What is the Smokin' Gourmet, or, A pepper by any other name, would it burn so sweetly ?

Ah, that sensation from the venerable plant species Capsicum. Some call it hot food, but then you can confuse it with a high temperature.  Or you can call it spicy, but maybe there is too much thyme or cumin; maybe you could hear "this is spicy hot" or simply say "this food is HOT" while tearing onto your Kung Po Chicken.  The tears will add the required meaning. The problem is, in English we simply don’t have a word for the warm glow (or burn as some say) that some members of the Nightshade family deliver. There are words for this in other languages, like the Latin languages (picante), Indian (Vindaloo), Indonesian (Pedes), Hindi (Garam Mirichi), Thai (pehd), or Cajun (hey Cheri, this crawfish is very seasoned).  If one travels to the home of the “pepper of death” or “the mother of all peppers”, called the habanero, then one will discover that the Maya have a special word too: Húuyub to pucker up and take a deep breath to cool the mouth. I think it is somewhat onomatopoeic.  It's just a guess, but I'm willing to bet that the Maya have many names for peppers, the various levels of burn they produce, and the many possible reactions, not unlike the Eskimos, who have many names for snow.

 

I'll use spicy here to mean "The burn from the Nightshade..."  Capsicum also refers to the plant or fruit of the plant, usage: "I think my health insurance is paid up, pass the capsicum." The word Capsicum comes from the Greek kapto, meaning "to bite."  Other members of the nightshade, family Solanaceae, include the tomato, potato, eggplant, tobacco, petunia and others. Family includes annuum ("annual," includes most of the common varieties: New Mexican, Jalapeno, Bell, and Wax), baccatum ("berrylike," includes some South American peppers), chinense ("from China," incorrectly named by a French taxonomist who got his sample from China in the late 1700's, this species originates from America and includes Habaneros and the Scotch Bonnet), frutescens ("shrubby" or "bushy", includes Tabascos), pubescens ("hairy," includes the South American rocotos). 

 

Another word grouping associated with spiciness is "chile, chili and chilli." Chile refers to pods of any of the capsicum plant, or to a lesser degree the plant as well.  Chili can also refer to the capsicum pods, but in the chile-head world,  chili exclusively refers to dishes made from chiles. Confused yet?  Chilli is a rare term referring to dried powered spices, sometimes containing other spices.  Interestingly, chilli is the original spelling from the Central American Nahuatl Indians and both chile and chili are derived from it.  I'll use the chile-head spelling here.

 

Capsicum entered the European culture from the New World, traveling from a Caribbean island with Christopher Columbus. Interestingly, the chile was the "proof" that Columbus used that he was in India (where is a GPS when you really need one?) The chile spread rapidly across Europe into India, China, and Japan. Since it was easy to grow and kept it's taste after drying, it quickly because the people's spice and was adopted into the cuisines everywhere.  Spices were no longer the domain of the rich. The Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the "New World" quickly embraced the new sensation as well, and cultivated the plant for export to Europe, making Chile on of the earliest American exports.

 

Hot peppers have really taken this country by storm.  In fact, that particular storm has indeed spread across the world, top bottom and both sides. I have read recently that Antarctica has a yearly hot pepper cook off.  With the increase in transportation and migration over the last 500 years, peppers are one of the most migratory foods.  Indeed, if one looks back 50 years ago, one would be hard pressed to find any spicy food on a menu anywhere besides New Mexico and California.  Now, across the Unites States, there are all types of both Ethnic and American Fusion menus that offer the burning fare.  And over the last 20 years only, hot sauces grew from 10 to over 1000! So, what is it about peppers that charm the money out of the purses and the sweat down the brow?

 

Every truly dedicated "pepper head" has felt that special feeling...first...a burning pain on the tongue, or throat, or mouth, or a combination (slight variations of the chemicals actually affect different parts of the sensory apparatus), then the burning builds, maybe there is some sweat, perhaps a little runny nose.  Next...some heavy breathing, more pain.  Then suddenly...here it comes...the burn fades into be background like a bird singing in a great rustle of leaves and a calm descends on the body...a feeling of well being.  The world is alright now...pass some more Vindaloo please.  We know the feeling...some even know it as an endorphin rush, but why where and how?

