I am on my third year of hot pepper gardening and am on a quest to create the perfect burn. What I seek is information on what pepper has the most of each of the different capsaicinoids and where each capsaicinoid burns the lips, tongue, palate, & throat. ------ The information I have so far is the different types of capsaicins and where they burn: Nordihydrocapsaicin - least irritating capsaicinoid - front of mouth and palate - recedes rapidly Capsaicin/Dihydrocapsaicin - middle of the mouth, middle of the palate, the throat and back of tongue. Homodihydrocapsaicin - very irritating, harsh and very sharp - pungency does not develop immediately but it affects the throat, back of the tongue and the palate for a prolonged period. Homocapsaicin - No information so far ------ What is needed now is the content of each type of capsaicin for each pepper in the different species of the genus Capsicum (Annuum, Frutescens, Chinense, Pubescens, etc.). The principle here is if you can equate each type of capsaicin with a particular burn and you know which peppers have the different types of capsaicin and the amount, it should be a simple process to create the perfect burn. To me, the perfect burn will be one that will burn from the lips to the bottom of the throat but is tempered so it will not be too hot to eat. Sorry for the long post but I had a lot to say with no simple way to say it. AJ
Very interesting AJ-- I am a pepper nut too. I have been eating hot peppers for years as a way to protect my stomach from the medicine I take (NSAIDs) and I have made topical pain killers by cutting up peppers in isopropyl alcohol--it works, but don't put it on if you are going to be spending time out in the sun in the next day or so. See my post under the other pepper thread about the slow burn of my purple peppers-- they obviously contain Homodihydrocapsaicin---lots of it! Skeet
Almost there. I made some Pico De Gallo Saturday, let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and ate some Sunday night with a steak, baked potato, and fresh salad. The burn was not intense (for me), but covered the total mouth from front of the tongue/palate to down the back of the throat. I made about 3 pints of Pico. All peppers and tomatos are growing in my garden. Had to use a "store bought" white onion. Peppers used: 8 Jalapenos 2 Seranos 2 Cayenne 3 Chili Red Hots 2 Senorita (no heat Jalapenos) 1 Habanero 1 Caribbean Red Hot 1 Cherry Red Hot 3 Hot Banana Peppers 3 Tabasco Peppers 1 Big Chili 1 Anaheim Chili 2 Thai Red 2 Thai Orange Portions were: 1 pint of the chopped peppers above 1 pint of fresh picked diced tomato's 1 pint diced white onion What is great about the taste is the different peppers, each little "chunk" or seed gives you a different burn. It seems that mixing the anuum species with the chinense species works well. AJ
