How to Test the Heat of Your Chiles

Published on Thursday, April 14, 2011, by CHOW Video Team / Edit Post

Margo True, food editor for Sunset magazine, points out that the spice of a chile cannot be predicted. She shows us a way to test a chile's heat from the safety of your own kitchen. Many tongues have been saved using this tip.

CHOW Tips are the shared wisdom of our community. If you’ve figured out some piece of food, drink, or cooking wisdom that you’d like to share on video (and you can be in San Francisco), email Meredith Arthur and tell us what you’ve got in mind.

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POST A COMMENT |7 Comments

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  • this just isn't so. in fact, it's a pointless method of a useless application. and, as oldunc noted, you can tell gauge far better with smell. But really, adjusting as you go is the only reliable way...

  • Oh, phongleland, here I was just gazing at random stuff before hitting the sack and you make me howl with laughter. Now I am of course not at all sleepy. Dagnab you! And thanks.

  • How about a Chow Tip explaining how to test the saltiness of your salt?

  • Learn to live with the law of averages - one out of ten chiles is bound to be noticably hotter. You've already bought the chile - are you going to throw it away?
    After you become familiar with the taste differences, substitution is possible. I substitute serranos for jalapenos frequently due to the recent dominance of the larger, milder, blander TAM jalapeno in produce sections. Too bad the same...+READ

    Learn to live with the law of averages - one out of ten chiles is bound to be noticably hotter. You've already bought the chile - are you going to throw it away?
    After you become familiar with the taste differences, substitution is possible. I substitute serranos for jalapenos frequently due to the recent dominance of the larger, milder, blander TAM jalapeno in produce sections. Too bad the same thing seems to happening to serranos - milder and much larger than 10+ years ago.-COLLAPSE

  • So the way to test how spicy a chilli is is to taste it? Would never have guessed.

  • Or you could rub it in your eye. No duh.

  • You can actually tell quite a bit from the smell of a cut chile.