 

The anatomy of burin' love

There are generally 2 types of burn that one can experience...the sulfur and the capsaicin (cap-SAY-sin or cap-SAY-uh-sin).  They work in a very different way.  Let's talk first about the foods that contain either.  A sulfur burn is most commonly found in mustards and horseradish, AKA in sushi as wasabi.  Wasabi should come with some kind of warning sign.  Neon preferred.  I know of many sushi-first-timers that experienced quite a surprise when they took a big lump of that "green fish stuff, whatever that is...you take it Mikey." I tried Sushi in Atlanta before the hype, back in 1980 before sushi was all the rage in New York.  After trying all the colors, the green was last on our list, and I was the odd man out and took the clump whole.  For 2 minutes, I literally could not see anything.  After lots of water, vision was regained and I recovered 100%.  The reason one feels a burning sensation is simple...it burns.  The sulfur combines with the lining on the mouth and nose and actually produces sulfuric acid, which does burn the actual cells.  The good news is, it can be defeated by a simple remedy...lots of water.  This applies to any sulfur based burn, including the Chinese hot mustards...the water will wash away the acid, dilute it, and all is well.

 

Capsaicin, and it's sometimes present cousin dihydrocapsaicin, is a very different, complicated story. Capsaicin occurs in the flesh and seeds of most members of the Nightshade family (yes, others are poison, and some would argue that they all are) and some berries such as peppercorn. It also occurs in much lower quantities in oregano, cinnamon, and cilantro. We'll take a look at what it is, it's properties, then how it works. First, let's get in a quick science lesson.  Capsaicin is known as C18H27NO3, or by the proper name is 8-Methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide (which makes all the other names for pepperness seem easy). The "head" of the molecule is the Vanilla, which is a circular ring of carbon with two antenna, one oxygen and one oxygen-hydrogen, and a long skinny body of a 9 carbon chain, attached to the head with nitrogen.  It looks like a caterpillar, looking to the left, with antenna and a long zigzag stick body.  As the name implies, it is a cousin to Vanilla, know as a Vanilloid.

 

Capsaicin

              H3CO

                 \____       O                    CH3

                 /    \      ||                    |

             HO-<      >-C-N-C-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-C=C-C-CH3

                 \____/  | |                   | | |

                        H2 H                   H H H

 

Vanilloids are a group of compounds that includes capsaicin, piperine, zingerone, and other more complicated names, connected by that six-sided hexagonal ring of carbons (called a benzene ring).  It is the slight differences of the connected atomic groups that dramatically affect the properties and resulting tastes.  Vanillin has a soothing aroma...perhaps linked to childhood memories of  steamed milk, or perhaps mother preparing a batch of cookies,  as cooking with it sends some in the air.  It binds with water thanks to an oxygen group, as the primary ring structure does not.  The solubility is largely responsible for the fact that wine is aged in oak...the vanillin dissolves into the wine adding complexity to the flavor.  Ginger gets it's "zing" from the compound Zingerone and is also a flavor in mustard oil, not to be confused with horseradish in the Chinese and Japanese mustards mentioned earlier.  It is a heavy molecule and thus has little aroma, but its hydrocarbon tail is the dispenser of that "zing."  Ginger has long been used by folk medicine, and has strong antioxidant properties.  Some have even used it to prevent and even fight some cancers, as it's tail reacts to neutralize free radicals.

 

Oh, Wilber!

Spicy one of the few tastes that is so well understood. Scientists study the capsaicin to unlock the secrets of our reaction to pain.  Capsaicin is a powerful substance: it is detectable by taste in a 1 part per 16 million solution. To put that in perspective, one tablespoon would be detectable in an average swimming pool! Here we have a plant that not only causes pain, but after you take enough, actually stops pain.  It is also one of the few tastes that is measured by a scale, called the Scoville scale.  Let's take a look at properties of capsaicin and try to unlock its secrets.

 

Capsaicin is the highest molecular weight of any of its Vanilloid cousins, and because of this, it doesn't evaporate easily.  This is fortunate, because once airborne, it would be quite dangerous!  It is an odorless dark red solid in it's pure form, and it is crystalline in structure. As mentioned before, it is insoluble in water (so the swimming pool sized drink to cool the burn does little) but easily soluble in oils and ethyl alcohol (a mouthful of sour cream washed down by a swimming pooled sized margarita will do the trick).  Another interesting aspect of capsaicin is that it melts at 65ºC or around 150ºF.  It's boiling temperature is over 200ºC or over 400ºF. This fact illustrates clearly why spicy food is so much hotter when the pepper is cooked in: the capsaicin can melt and penetrate the food better...a few shakes of hot sauce will guarantee that the hot will be experienced only in small clumps as one masticates the mixture.

