Sweet and Spicy: Peanut Butter Fudge and Chile Peppers

A couple of culinary firsts for me this weekend.

First, I learned how to make Peanut Butter Fudge. Remarkably easy - took about 8 minutes. Here's the recipe if you'd like a tasty treat (Thanks Food Network )

1 cup butter, plus more for greasing pan
1 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound powdered sugar

Microwave butter and peanut butter for 2 minutes on high. Stir and microwave on high for 2 more minutes. Add vanilla and powdered sugar to peanut butter mixture and stir to combine with a wooden spoon. Pour into a buttered 8 by 8-inch pan lined with waxed paper. Place a second piece of waxed paper on the surface of the fudge and refrigerate until cool. Cut into 1-inch pieces and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Very tasty and super simple.

So once I had my fill of sugar, I moved on to some spicy goodness. Iron Chef America was going through a challenge where the "secret ingredient" was chile peppers. They had a ridiculous number of varieties they were working with. How many could there be? Apparently enough for someone to work up an entire chile pepper database. Rather extensive. Pictures, descriptions and the like. Good stuff. But the descriptions are fairly general where the heat factor was described. So I went to an old favorite for reference:

The Scoville Index:


The Scoville Index is a: "scale developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, to measure the heat level in chillies. It was first a subjective taste test, but since, it has been refined by the use of HPLC, the unit is named in honour of its inventor.

The test officially measures the pungency level of a given pepper. There are other methods, but the Scoville Scale remains the most widely used and respected. The greater the number of Scoville units, the hotter the pepper. Of course, being a natural product, the heat can vary from pepper to pepper, so this scale is just a guide. "

Here's a Wiki reference for what these numbers look like:


Scoville rating: Type of pepper

15,000,000–16,000,000: Pure capsaicin
9,100,000: Nordihydrocapsaicin
2,000,000–5,300,000: Standard U.S. Grade pepper spray
855,000–1,041,427: Naga Jolokia
350,000–577,000: Red Savina Habanero
100,000–350,000: Habanero chili, Scotch Bonnet
100,000–200,000: Rocoto, Jamaican Hot Pepper, African Birdseye
50,000–100,000: Thai Pepper, Malagueta Pepper, Chiltepin Pepper, Pequin Pepper
30,000–50,000: Cayenne Pepper, Ají pepper, Tabasco pepper
10,000–23,000: Serrano Pepper
5,000–10,000: Wax Pepper
4,500–5,000: New Mexican varieties of Anaheim pepper
2,500–8,000: Jalapeño Pepper
1,500–2,500: Rocotillo Pepper, Sriracha
1,000–1,500: Poblano Pepper
500–2,500: Anaheim pepper
100–500: Pimento, Pepperoncini
0: No heat, Bell pepper

So the next time somebody tells you it's spicy, ask what the Scoville rating is. If they're really on top of your game they can either give you a rating or a pepper that is comparable.