the pan and can be used to serve a delicious crispy and spicy fried chicken breast
-for meats with a longer cooking time, it is better to use chilli powders to avoid burning the chillies, so you can use smoked chilli powder, chipotle powder, for example, to make a very exciting addition to a chicken leg or pork
-For pasta:
It's great with meaty pasta, but try it once if you're making fresh gnocchi, mixing the chilli flakes into the pasta and cooking them together, then cooking the chilli gnocchi this way with cream or spinach or extra ingredient to taste. The chilli will be piquant and warms through if you add it to fresh pasta and prepare the dish this way.
-Recipes more:
You'll find recipes with chili in Tex-Mex food under Recipes from around the world
We'll soon post more recipes for separate chili spicy dishes to show you how to prepare Mexican Mole or Japanese Ramen with one of the chili recipes.
Buy 14 types of chilli spices online
