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[Bar-B-Lew]

I've come to the conclusion that I do not like the flavor of habanero, ghost, or reaper.  I do like the flavor of Scorpion peppers though.

[yorkdude]

I am in the 'Lowslowjoe" camp, anything hotter than a jalapeno is more than I would ever need.
We will watch cooking shows sometimes and see the hottest this or that and I think...Why? Too dang hot to enjoy for me anyway.
Our Son and my B-I-L loves hot, some of the things they eat I am convinced could power a space shuttle, NOPE.

[slickyboyboo]

I've come to the conclusion that I do not like the flavor of habanero, ghost, or reaper.  I do like the flavor of Scorpion peppers though.

Not all types of peppers are created equal, or with the same flavor within the same type of pepper. The White Ghosts and Chocolate Ghosts to me are way better than your traditional Red Ghosts. The Chocolate Hab is probably my favorite chili pepper as far as flavor is concerned, it is leaps and bounds a better and different flavor than the Orange Hab. I have also grown to like the Caramel Moruga flavor better than the Carolina Reaper, which are similar in heat level (both top out above 2M SHUs).

With peppers it is worth it to experiment, with all the options available!

[Bentley]

I am at about the Serrano level myself...

[Bar-B-Lew]

My buddy grew some peppers again this year, dehydrated them, and ground them up.  He gave me a sample of the powder.  We put some kettle cooked chips in the air fryer yesterday and then seasoned them with the powder.  They were delicious.  Not sure I could sit down and eat a lot at a time though.

[KeithG]

I am finding this thread interesting. We grow chlil’s every year.  The majority are jalapeños and serrano’s. Beginning of the season this year neither had any heat at all, more like a green bell pepper with jalapeño or Serrano flavor.  End of season they would burn a whole through your tongue. We had several hundred to harvest after the first frost. Used as many as we could fresh, then I turned the rest into hot sauce.

My experience has been habanero have an excellent flavor when used in moderation. I’ve had a mango habanero salsa that had very little habanero in it, there was only a tiny amount of heat, but you could taste the chili’s flavor.

Years ago we were in Barbados and their local hot sauce is made with scotch bonnets. It is delicious with a tolerable heat level.  We liked it so much we brought a half dozen bottles home with us.

So I think a hotness scale would be difficult because how a pepper is used creates a wide range of hotness. I am old enough to know better than to pop a high scoville unit pepper into my mouth to see if I can take the heat.  I’ll leave that to the younger folks.

[pmillen]

So I think a hotness scale would be difficult because how a pepper is used creates a wide range of hotness.

It seems to me that we could set a benchmark or two and create a heat scale that is familiar to all of us.  It wouldn't take much.  Three drops of some standard hot sauce (Tabasco or Sriracha) on a saltine cracker would be one reference point and given an arbitrary number (say 6).  Then any heat that is not as strong would have a lower number.  Heat level stronger would be assigned a higher number.  A couple more reference points would fine-tune the evaluations.

Then, if I told you that a certain recipe produced a heat level of PF-8, you could decide to adjust the heat up or down.  You'd say, "Oh, it's hotter than three drops of Sriracha, I'll adjust for my taste."

As soon as you know your preferred PF heat level you can look at a recipe's heat level and adjust.

Why isn't this a simple thing to accomplish?  What am I not understanding?

[Bar-B-Lew]

Keith, what was the name of the sauce you bought in Barbados?

pmillen, I think it would be a challenge because what you may feel is a heat of 6 I may feel is a heat of 2 or vice versa.

[pmillen]

pmillen, I think it would be a challenge because what you may feel is a heat of 6 I may feel is a heat of 2 or vice versa.

But that's exactly my point.  Forget your rating of 2 when evaluating on the PF Heat scale.  If three drops of Sriracha on a soda cracker has a rating of PF-6, then you would say, "PF-6 is mild for me.  I prefer food at PF-9, so I'll add heat to this recipe."

[Bentley]

Wonder if we could pick a day, and anyone interested gets on the site.  After establishing the parameters, you come on, you do a test and come back and post results, I will compile as folks post, and we continue till we have are scale.  Anyone interested?

So I think a hotness scale would be difficult because how a pepper is used creates a wide range of hotness.

It seems to me that we could set a benchmark or two and create a heat scale that is familiar to all of us.  It wouldn't take much.  Three drops of some standard hot sauce (Tabasco or Sriracha) on a saltine cracker would be one reference point and given an arbitrary number (say 6).  Then any heat that is not as strong would have a lower number.  Heat level stronger would be assigned a higher number.  A couple more reference points would fine-tune the evaluations.

Then, if I told you that a certain recipe produced a heat level of PF-8, you could decide to adjust the heat up or down.  You'd say, "Oh, it's hotter than three drops of Sriracha, I'll adjust for my taste."

As soon as you know your preferred PF heat level you can look at a recipe's heat level and adjust.

Why isn't this a simple thing to accomplish?  What am I not understanding?

[pmillen]

Wonder if we could pick a day, and anyone interested gets on the site.  After establishing the parameters, you come on, you do a test and come back and post results, I will compile as folks post, and we continue till we have are scale.  Anyone interested?

We may not have to go through that much effort.  It's much like measuring pain on a scale of one to ten.  If we all have an understanding of one or two reference points we can scale everything else.

No pain is a zero.  If you were making love and all you could think about was the pain...that would be a ten.

So, it seems to me that all we need to do is pick one or two standard, easily reproducible, reference points, and we have our scale.

Hot sauce on a cracker.  A ½ teaspoon of cayenne in a cup of water (take a sip)...that's another reference point.  How well we each tolerate that heat isn't important.  What's important is that we all know where they sit on the scale.  So we can say, "That recipe is PF-9.  I'll adjust the heat to meet my taste."

I may be the only person who finds this important.  If so, I'll figure out some other way to accommodate Marcia's heat intolerance.  I'll leave out all heat generating ingredients and add them in after the entrée is on the dinner plate.  As it is, she's said, too many times, "Don't cook that again.  The people who gave you the recipe like their food too spicy."

[Bentley]

I guess I am not understanding if you use multiple peoples input for the scale or not?

[pmillen]

I guess I am not understanding if you use multiple peoples input for the scale or not?

Oh, I now see your point.  We probably need a consensus from multiple people on how much hotter (or less hot) something is from one of our established reference points.  That would be useful.

As an example, if we decided that Original Cholula sauce is not as hot as Sriracha then we would need a way to gather opinions and place it on the scale (say, at 4).  Then, if I thought that my recipe was about that spicy I would post it as PF-4.

See Chicken or Turkey Casserole for my attempt at advising readers on the heat level.

[pmillen]

I'm beginning to question if this is work worth doing.

Probably, most members can look at a recipe and have a good idea of the heat level.  I may develop that skill as I gain experience.

[KeithG]

Keith, what was the name of the sauce you bought in Barbados?

pmillen, I think it would be a challenge because what you may feel is a heat of 6 I may feel is a heat of 2 or vice versa.

That was 25 years ago and I don’t remember the name. It was for sale almost everywhere there and our hotel used in a lot of the dishes and it was always on the table.