How To Find The Hottest Hot Sauce

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If you love hot sauce, you may be interested in learning how to find the hottest hot sauce on the market today. Picking a sauce with massive heat is partly about knowing a little science and partly about knowing what you like as far as taste.

There are a few different ways that peppers used in hot sauce are tested to find out how intense they are. All peppers in hot sauce on the market today are tested based on two different measurement systems. The first is the Scoville scale and the second is high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). They both can test which is the hottest hot sauce but you may be surprised to find that these two tests can come up with some significantly different results.

All types of hot sauce, from the mildest varieties to the hottest hot sauce get their heat from the same source: capsaicin. This is a chemical found in all hot peppers and is present in varying amounts. In its purest form, pure capsaicin comes in at between 15,000,000 and 16,000,000 on the Scoville scale. You will see that even the hottest hot sauce is rated far below this.

In concentrations far beyond those found ...
... in the hottest hot sauce, capsaicin is used in law enforcement grade pepper spray. In fact, pure capsaicin is so hot and has the potential to do so much damage that scientists must take special safety precautions when working with it.

When purchasing hot sauce, you may have a better chance of picking the heat level you want if you read the ingredient list. At the bottom of the heat scale is hot sauce which contains Anaheim, Poblano, Rocatillow and Pepperadew peppers. These have a very mild heat and can be quite tasty for hot sauce novices. This pepper tends to be rated at 500 to 2,500 on the Scoville scale.

Moving up the scale of heat we come to hot sauce containing Jalapeno and Guajillo peppers. These may be used as additional flavor sources in the hottest hot sauce and can also produce a nice heat on their own for people who are looking for milder hot sauce to use on their food. These peppers tend to come in around 2,500 to 8,000 on the Scoville scale.

Serrano peppers (with a Scoville rating of 10,000-23,000) are next in terms of heat. Of the peppers most commonly used in hot sauce, Habanero and Scotch Bonnet peppers come next and can be found ranging from 100,000 to 350,000 on the Scoville scale. These used to be the peppers found in the hottest hot sauce until the ghost pepper was discovered.

The Bhut Jolokia pepper (also known as the Naga Jolokia or ghost pepper) is considered to be the definitive ingredient in the hottest hot sauce on the market today. These peppers, found in India and known for their scorching heat, rate a staggering 855,000 to 1,050,000 on the Scoville scale. This makes them the hottest peppers since they have a heat only slightly less than that of pepper spray!

True hot sauce connoisseurs will tell you that the Bhut Jolokia pepper truly is an essential component in the hottest hot sauce available today.

Author Bio.

If you want to find a great selection of Hot Sauce, check out Insane Chicken. They carry a variety of sauces from mild and flavorful to the Hottest Hot Sauce featuring ghost peppers and other hot peppers.