Chicken Curry and Beyond - The CurryFocus Blog

Just how hot are chillies and is there a way of telling which chillies are hot without destroying your tastebuds?

The short answer is that chilli heat has been measured and there is a scale that you can use as a guide – the Scoville Scale.

The more detailed answer follows.

Wilbur Scoville developed his scale of chilli heat in 1912. He worked for a company that made an ointment for aching joints in which there was an important ingredient called capsaicin. Capsaicin is the compound in chillies that causes the heat. The company kept getting different heat levels in the ointment when different chillies were used and needed to know how to control this heat.Â

Wilbur Scoville developed a test where an exact weight of chilli extract was diluted with a sugary water solution until a testing panel could not taste any heat at all. The amount of dilution required translates into a scale. The inherent weakness in this scale is that the taste test relied on people so the result was subjective and slightly inaccurate. But the scale was the first serious attempt at measuring chilli heat and it survives, and is used, to this day.

There is a wide range of heat produced by different chillies. The mildest is the Bell Pepper that has a rating of zero. One of the hottest is the Habanero that has a rating of 300,000 plus. The popular Jalepeno is between 2,500 and 8,000.Â

The following Scoville Scale table has been extracted from Wikipedia.

Although the scale was a bit inaccurate, it was the only one around until 1980 when a high-pressure liquid chromatography test (the “Gillett Method”) was introduced. This test is far more reliable. But the Scoville Scale is so widely used that the chromatography test results are multiplied by a factor of 15 to convert back to an approximate Scoville Scale rating. Viva Scoville!!

If you have a curry recipe that needs a fresh chilli as one of the ingredients, you can usually buy these in a local Indian food store or a good supermarket. If you’re not familiar with the type of chilli that you buy then be careful how much you use – make your first curry with half a chilli so that you can judge its strength and heat level, and use more next time if you want a hotter meal.

This recipe caught my eye because it is one of the most popular Curries in Andhra, you can try the recipe yourself - Kodi Kura Curry.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Andhra..

Andhra Pradesh is the fourth largest state in India by area and fifth largest by population. It is the largest and most populous state in Southern India. It is also considered the rice bowl of India. The state is crossed by two major rivers, the Godavari and Krishna.

I had a few issues with ingredients on this so had to improvise, I could not find any masala powder so went with garam masala powder. Also struggled to find any curry leaves so went with curry powder instead. Other than that pretty much followed the simple steps through and ended up with a dish that although nice and spicy was lacking a bit in flavour - also the chicken came out a bit dry.

As the diners phrased it - All heat with not enough flavour!

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Yummy Curry Rating from the diners:Â 5 out of 10
Hotness Rating: Medium HotÂ

This week we decided to try the delicious sounding Hot Lamb Curry. The dish looked reasonable easy to prepare which was an added bonus. Aside from the ingredients listed I also added a little extra chili powder and a touch of ground cumin and a touch of turmeric.

This dish was delicious, beyond expectation. Another popular recipe to save for visitors and very easy to cook!

Yummy Curry Rating from the diners: 8.5 out of 10
Hotness Rating: Medium