Off the Internet: All ‘I’ comments are for the original author. Liz Woods’ comments are in Italics.
‘I think i have personally perfected my spicy tomato relish recipe. This is about the 6th batch and i am happy enough to put it on here now. I had issues with getting the heat just right but I sourced some beautiful little Orange Habanero chillies this morning and its just what this recipe needed.
‘Its a long and slow process but its bloody worth it in the end, you have my guarantee.’
INGREDIENTS.
3kg vine ripened organic tomatoes (seriously you’re wasting your time with anything other than vine ripened)
500g castor sugar
250ml white vinegar (malt vinegar also works well)
15g crushed fresh organic garlic
7g chopped fresh organic green ginger
30g freshly ground sea salt
A good pinch of cayenne pepper
3 Orange Habanero's (finely chopped) – Liz Woods substituted six red 7-10cm long chillies and six dried birdseyechillies in the bag – This produced OK heat, but it could have been spicier! It is quite sweet.
In a spice bag place;
7g whole cloves
7g whole black peppercorns
15g whole pimento's (allspice) – I could have also substituted three teaspoons powdered alspice and we have heaps but didn’t realise I could do that until later – next time!
METHOD.
Wash your tomatoes in a sink filled with cold water, remove top core bit and quarter.I used cherry tomatoes and just used them whole.
Roughly blend your tomatoes (NOT PUREE) in batches in your food processor. This saves ages doing it with a knife. Then place in a large, greased casserole pot or similar. The wider the pot the better it will be for evaporation.
Add all of your ingredients including your spice bag and set it onto a medium heat. If you have too high a heat it will burn onto the bottom of the pot and put black burnt bits all through the relish. This I found out on the first attempt.
Once it is up to heat and simmering away nicely (NOT BOILING) just let it do its thing. You will know its ready when virtually all of the liquid has evaporated and you have a nice jammy texture. This may take up to 4 hours. Stirring every half an hour or so.
Take your spice bag out, sterilise some jars in boiling water for 5 mins and spoon in the relish. You should get about a litre’s worth.Liz Woods, washes her jars in sopay water, rinses them and dries them in a 140oC oven until dry.
This should last for weeks if not longer in the fridge. A friend told me ages ago that he leaves out onions in his relishes as it keeps longer. Not sure why but I ran with it.
That’s it. You can use this in heaps of different ways but my favourite way is getting some toasted fresh ciabatta with a light layer of goats cheese on top smeared with the relish to finish it off. Its awesome.NOTE - If you don’t have a spice bag handy you can just throw it all in and either pick it out at the end or deal with it although I would advise against it. There is nothing worse than chomping into a whole clove. Yuk. Alternatively again you could just use powdered varieties.
Enjoy!
Habanero chili
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For the feminine form of the Spanish word Habanero, see Habanera (disambiguation).
HabaneroA habanero chili
Details
Species / Capsicum chinense
Cultivar / 'Habanero'
The habanero chili (/ˌhɑːbəˈnɛroʊ/; Spanish: [aβaˈneɾo]) is a variety of chili pepper. The name is sometimes spelled (and pronounced) habañero—the diacritical mark being added as a hyperforeignism.[1] Unripe habaneros are green, and they color as they mature. Common colors are orange and red, but white, brown, and pink are also seen. Typically a ripe habanero chili is 2–6 centimetres (0.8–2.4 in) long. Habanero chilis are intensely spicy, rated 100,000–350,000 on the Scoville scale.[2]
Contents[hide]
- 1 Origin and current use
- 2 Cultivation
- 3 Cultivars
- 4 See also
- 5 Gallery
- 6 References
- 7 External links
[edit] Origin and current use
The habanero chili comes from the Amazonas region, and from there it was spread in Mexico.[3] One domesticated habanero, which was dated at 8,500 years old, was found at an archaeological dig in Mexico. [4] An intact fruit of a small domesticated habanero was found in Pre-ceramic levels in Guitarrero Cave in the Peruvian highlands, and was dated to 6500 B.C.E. It migrated north to the Caribbean via Colombia.
Upon its discovery by Spaniards, it was rapidly disseminated to other adequate climate areas of the world, to the point that 18th-century taxonomists mistook China for its place of origin and called it "Capsicum chinense"—the Chinese pepper.[5][6][7]
Habanero chiliHeat / Exceptionally hot
Scoville rating / 100,000 – 350,000
Today, the largest producer is Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.[8] Other modern producers include Belize, Panama (locally named ajíchombo), Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and parts of the United States, including Texas, Idaho, and California. While Mexico is the largest consumer of this spicy ingredient, its flavor and aroma have become increasingly popular all over the world.
Habaneros are an integral part of Yucatecan food. Habanero chilies accompany most dishes in Yucatán, either in solid or purée/salsa form.
The Scotch bonnet is often compared to the habanero, since they are two varieties of the same species, but have different pod types. Both the Scotch bonnet and the habanero have the characteristic thin, waxy flesh. They have a similar heat level and flavor. Although both varieties average around the same level of "heat", the actual degree of piquancy varies greatly from one fruit to another with genetics, growing methods, climate, and plant stress.
The habanero's heat, its fruity, citrus-like flavor, and its floral aroma have made it a popular ingredient in hot sauces and spicy foods. Habaneros are sometimes placed in tequila or mezcal bottles, particularly in Mexico, for a period ranging from several days to several weeks, to make a spiced version of the drink.
In 2000, the habanero was listed in the Guinness book of World Records as the world's hottest chile, but it has since been displaced by a number of other peppers, the record tending to change hands/pods every few years.
