The Come-Back, Day 32. The Reaper Strikes Again.
My husband has finally been bested by the Scoville scale.
He loves hot, spicy food. Whenever I put some cayenne pepper into a stew or a sauce, he tastes it, and then goes to get the Tabasco. Sometimes, he so generously sprinkles it, I can smell the acrid odor of the vinegar from the little bottle. But he likes it.
He also loves hot chourizos. Whenever he buys some, he asks for the hottest the butcher has. Only once has he ever said a chourizo was up to his level, and the small company where he bought them admitted they had committed an error by putting too much hot pepper in that batch. Whenever someone offers him a sample of the hottest chourizo on sale, he tries it and shakes his head. It's not that hot.
So, the other day in Pontevedra, when I was visiting an American food shop, I stopped at the shelf with hot sauces and pepper flakes. The owner, upon seeing my interest, immediately came over to me. He explained that the sauce I was examining was made from the Carolina Reaper, the hottest pepper in the world. It was to be used very sparingly. He also had small tubes with flakes, which he said had more flavor because they were simply the dried pepper, whereas the sauce had vinegar added, much like Tabasco. I bought the sauce, a tiny little bottle (and cheaper than the tube of flakes). He then gave me some pepper flakes in a plastic bag, to try out.
So, yesterday, I made a marinade for some pork I had in the fridge, and added two drops of the hot sauce. Just in case, I didn't add any more. When my husband tried it, he said it was spicy, but not overly so. At the first bite he didn't notice it much, it only grew in intensity slightly after eating. After the table was cleared, he decided to try the flakes. Immediately upon putting a very small piece in his mouth, he spit out the flake, slapped his hands over his mouth, and flew to the faucet, where he let the water flow over his tongue. When I asked him if it was that hot, he couldn't articulate words, just "aarrggh" and "gaurghag" and similar sounds. Finally, he shouted, "Dios!" Yup, it was that hot.
As I looked up remedies, he took out the watermelon from the fridge and tried to quench the fire with it. No dice. I told him perhaps a slice of lemon with some salt. Uh uh. Milk could also be a remedy, but it would have to be cold, and we have the long-lasting kind that doesn't need the fridge. He simply took out a popsicle and rejected my suggestion of a spoonful of olive oil. Slowly, very slowly, the fire in his mouth was burning out. By the time he left for work, it was manageable.
I explained to him what the Scoville scale is. Tabasco is way down in the green zone, near the jalapeños. Hot, but not even three alarm. The Carolina Reaper is up at the top, only behind pepper spray and pure capsaicin, the chemical that gives peppers their fire. Its level in Scoville Heat Units is from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000. A jalapeño tops out at 2,000. So, the flake he put in his mouth is nine-alarm-and-surrounding-towns'-fire-departments hot.
I don't think he'll be asking me to adjust a dish and make it spicier any time soon. He knows I might make it too hot for him to enjoy. He's met his match in the heat department!
Life continues, a bit spicier.
He loves hot, spicy food. Whenever I put some cayenne pepper into a stew or a sauce, he tastes it, and then goes to get the Tabasco. Sometimes, he so generously sprinkles it, I can smell the acrid odor of the vinegar from the little bottle. But he likes it.
He also loves hot chourizos. Whenever he buys some, he asks for the hottest the butcher has. Only once has he ever said a chourizo was up to his level, and the small company where he bought them admitted they had committed an error by putting too much hot pepper in that batch. Whenever someone offers him a sample of the hottest chourizo on sale, he tries it and shakes his head. It's not that hot.
So, the other day in Pontevedra, when I was visiting an American food shop, I stopped at the shelf with hot sauces and pepper flakes. The owner, upon seeing my interest, immediately came over to me. He explained that the sauce I was examining was made from the Carolina Reaper, the hottest pepper in the world. It was to be used very sparingly. He also had small tubes with flakes, which he said had more flavor because they were simply the dried pepper, whereas the sauce had vinegar added, much like Tabasco. I bought the sauce, a tiny little bottle (and cheaper than the tube of flakes). He then gave me some pepper flakes in a plastic bag, to try out.
So, yesterday, I made a marinade for some pork I had in the fridge, and added two drops of the hot sauce. Just in case, I didn't add any more. When my husband tried it, he said it was spicy, but not overly so. At the first bite he didn't notice it much, it only grew in intensity slightly after eating. After the table was cleared, he decided to try the flakes. Immediately upon putting a very small piece in his mouth, he spit out the flake, slapped his hands over his mouth, and flew to the faucet, where he let the water flow over his tongue. When I asked him if it was that hot, he couldn't articulate words, just "aarrggh" and "gaurghag" and similar sounds. Finally, he shouted, "Dios!" Yup, it was that hot.
As I looked up remedies, he took out the watermelon from the fridge and tried to quench the fire with it. No dice. I told him perhaps a slice of lemon with some salt. Uh uh. Milk could also be a remedy, but it would have to be cold, and we have the long-lasting kind that doesn't need the fridge. He simply took out a popsicle and rejected my suggestion of a spoonful of olive oil. Slowly, very slowly, the fire in his mouth was burning out. By the time he left for work, it was manageable.
I explained to him what the Scoville scale is. Tabasco is way down in the green zone, near the jalapeños. Hot, but not even three alarm. The Carolina Reaper is up at the top, only behind pepper spray and pure capsaicin, the chemical that gives peppers their fire. Its level in Scoville Heat Units is from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000. A jalapeño tops out at 2,000. So, the flake he put in his mouth is nine-alarm-and-surrounding-towns'-fire-departments hot.
I don't think he'll be asking me to adjust a dish and make it spicier any time soon. He knows I might make it too hot for him to enjoy. He's met his match in the heat department!
Life continues, a bit spicier.
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