Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
Fun facts about the chilli
We can all agree that Mexican food just isn’t quite the same without chilli. In fact, your mouth is watering just from the thought of chili right now, isn’t it? Now you want a burrito for lunch, don’t you? That’s the power of the humble chili and its flavour sensations.
But did you know that this iconic heated flavour hit was one of the most interesting plants of all? Let’s see how many of the fun facts about chilis you know below… and keep these in mind for trivia night! You never know when your knowledge of the jalapeño will make you the hero of your table.
1) Birds are immune to the heat of chili
It’s true! Birds will never enjoy the rich spice of a Mexican dish, because capsicum – the thing that makes chilis hot – only affects mammals. Birds, slugs, and other animals are completely immune. From a survival perspective this makes sense – birds are what spread the seeds that allow chili plants to grow, so it’s pretty important that birds want to eat the fruit and a burning sensation would be a deterrent – but if you ask, not being able to enjoy the full depth of flavour in a burrito is brutal. We would hate to be a bird!
2) Peppers are actually one of the first domesticated plants
People were farming chili peppers over 6,000 years ago in Peru and Mexico. This is one ancient cuisine staple we are talking about here.
3) The hotness scale is no joke
Everyone who knows anything about chili knows the Scoville scale. Many people would probably know that at 2,200,000 SHU, the Carolina Reaper pepper is the champion of that particular scale. For comparison, the jalapeño – which is more than spicy enough for most people – clocks in at 10,000 SHU at most, and the habanero, which hits the tolerance limits of most people, is “only” 350,000. The Carolina Reaper is no joke.
Neither is the Scoville scale itself. Invented by a pharmacist named Wilbur Scoville, it’s actually a highly precise and accurate way of measuring heat levels, and so you can actually tell if a pepper that you’ve never eaten before is going to be too hot for you based on your comfort with the peppers that you already know.
4) There’s a Russian roulette pepper
It’s not used in Mexican cuisine, but this is a fun fact we couldn’t help throwing in there. The Japanese shishito is a fascinating pepper where, for the most part, there is no spice in them. They’re effectively as hot as a bell pepper (that is to say, a Scoville score of 0). But then one in ten of them is not. One on ten of them will hit you like a spicy jalapeño, and this always makes for a fun party game.
5) Chipotle and jalapeño are the same thing
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between these two iconic Mexican ingredients, the answer is this: nothing. Well, they do taste different, because chipotle is manufactured by humans, but the underlying ingredient – the pepper itself – is actually the same. A chipotle is just a smoke-dried jalapeño.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
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