Scoville scale
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A display of hot peppers and the Scoville scale at a supermarket in Houston, Texas
The Scoville scale is the measurement of the pungency (spicyheat) of chili peppers.
The number of Scoville heat units (SHU)[1] indicates the amount of capsaicin present. Capsaicin is a chemical compound that stimulates chemoreceptornerve endings in the skin, especially the mucous membranes.
The scale is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville. His method, devised in 1912, is known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test.[2] The modern commonplace method for quantitative analysis uses high-performance liquid chromatography, making it possible to directly measure capsaicinoid content.
/ Food portalContents
[hide]
- 1 Scoville organoleptic test
- 2 High-performance liquid chromatography
- 3 List of Scoville ratings
- 3.1 Scoville ratings of chemicals
- 3.2 Scoville ratings of peppers
- 4 References
[edit] Scoville organoleptic test
In Scoville's method, a measured amount of alcohol extract of the capsaicin oil of the dried pepper is produced, after which a solution of sugar and water is added incrementally until the "heat" is just barely detectable by a panel of (usually five) tasters; the degree of dilution gives its measure on the Scoville scale. Thus a sweet pepper or a bell pepper, containing no capsaicin at all, has a Scoville rating of zero, meaning no heat detectable.[3] The hottest chilis, such as habaneros and nagas, have a rating of 200,000 or more, indicating that their extract must be diluted over 200,000 times before the capsaicin presence is undetectable. The greatest weakness of the Scoville Organoleptic Test is its imprecision, because it relies on human subjectivity. Tasters taste only one sample per session. Results vary widely, up to 50%, between laboratories.[4]
[edit] High-performance liquid chromatography
Naga Jolokia (bhutjolokia, nagamorich) is rated at over one million Scoville units. It is primarily found in Bangladesh and parts of the Northeast Indian states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur.
The Red Savina pepper, one of the hottest chilis, is rated at 580,000 Scoville units.
Spice heat is usually measured by a method that uses high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This identifies and measures the concentration of heat-producing chemicals. The measurements are used in a mathematical formula that weighs them according to their relative capacity to produce a sensation of heat. This method yields results, not in Scoville units, but in American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) pungency units. A measurement of one part capsaicin per million corresponds to about 15 Scoville units, and the published method says that ASTA pungency units can be multiplied by 15 and reported as Scoville units. This conversion is approximate, and spice experts Donna R. Tainter and Anthony T. Grenis say that there is consensus that it gives results about 20–40% lower than the actual Scoville method would have given.
[edit] List of Scoville ratings
[edit] Scoville ratings of chemicals
Scoville heat units / Examples16,000,000,000 / Resiniferatoxin
5,300,000,000 / Tinyatoxin
16,000,000 / Capsaicin
15,000,000 / Dihydrocapsaicin
9,200,000 / Nonivamide
9,100,000 / Nordihydrocapsaicin
8,600,000 / Homocapsaicin, homodihydrocapsaicin
160,000 / Shogaol
100,000 / Piperine
60,000 / Gingerol
16,000 / Capsiate
[edit] Scoville ratings of peppers
Scoville heat units / Examples1,500,000–2,000,000 / Most law enforcement grade pepper spray,[5][6][7]Trinidad Moruga Scorpion[8]
855,000–1,463,700 / Naga Viper pepper,[9]Infinity Chilli,[10]BhutJolokia chili pepper,[11][12]Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper,[13] Bedfordshire Super Naga[14]
350,000–580,000 / Red Savina habanero[15]
100,000–350,000 / Habanero chili,[16]Scotch bonnet pepper,[16]Datil pepper, Rocoto, Madame Jeanette, Peruvian White Habanero,[17] Jamaican hot pepper,[18] Guyana WiriWiri
50,000–100,000 / Byadgi chilli, Bird's eye chili (aka. Thai Chili Pepper),[19]Malagueta pepper,[19]Chiltepin pepper, Piripiri (African bird's eye), Pequin pepper[19]
30,000–50,000 / Guntur chilli, Cayenne pepper, Ají pepper,[16]Tabasco pepper, Cumari pepper (Capsicum Chinese), Katara (spicy)
10,000–23,000 / Serrano pepper, Peter pepper, Aleppo pepper
3,500–8,000 / Espelette pepper, Jalapeño pepper, Chipotle,[16][20]Guajillo pepper, New Mexican varieties of Anaheim pepper,[21]Hungarian wax pepper, Tabasco sauce
1,000–2,500 / Anaheim pepper, Poblano pepper, Rocotillo pepper, Peppadew
100–900 / Pimento, Peperoncini, Banana pepper
No significant heat / Bell pepper, Cubanelle, Ajidulce
The chillis with the highest rating on the Scoville scale exceed one million Scoville units, and include specimens of nagajolokia or bhutjolokia and its cultivars, the "Dorset naga" and the "Ghost chili", neither of which has official cultivar status.[22][23]
Numerical results for any specimen vary depending on its cultivation conditions and the uncertainty of the laboratory methods used to assess the capsaicinoid content. Pungency values for any pepper are variable, owing to expected variation within a species—easily by a factor of 10 or more—depending on seed lineage, climate (humidity is a big factor for the BhutJolokia; the Dorset Naga and the original Naga have quite different ratings), and even soil (this is especially true of habaneros). The inaccuracies described in the measurement methods above also contribute to the imprecision of these values. When interpreting Scoville ratings, this should be kept in mind.[4]
The Scoville scale may be extrapolated to express the pungency of substances that are even hotter than pure capsaicin. One such substance is resiniferatoxin, an alkaloid present in the sap of some species of euphorbia plants (spurges). Since it is 1000 times as hot as capsaicin, it would have a Scoville scale rating of 16 billion.[24]