How to Be A Chilli Head

CULT OF THE CHILLI HEAD

(OR, HOW THE HUMBLE CHILLI BECAME A FOOD-WORLD SUPERSTAR)

Rock stars have their groupies, film stars have their fans but fruit just has its consumers. Except for chillies, that is (yes, chillies are a fruit, actually berries, and not a vegetable because they contain seeds). Chilli Heads are more committed than the most fervent Belieber, more devoted than one of Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters and more insane than a Tom Cruise stalker. Well, no one’s that crazy, but you get the idea.

Although chillies have been cultivated and appreciated for thousands of years, the cult of the Chilli Head is a modern phenomenon. The origins of the term Chilli Head have been obscured by history, but it was most likely coined sometime after 1946, when the Chili (US spelling!) Appreciation Society (now the Chili Appreciation Society International) was formed in Dallas to ‘improve the quality of chilli in restaurants and broadcast Texas-style recipes all over the earth’. Founder George Haddaway was referred to as ‘Chief Chili Head’ in the press and, as the society grew in America and around the world, the name stuck.

Back then, George and his chums were mostly concerned with making sure people cooked chilli con carne the Texas way, but now being a Chilli Head is a much more complex affair. It’s not just about the food on the plate but the culture that’s grown up around the planet’s most thrilling fruit. (Ever got excited about an apple? Didn’t think so).

The Chilli Head phenomenon is really only found in cultures where hot food doesn’t form the mainstay of the cuisine, mostly concentrated in Europe, North America and Australia. Chillies are so central to the cuisines of Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, China and India, for example, that to single out part of the population as ‘Chilli Heads’ would be nonsensical.

Modern Chilli Head culture can be traced back to events in America in the late 1980s, including the opening of Le Saucier in Boston, Massachusetts, the first ever chilli sauce store, the creation of the super-hot Blair’s Death Sauce and in 1994, the cultivation of the Red Savina, the first super-hot fresh chilli.

The shared love of ‘fiery foods’ in real life at festivals and conventions, and later online in forums and via video reviews, has fuelled the growth of the cult exponentially. Chillies now take their place alongside a very select band of foods, such as caviar, white truffles and Wagyu beef, that are capable of creating genuine excitement. But, unlike those other gourmet items, you don’t have to be a millionaire to appreciate them. That’s really something worth getting hot under the collar about.

SOME LIKE IT HOT

DECODING THE SCOVILLE SCALE

Chilli is unique in the fruit world for having its very own system of measurement. How cool is that? The Scoville Scale was invented in 1912 by American chemist Wilbur Scoville specifically to measure a chilli’s spicy heat (or ‘pungency’, as the men in white coats call it).

Although dear Wilbur was a top-flight scientist with some serious credentials, the Scoville scale is based on what now looks like pretty shaky methodology. Basically, the Scoville organoleptic test involves taking a precise amount of dried chilli that’s been dissolved in alcohol to extract the heat-giving capsaicin chemical compound, diluting it in sugar-water. The chilli that needs the most amount of water before your chums can no longer taste it is the winner.

The degree of dilution is then measured in Scoville units (SHU). So, a red pepper that you’d slice up for your salad rates zero on the scale because it contains no capsaicin so doesn’t have to be diluted at all, but a Bhut Jolokia has to be diluted a million times – that’s about 50 litres (88 pints) of water to one drop of the dissolved chilli – before it’s undetectable. Therefore it gets a rating of 1,000,000 SHU.

This may all sound very scientific, but there’s a problem. Everyone’s sense of taste is slightly different, plus you can build up a resistance to the effects of capsaicin over the course of a tasting session. So even though this method uses a panel of five trained tasters, results can differ by as much as 50 per cent from lab to lab.

If you’re thinking, ‘It’s a hundred years later, couldn’t we come up with something better?’ then you’re right. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) cuts out human error and replaces it with boxes, switches, tubes and reinforced steel columns. By pumping a liquid sample of the chilli through a specially lined steel column, scientists can measure exactly the amount of capsaicin present, which is expressed in American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) Pungency Units. Nevertheless, everyone still uses Wilbur’s scale, so the ASTA units are multiplied by 15 to get the Scoville equivalent.

THE 10 HOTTEST CHILLIES IN THE WORLD

Illustration CAROLINA REAPER

2,200,000 SHU

Enjoy the sweet fruity flavour of this unholy cross between a Pakistani Naga and a Red Habañero before it sets your mouth alight. Developed by the all too accurately named Pucker Butt Pepper Company of South Carolina, this scorpion-tailed bumpy-red-skinned devil was certified hottest chilli by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2013.

Illustration MORUGA SCORPION

2,009,231 SHU

The chilli formerly known as the hottest on the planet doesn’t come from the depths of hell but from the south central coast of Trinidad. Growing to the size of a golf ball, like the Carolina Reaper this pepper comes on like a fruit but hides a great big hot sting in its tail.

Illustration 7 POT BRAIN STRAIN

1,900,000 SHU

Named after its supposed resemblance to a human brain (you should worry if that’s what’s actually inside your head), this round, bumpy-skinned beast packs serious heat. In Trinidad, they call it ‘7 pot’ because one chilli is enough to flavour seven pots of stew.

Illustration 7 POT PRIMO

1,900,000 SHU

This cross breed of the Naga Morich from India and the Trinidad 7 Pot has been cultivated by Southern rocker Troy ‘Primo’ Primeaux of cult band Santeria in Louisiana since 2005. Sure, there’s