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What is the Scoville rating?
How hot or spicy is a particular chili pepper? Have you ever wanted to know that before you used it in your favorite recipe? Well, there is a means of quantifying the amount of spicy heat of a chili pepper. This scale of measurement is know as the Scoville scale or Scoville rating.
How does it work?
The spicy heat of a chili pepper is a result of the presence of capsaicin. Capsaicin in the chili pepper stimulates nerve endings in the mucous membranes (mouth, nose) which gives us the sensation of spice. In larger concentrations, it can also cause sensation on the skin.
The capsaicin organoleptic test measures the spiciness of the pepper by manually tasting a diluted solution containing extracts of the pepper in question.
Who invented this scale?
Wilbur Scoville, an American chemist, was responsible for the creation of the Scoville scale from his work at Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company on the hotness of various chili peppers. Since its creation in 1912, the Scoville scale is still a popular means of measuring hotness.
Why is there a large range on the scale for various chili peppers?
Like any other plant, chili peppers plants are affected by variation in soil, climate (temperature, humidity, rainfall etC)and seed-lineage. Hence, the hotness of a chili pepper grown in Mexico will be different from that of a pepper grown in say Arizona. However, good gardening practices can help retain the natural heat of the pepper.
Scoville Ratings of various peppers
| Pepper | Scoville Rating | Pepper | Scoville Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pepperoncini | 100 – 500 | Hungarian Wax | 5,000 – 10,000 |
| Hungarian Paprika | 100 – 500 | Thai-Kung Pao | 7,000 – 12,000 |
| Sonora Pepper | 300 – 600 | Ancho Gigantea Pepper | 1,000 – 15,000 |
| New Mexico 6 Pepper | 500 – 1,000 | Serrano | 6,000 – 23,000 |
| NuMex Twilight Pepper | 900 – 1,000 | Serrano Tampiqueno Pepper | 6,000 – 23,000 |
| Aji Dulce | 800 – 1,200 | Royal Black pepper | 5,000 – 30,000 |
| Ancho Pepper | 1,000 – 2,000 | Yellow Peter Pepper | 5,000 – 30,000 |
| Poblano | 1,000 – 2,000 | Chile De Arbol Pepper | 15,000 – 30,000 |
| Numex Espanola Pepper | 1,000 – 2,000 | Tabasco | 30,000 – 50,000 |
| Pasilla Bajio Pepper | 1,000 – 2,000 | Long Red Slim Cayenne | 30,000 – 50,000 |
| Anaheim | 500 – 2,500 | Santaka Pepper | 40,000 – 50,000 |
| Numex-Big Jim | 500 – 2,500 | Fish Pepper | 45,000 – 75,000 |
| Garden Salsa | 2000 – 4,500 | Tepin Pepper | 50,000 -100,000 |
| Jalapeno | 2,500 – 5,000 | Jamaican Yellow Pepper | 100,000 – 200,000 |
| Mirasol Pepper | 2,500 – 5,000 | Habanero | 100,000 – 350,000 |
| Red Cherry Bomb | 2,500 – 5,000 | Carribean Red | 400,000 – 460,000 |
| Chimayo Pepper | 4,000 – 6,000 | Jamaican Hot Chocolate | 300,000 – 500,000 |
| Black Hungarian Pepper | 5,000 – 10,000 |
We have all these peppers available at the Sweet Corn Organic Nursery store. If you have any questions about growing and harvesting peppers, we’d love to lend a helping hand.
Oh! and go easy on some of the spicy ones, they can be hotter than expected 
!
We got an interesting “Ask Bryan” question today from Nick, a gardener in New York, who wrote this:
In looking to be more of a gardener and less of a consumer/dependent on
grocery stores, I started gardening. And over the last 3 years I have
gotten the knack down for what to do and how to do it better yet I know
I’m nowhere near knowing it all. So I come to you. Can I, with success,
create an indoor garden in my basement for over the winter? I live in NY
and the reason I ask this is I would love to buy heirloom seeds from you,
plant them and grow them over the winter and thus capture the best of the
best seeds from that harvest to use for that upcoming spring. Am I able to
pollinate a plant indoors without insects? What would I need to keep a 2
tomato plants and 2 pepper plants alive, vibrant and super healthy to make
it through a winter in NY?
So, here’s our answer!
Nick,
Here’s a link to an article on our blog about growing seedlings indoors.
How To Plant Seeds and Grow Starts Indoors
To grow your seedlings to the food stage indoors, we’re going to tweak the
above a little bit. Here goes: First of all, to grow successful tomato and
pepper crops indoors your temps inside where the plants are growing need
to optimally stay between 68-72 degrees. They can vary slightly on the low
side of those temps (no lower than 50 degrees), and can go up to 88
degrees for short periods; however, 68-72 degrees is optimal and will
ensure that your pollen is most potent.
In terms of pollinating without insects, no problem since both of these
plants are self-pollinating. However, shaking the blooms a little by
tapping the vines where there are blooms lightly before 11:00 in the
morning every day will ensure proper pollination.
Follow the raising and lowering of the lights exactly how it’s explained
in the seedling article; however, mature plants are going to need a rest
period. So, once the plants are approximately 2-3 months old and you can
see they are wanting to bloom (or start prior to 2-3 months if you start
to see any blooms). At this point, shut off the lights for 8 hours or so a
day to fool the plant into thinking it’s going through a night. This will
promote blooming.
Now, we have to address the soil issue, because in the seedling article
you are growing in a soilless mix, which is ideal for seedlings but
doesn’t provide enough nutrients for a plant to produce full-size,
flavorful fruit. So, what we need to do is transplant your seedlings at
around 10 weeks into containers that are at least 3 gallons or larger.
Add some organic potting soil to the bottom, then add some MegaBone or
MegaStart into the pot, add your plant, then fill to the top of the soil
line with more organic potting soil.
Here’s a helpful hint: If you choose 3 different cherry size tomatoes,
then you can transplant all 3 into one container. For larger varieties,
then just one transplant per container. Here is a large sampling of heirloom tomato seeds if you want to check it out. Same with heirloom pepper seeds. If you go with a few elongated, smaller-type frying peppers then you can get away with 3
varieties per container (like Sweet Banana, Jimmy Nardello, Super
Shepherd, Garden Salsa, etc. But only plant sweets with sweet, and hots
with hot).
In terms of organic soil amendments and feeding your plant, spray the leaves of your plants each week with
MegaSea, and rootfeed with MegaFish every 2 weeks. Use MegaPepe and
MegaMator as a soil side dress each week as well to ensure you can really
pull off a good crop indoors.
Keep us posted on how it goes, Nick! And send us some photos. What a fabulous idea!
Bryan and Kim