 

Ok, so we know what it is, and how it behaves, but why the pain?  For this, we have to take a look at the molecule again.  Remember that it is a circle with a tail.  This carbon chain tail acts as a key.  When this key comes in contact and binds with a neuron, a door is opened (called the vanilloid receptor type 1, or VR1 for short) and a stream of calcium ions, some sodium ions and perhaps potassium ions flow into the cell.  This build up charges a "battery," the cells energy "pops" like a joint out of a socket.  When it "pops" back, a neurotransmitter is released, and travels to the brain...a pain is born!  If the concentration of capsaicin is too high, the door stays open and the flood of calcium ions can actually kill a cell.  As I mentioned, fats, oils and alcohol bind more easily to the capsaicin's head and thereby breaks the weak connection to the cell. 

 

Now that we understand how pain is caused, we learn that there is another side of capsaicin: It's a painkiller! With all this firing of neurotransmitters, a special chemical called substance P, which sends pain signals to the brain, is used up.  Without it, a body can't feel pain.  Also, the more capsaicin you have the less sensitive to it you are.  This can be a double edged sword: I have a clinical recollection of a patient going into the hospital with "heartburn" asking for her usual dose of cayenne pepper and she would be on her way.  After more probing, however, it turned out that the patient had an actual heart problem that needed surgery.  The doctor was surprised that the condition advanced to this point because normally the patient would be in pain much sooner.  She didn't know about her condition because the "pepper pill" demitted her pain threshold. Yes, pain can be our friend too.

 

Another aspect of the reaction to capsaicin, as any Chile Head can tell you, is that wonderful feeling that some get when that initial 'jolt' of pain hits the brain.  Somehow, the brain in all its wisdom, says to itself "I have a pain indicator, but after a systems check, there is no source for pain, so this must be a false alarm."  Arriving at that conclusion, the brain next does us a big favor...in seeing that it is a false alarm, it releases a chemical that turns off all of our pain receptors.  Of course, this is known as the "endorphin rush."  Not only is physical pain reduced, but mental pain and stress is also relieved.  A floating feeling of well being ensues, usually (not necessarily) assisted by that swimming pool sized margarita finding it's way to the brain's problem centers and telling them to take the rest of the day off.  This well-being feeling is what all chile heads crave, and it is largely responsible for the incredible propagation of peppers around and indeed up and over the world.  Some say it is the best high on earth, and since we aren't tested for it, it doesn't impair judgement (some non-chile heads may argue that point though), it certainly isn't illegal to grow, posses or sell, it makes the ideal non-drug.  A healthy socially acceptable way to get high...and no second hand smoke.  Seems we have rediscovered Eden.

 

Not to put a totally bizarre slant on this, but there are those that claim capsaicin had certain mind-altering capabilities beyond just a feeling of well being.  Some say that the Maya and Incas (among others) used the Habanero to enter a state of mind where fluidity of time was disturbed, like dropping a glass in a swimming pool full of margarita mix.  The ripples in time would make some events in the future and the past visible: imagine a Lilly on a pond 3 or 4 feet away. If your eyes were at water level, the Lilly isn't visible unless something disturbs the surface causing a wave.  Suddenly.... there is the lilly.  It is possible that the ionic disturbance of the cell somehow is the pebble in the pond of the brain's sensitivity to time, and we see some future event just across the surface of time.

 

OK, as Scottie beams us back to the Earth, let's get some rock solid applications for the most sacred of fruits (to some, anyway).  Its non-food uses include a repellant against birds, squirrels, dogs, rabbits, other rodent pests, insects and even muggers (humans).  The Maya and others have even used burning peppers as a potent weapon (remember the melting point and boiling point?).  It is also said that they ate the peppers in battle as a pain reducer...imagine fighting against an army that can't feel pain?  This may also explain the bizarre piercings and pain-related rituals they carried out.  The bright yellow colors are used by farmers to brighten egg yokes, and other chile colorings to affect other foods, drugs, and cosmetics.  Some examples would include lipsticks, sausages, salad dressings and even to add color to canaries!

 

On the medical side it is used topically as a pain reliever and/or pain reducer in quite a few over-the-counter cures, and increasingly, in herbal and homeopathic alternative medicines. The Tarahumara Indians still use it to remedy bronchitis and. throat irritations. The Aztecs similarly utilized it as a remedy for cough. In fact, the modern day cough remedy Guafenesein is essentially a synthetic version of Capsaicin.

The Mayans (pretty good with the peppers, wouldn't you say?) it is said made a tea out of Habanero peppers that somehow enabled them to carry enormous jars of water 30 miles through the desert heat. I actually would drop a little chili in my coffee from time to time at work.  Not that I had to carry jars of water on my head, but you get the idea...one's head can seem pretty heavy on a Thursday afternoon around 3pm.  If the gave the Mayans superhuman strength and duration, then maybe, just maybe, I could plow through the after noon and still be productive.  Actually, it worked wonders.  It does sounds bizarre but the taste is surprisingly pleasant to a worshiper of the capsicum gods. In a pinch, you can add to your coffee a shake of your favorite high heat, low taste hot sauce.

