Researching exactly what peppers were used in my - This Is Unquestionably The World Greatest Chili - made annually for the Super Bowl - came across an interesting piece on - How To Stop The Heat -
For the naive - peppers contain Capsaicin (measured in Scoville Units) which stimulates the pain receptors in your mouth - Red Bell Pepper or Sweet Paprika has essentially -0- Scoville Units - Jalapeno - 5,000 Scoville Units - Tabasco - 5,000 to 15,000 Scoville Units - Habanero - which I use (gingerly) in my chili - 325,000 to 570,000 Scoville Units -
Bring on - perfectly acceptable - Sour Cream - works well - but here's the footnote - just as the diet obsessed drink diet soda with a 5" high corned beef sandwich at the Carnegie Deli because - "regular" soda is fattening - so-to-do Manhattan hostesses insist on serving low fat sour cream - cosmetically enlivening the chili bowl - while defeating the raison d'etre for sour cream being part of the chili ritual to begin with -
By the by - in a first - one guest augmented her chili with selections from my hot sauce collection - a-bit-too-much - to the point that sour cream "neutralization" was useless - we gave her a fresh serving -
Comments