Hot Stuff

Chef Kaviraj Khialani

Chilies vary in size, shape, and colour, and most of all in taste, ranging from relatively mild to very pungent and extremely hot. Most are long thin and pointed, but there are many other varying shapes, and sizes.

Chili History

Wild chilies were being gathered and eaten in Mexico and were cultivated there before 3500 B C. The Spaniards and Portuguese took them to India and South East Asia within a few years, and they spread quickly to the Middle East, the Balkans, and Europe to Italy by 1526, Germany by 1543, and Hungary. In short they welcomed in every region where people were already accustomed to eating food with hot spices. It is now hard to imagine what places like Indonesia or India (at present the world's largest producers of chilies) was like without them.

The Humble Capsaicin

Chilies are 'hot' because they contain capsaicin, an irritant alkaloid that is found mainly in the interior tissue of which the seeds adhere. Capsaicin has at least five separate chemical components. Three of which give an immediate sensation in the throat and at the back of the palate; the other two are slower, longer lasting, and less fierce hotness on the tongue and mild palate. Each type of chili can be rated for average hotness, but individual fruits the same bush can vary greatly in their capsaicin content.

Capsaicin is odourless and paradoxically, flavourless. It irritates the skin and any delicate area. It is barely soluble in water, so cold drinks are little help if one has taken mouthful of chilies. Cooks use chilies for flavour, not merely for hotness.

One theory is that the discomfort in the mouth causes the brain to produce endorphins - natural opiates that give pleasure. If this is true however, then enflaming one's skin or eyes by touching chilies should have the same effect, and no one pretends that smarting eyes are pleasant. A likelier explanation is that people whose diet is rather bland and unvarying crave something to pep it up, and chilis provide flavour and excitement at low cost. It may also be true that chilies or chemicals within them are mildly addictive. In chili eating areas, children usually start to eat this adult food from the age of 10 or 11, and rapidly become so used to it that they miss it quite badly if they are deprived of it.

Measuring Units

In the USA, the heat of a chili is expressed in Scoville Heat Units. This scale derived from a test devised in 1912, refers to the number of time that extracts of chilies dissolved in alcohol can be diluted with sugar water before the capsaicin can no longer be tasted. Where bell peppers would score 0, Anaheim score 1,000, and Jalapeno and Cayenne are rated at 2,500-4,000. Higher up the scale, Tabasco peppers rate 60,000-80,000.

Dewitt and Gerlach state the Harbaneros range from 100,000 to 300,000. Scoville units in South East Asia there are no recognised scientific units, but the general rule is 'the smaller, the hotter'. The strongest chilies being the little green one's often called bird peppers.

Usage And Handling

Chilies even the hottest are eaten fresh and whole in many countries, or chopped up and used as a garnish, or ground up and mixed with other ingredients in a cooked dish. They may also be dried or roasted before being used in cooking. These processes affect the flavor.

When handling chilies, disposable plastic gloves should be worn or the fingers rubbed with salt. To calm the hot feeling directly associated with hot chilies, some recommend remedies are slices of cucumber (perhaps in yoghurt as in Indian preparation raita), while others suggest plain boiled rice, and there also advocate for something sweet.

Global Chili Varieties

In Laos the smallest type of are known as 'Mouse Droppings' whereas some Cayenne chilies are 30 cm/12 inches long.

For many dishes it is important to use the appropriate variety of chili. It is chiefly in the Americas that one finds a wide range of strikingly different types and cultivars. Note that attractive names like Cascabel are often applied to different varieties, seemingly almost at random.

In Indonesia and Malaysia practically all chilies are either large or small, the former are called cabai, the latter cabai rawit or lambok rawit. All are hot but the smaller rawit types are especially so. Bird chilies (cabai burning in Malaysia) are also called bird's eye chilies because they are as small, vivid and sharp as the eye of the bird. Color is important (merah is red, hijau is green) cabai merah are dried and powdered, or are fresh ones crushed and used to give body to a hot sauce.

Chili Products

Chili products include chili powder, which is made in many countries from any type of chili, which is locally available. It varies considerably in hotness and flavor.

The author is the head of department, food production, Kohinoor College of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Mumbai. He can be reached by e-mail at kaviraj21@hotmail.com.