 

Over the history of the human race it has been used as a folk remedy for many maladies, including incredibly ulcers!  Studies show that ulcers occur far less in the reasonable chili head than in the average non pepper-muncher. Another condition is some types of arthritis: that nasty substance-P is responsible for not only transmitting the pain of arthritis to the brain, but it actually takes part in breaking down the fibers in joints.  Remove the chemical with a few good jalapeno poppers per day, and the body feels less pain and begins to rebuild the damage. Some types of migraine pain are reduced by a nasal (of all places) application of a capsaicin based compound. Neck pains, psoriasis, inflammation, blood pressure abnormalities and even PMS can be helped with the proper chile-based treatments.  Chiles improve blood flow to the heart and assists arteries, veins, and capillaries in regaining their elasticity.  It may even function as a substitute for Viagra. In fact, over 1,000 papers have been published recently relating to the chile's top billed chemical, so stay tuned to the internet and other resources to see what is discovered next...

 

Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, remember one thing: We aren't doctors...but we can repeat hearsay as easily as the next guy can.  Please consult your doctor for any symptom before embarking on a medical journey.  I can assure that in the proper concentrations, capsaicin is a VERY POTENT DRUG and is quite deadly. Be reasonable, seek medical advice, and stay healthy.  Along these lines, the US FDA has set the highest permissible concentration for medicinal purposes at 0.075%.  By consuming a habanero pepper straight, you may well be exceeding this level...so if you survive,  turn yourself in to the Federal authorities at once.

 

Finally, on to the peppers themselves, as we bring this discussion full circle and back to the food world.

Dr. Wilbur L. Scoville, a German pharmacologist for the then pharmaceutical company Parke, Davis & Company, was tasked with the challenge of developing a measurement of spiciness to rate peppers. He developed a test that was named after him, "the Scoville Organoleptic Test", a dilution-taste procedure. Knowing as we do that capsaicin dissolved in alcohol, he would take each pepper, mush it up, and mix it with a small amount of alcohol to get his "pepper solution."  He would mix it with a carefully measured amount of sugar water.  The panel of tasters sipped the concoctions, in increasingly diluted concentrations, until Wilber could no longer detect steam coming from the ears of the testers (no burn detectable).  This ratio is the basis for the Scoville scale. For example, 1 drop of Tabasco chile pepper solution in  50,000 drops of water would yields a Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) rating for Tabasco of 50,000.

 

The hottest pepper known to humankind until recently was the Red Savina™ Habanero, at a whopping 577,000 SHU. Obviously the scale is a subjective one, and something more objective had to be developed. The American Spice Trade Association and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have adopted a modified version, testing by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).  The test results are affectionately related back to in honor Dr. Wilbur to Scoville Heat Units. The conversion generally accepted is that 16 Scoville units are equal to 1 PPM capsaicin plus capsaicinoids.

 

That having been said, the system still isn't perfect.  For example, hot sauces can't easily be measured.  While the chemicals can be measured, there are many factors that still affect that the subjective "feel" of the hot sauce and the effective burn factor that one experiences.  Other ingredients, expectation, levels of salt, the temperature it is served at, and even variances from bottle to bottle can affect the hotness of a hot sauce or even a pepper. Climate, sunshine, soil, weather, geography and harvest time all affect how hot a pepper can be. Even chiles on the same bush can have different heat levels.  It is said that the hot peppers then to make their neighbors hotter and visa versa, yet another factor.  I'm afraid to report that reading the label will never be able to accurately predict how spicy something will taste to a particular masochist.

 

In the search of the ever hotter taste experience, defense scientists working in Guwahati, India reported a new pepper grown in town of Tezpur ("City Of Blood"). It is an area near the border of India and Burma on the banks of the river Brahmaputra over 100 miles from the main city of Assam (know for high quality teas).  Discovered as recently as August 2000, this pepper is much hotter than the Red Savina Habanero, weighing in at a staggering 855,000 Scoville Units, or almost 6% capsaicinoids (mostly capsaicin).  The chile is named the Tezpur Chili (Capsicum frutescens var. Nagahari), or sometimes refereed to as Indian PC-1. This plant was designed to be used as primarily weapons grade (really: pepper spray, riot control, etc.) but you can be sure that there are chile-heads already planning the labels for the bottles of pain.  I, for one, would like a taste.  I'll be sure to have a friend dial 9-1 and wait while I chomp.

