BBQ Too Hot to Handle – In Praise of the Carolina Reaper Chili Pepper
For some people, chili is simply a spice to be used in moderation in a small range of dishes. For others, it can become something much more important: once people get the taste for this fiery fruit, it can turn into almost an addiction, with ever stronger peppers being sought to add to all manner of recipes, says Jeff from Barbeque Smoked. The height of this quest for heat is the Carolina Rea per variety of chili plant, whose colorful and somewhat foreboding-looking fruits are by far the most potent in the world.
Chili peppers’ heat is measured using the Scoville scale. As a guide, a jalapeno pepper- not often considered a particular lightweight – tums in a fairly meager score of 3,500 Scoville units. Moving up the rankings, the Scotch bonnet cranks the tally up to a dramatic 350,000 units while lending its heat and distinctive citrus flavor to many a Caribbean dish. The Carolina Reaper however takes things to an entirely different level, breaking the scales at around 2.2 million units, making it truly a pepper to be reckoned with.
Where Did it Come From?
The Reaper variety was developed in South Carolina by Ed Smokin’ Currie of the PuckerButt Pepper Company. It is a hybrid of the ghost pepper (or bhut jolokia) and the red habanero, and combines exceptional heat with a deep fruity taste.
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