It’s not every day that food aficionados assess this particular metric: The Spiciness of Peppers!

A rating scale evaluates how hot a specific food item is. It’s known as Scoville Heat Units. This specific scale is sacrosanct when measuring the pungency and spiciness of peppers, particularly ghost peppers and other spicy foods.

Thanks to the acclaimed pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, his legacy lives on with the eponymous Scoville Scale, invented in 1912. Suffice it to say this High-Performance Liquid Chromatography system measures the heat level of peppers.

In much the same way the thermostat measures the temperature using Celsius or Fahrenheit, this scale measures the pungency of peppers using Pungency Units. For the chefs and cooks, this scale is precisely what is needed to assess the heat of peppers. The unit is abbreviated to SHU; the higher the number, the hotter the pepper.

The top five hottest peppers in ascending order, as measured by Scoville heat units (SHU), include the following:

• The Naga Viper at 1,382,118 SHU
• The Trinidad Scorpion Butch T at 1,463,700 SHU
• The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion at 2,009,231 SHU
• The Carolina Reaper at 2,200,000 SHU
• Pure Capsaicin at 16,000,000 SHU

Source: Data provided by Masterclass.com

Ghost peppers have a wretched reputation as being the worst of the worst in terms of how hot they are. For all intents and purposes, that reputation is well deserved. They have an SHU rating of 1,000,000+, compared to a jalapeño pepper with an SHU rating of just 8000. Before we all literally start burning up, perhaps we should take a little breather – a timeout to explore the spicy pepper in all its majesty.

A welcome distraction certainly serves our purposes well, and it comes in the form of Arriba! Heat Salsa Wilds social slot. It provides an audiovisual exploration of precisely what to expect with flaming hot red peppers igniting a firestorm of entertainment on screen. Sure, it’s not quite the same olfactory response as a 1,000,000+ SHU rating destroying your tongue, but that’s okay with most of us, too.

Our fleeting welcome distraction is a social slot game featuring the inimitable ghost pepper as the flaming hot symbol. It is showcased alongside orange, green, yellow, and other red peppers, with Salsa dip for flavor. Granted, the SHU rating falls flat in this case, but it’s apropos given the high value associated with the flaming hot red pepper in the game. We instantly gravitate towards the ghost pepper, despite its inherent danger. Much like our fascination with serpents and spiders!

Already, the temperature has cooled. Now it’s time to take a look at how ghost peppers are actually used in recipes or for challenges. Granted, food options are somewhat limited, given that the ghost pepper was formally recognized (in 2007) as the hottest chili pepper in the world. But the Carolina Reaper surpassed it with its 2,200,000 SHU rating. But who on earth would eat such items?

Source: https://www.britannica.com/plant/ghost-pepper 

Famous Dishes with Ghost Peppers

Cookpad.com introduces us to dozens of ghost pepper recipes, each of them more delightful than the next. Would you believe that there is Ghostly Beef Jerky? Sweet and Spicy Chilli Sauce? Chubby Hubby Ghost Barbecue Sauce? and even Pineapple Mango Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce?

On a serious note, ghost peppers can be a welcome accouterment to any meal, provided they are used in moderation for flavor, sting, and a little wallop. Instant pot beef chili is one such recipe that you could try.

This recipe adds fiery flavor to your meal, using beef chilli and ghost peppers. Typically, you would use chipotle chili in adobo, but this one uses ¼ to ½ of ghost pepper, perhaps a little more, depending on your personal preferences. Remember, it’s going to be incredibly hot – not Carolina Reaper hot, but hellishly hot!

If you’re in the mood for a little taco sauce, you may want to try this on for size – ghost pepper tomatillo sauce! It’s all in the name, and in the ingredients. Salsa is great for tacos, but this one is like rocket fuel for your tongue and it will wake you up from the deepest slumber.

Food aficionados have even claimed that it will wake up the dead – but nobody’s been resurrected with this ghost pepper just yet. If you’re squeamish, standoffish, shy, or otherwise unwilling to try something new, back off. It’s got a fierce kick – you’ve been warned.

How about a little delicacy? This next recipe calls for some goat cheese on toasted bread. You take some spicy honey, drizzle it on top and add a few thinly sliced pears. Now sprinkle toasted almonds or walnuts on top of that and substitute the arbol chilli powder with ghost peppers. It’s important to get this recipe right because if you use more than half of a ghost pepper, it could ignite your tastebuds.

Presto! That’s life in the fast lane – it’s the quickest 0 to 60 you are ever going to run from the dining room table to the kitchen faucet. Be sure to keep some ice water handy or some creamy milk – it’s your call. And if all else fails, forget the ghost peppers and just play the Heat Salsa Wilds game!