 

 

 

Here is a fairly extensive Scoville scale.  Take a peek to see how your favorite pepper stacks up:

 

Range From

To

Name of Pepper

0

100

Bell; Pimento; Sweet Banana; U.S. Paprika

10

100

Pickled Pepperoncini; Sweet Italian

100

2,500

Cherry

100

1,000

Naky, Mexi-Bell, canned green chiles, Hungarian Hot Paprika

100

500

Pepperoncini

500

1,000

Anaheim

500

1,000

Mulato

500

1,000

New Mexican

700

1,000

Coronado

1,000

2,000

Ancho & Pasilla peppers.

1,000

1,500

Ancho, Pasilla, Espanola, Anaheim

1,000

2,500

Cascabel, Rocotillo

1,000

1,500

Espanola peppers, Negro, Poblano

1,000

2,000

Pasilla

1,000

2,000

Poblano

1,500

2,500

Sandia, Cascabel, Yellow Wax Hot

2,500

5,000

Mirasol

2,500

3,000

Ancho Poblano

2,500

5,000

Guajillo

2,500

5,000

Jalapeno, Mirasol, Chipolte

2,500

4,000

Yellow Wax - Hungarian Yellow

5,000

15,000

Early Jalapeno, Aji Amarillo, Serrano

5,000

10,000

Hungarian Wax

5,000

6,000

Yellow Wax - Santa Fe Grande

5,000

15,000

Yellow Wax; Serrano

6,000

17,000

Hidalgo

10,000

23,000

Serrano

15,000

30,000

Chile de Arbol

15,000

17,000

Yellow Wax - Cascabella

30,000

50,000

Aji, Tabasco, Piquin

30,000

80,000

Chilipiquin

30,000

50,000

Tabasco

35,000

40,000

Cayanne

50,000

60,000

Red Chili

50,000

100,000

Santaka, Rocoto, Chinese Kwangsi

70,000

80,000

Haimen

70,000

110,000

Thai

100,000

115,000

Bahamian

100,000

125,000

Bird's Eye

100,000

105,000

Carolina Cayenne

100,000

200,000

Jamaican Hot

100,000

105,000

Tabiche

125,000

150,000

Kumataka

100,000

300,000

Habanero

150,000

350,000

Orange Habanero

100,000

250,000

Scotch Bonnet

150,000

300,000

South American Chinense, African birds eye

350,000

570,000

Red Savina™ Habanero

400,000

850,000

Tezpur Chili

8,600,000

 

Homocapsaicin.

8,600,000

 

Homodihydrocapsaicin.

9,100,000

 

Nordihydrocapsaicin.

15,000,000

 

Dihydrocapsaicin

16,000,000

 

Pure Capsaicin.

 

 

 

One last warning for the novice venturing into the rewarding land of the Chile tamer: be very careful! Remember, chiles were and still are used as a weapon.  When preparing food, follow some simple common sense:

1)                   Always wear gloves that you intend to throw out.  I have heard so many horror stories (and I mean horror in a true sense of the word) of people cutting peppers and then touching their eyes, or worse: stopping for a bathroom break.  Use gloves, throw them out, and still be afraid, be very afraid.  That simple nose itch could translate to a day of hell.

2)                   If you are heating the pepper, work outside preferably, or in a very well ventilated area. With a cover over your mouth and nose

3)                   Clean all surfaces with a strong soap, then milk or vodka (not the good stuff please), and soap as a finish.  Remember, it is a neurotoxin. Respect it.

4)                   If you are rinsing cutting boards or surfaces that the raw chile was cut, rinse with cold water.  Remember the fact that capsaicin melts around 150ºF.  If you rinse with hot water, you will cause it to melt and then evaporate, and you will quickly find it difficult to breathe.

5)                   If you put the peppers in a blender, whether the temperature is over or under 150ºF DO NOT SMELL THE MIXTURE.  We are serious, you could die.  Work with a mask if you can, or in a very well ventilated area

 

Finally, with the proper precautions, enjoy the people's spice.  Whether you are curing a cough, coloring your canary, delving into the future and quantum physics or simply making a salsa dip, the chile is one of the most interesting, diverse and rewarding cooking ingredient come military weapon.  Invent, taste, regain conciseness, repeat.  Or perhaps you would like to "grow your own" for the easy to cultivate and colorful properties.  Whatever your pleasure, know well that you have a lot of company, so use the vast resources of the internet to get to know other members of the chile-head world both online and at their frequent get-togethers.  You just may meet a hot new friend.