Chilling out!

I am relaxing in these summer days and reading a lot. Yesterday I read an article on a recent congress about chemistry in food. It is interesting how amazing is the contribute of chemistry and chemists to the safety but also the creativity of any food. Today I would like to talk about capsaicinoids, and particularly about capsaicin, the molecule that is the cause of burning sensation in chilli peppers. Of all the capsaicinoids, only two compounds are responsible for 80-90% content of pepper, these are capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin. Different concentrations of capsaicinoids give different pungencies and this therefore is the reason why some peppers are hotter than others. Capsaicinoids come from a larger family of chemicals called the vanilloids. The only difference between capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin is the presence of a carbon-carbon double bond. The amount of these capsaicinoids depends on the harvest time and the variety of peppers. Wilbur Scoville developed a tool of measuring pepper ‘hotness’. He found some ‘mad’ volunteers to taste chilli powders on their own. The powders were then diluted down using sugar and water until they no longer burned the taster’s mouths. The more sugar that had to be added, the hotter the pepper. For example bell peppers were measured to be about 100 Scoville units, whilst the hottest known pepper was 577,000. Pure capsaicin has a value of 16 million Sc.units. Capsaicin is soluble in fats and oils but not in water. Therefore milk, ice cream and peanut butter can calm the pepper whilst water will spread the flames!
In Italy it is used the well known "olio piccante", which is extra virgin olive oil in which it was infused crunched chilli pepper. To make it, observe these points:
1) Dry chilli peppers under the sun, by checking them often (it is better to do it during the summer when it is hot and they can be dried in a few days).
2) Crunch them in little pieces.
3) Put a cup at the bottom of a cleaned glass bottle.
4) Fill up with pure extra virgin olive oil.
5) Filter after 2 weeks.
Chill out now!!