A recipe tells you to add “a teaspoon of cayenne” and you freeze. Is that a pleasant warmth or a five-alarm mistake you can’t take back? It’s one of the most common stumbling blocks in a home kitchen. Cayenne is potent, it’s irreversible once it’s …
The title of “hottest pepper in the world” is something that’s challenged more often than you may expect. Every year hot pepper cultivators find new ways to hybridize chilies and utilize their environment (soil, water, sunlight) to create peppers that will compete for the top …
Gochujang is one of the cornerstone ingredients of Korean cooking, prized for its deep savory flavor and gentle, lingering heat. Sambal oelek, a traditional chili paste from Indonesia and Malaysia, has become widely popular outside Southeast Asia as a fresher, brighter, and spicier alternative to …
Bhut Jolokia, better known as the ghost pepper, sits in a rare category of chilies where heat management becomes just as important as cooking technique. Once difficult to find outside of specialty markets, ghost peppers are now increasingly available at grocery stores like Whole Foods …
Paprika is one of the most recognizable spices in the pantry, valued as much for its vivid red color as for its gentle, pepper-forward flavor. It appears everywhere, from classic deviled eggs and potato salads to stews, soups, rubs, and sauces. Yet despite its ubiquity, …
Have a bumper crop of jalapeños? Or do you just happen to have more than the norm in your kitchen? There are plenty of smart and flavorful ways to use these delicious medium heat chilies. What to do with a lot of jalapeños often comes …
In the realm of fiery peppers, the scotch bonnet and ghost pepper stand out not just for their heat, but for their unique flavors and histories. These are two very hot peppers, but how do they really differ in heat? Flavor? Availability? Let’s compare. Scotch …
There are some mighty big numbers on the Scoville scale. It ranges from zero to the millions. Each number is known as a Scoville heat unit, but what does that mean? What are Scoville heat units exactly, and why can some of the hottest hot peppers …
With that smoky heat, chipotle peppers bring a unique earthy flavor to dishes that use them. So how do you match that if you don’t have any chipotle chilies available in your kitchen. What’s a proper chipotle pepper substitute that will save the day, both in …
Sauces can wind up being too spicy for a number of reasons, including a cook underestimating the heat of chili peppers or one who mistakes one hot pepper for another. Whatever the reason, there are ways to get around excessively hot food without having to …