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Forget the chillies on their own: what is the fiercest concentrate, or conncoction that you know?
I ask because I have a friend who's on a chilli kick - in seek of the ultimate hot experience. He laughs in the face of bird's eye's. The hottest Thai curry is but a bit of spice on the tongue. A proper Indian P(h)all curry is a pleasurable experience, and he has beaten the challenge of every restaurant he's been to in London, across every cuisine, and is still seeking more.
Someone in our local London pub hints, but merely hints, that there are 'other things out there' that we in the UK do not have the stomach for - stuff that requires you to sign a release form before it is sold...
Does such stuff exist? Regardless, what's your hottest?
Syzygy
Nobody would actually want to eat straight capsaicin, however, unless you wanted to do yourself permanent damage. Distilled, pure capsaicin is somewhere on the order of 16,000,000 SHU, which is far more than any food on the market -- natural or otherwise. However, it is nearly tasteless and has no real odor, so it can add a real kick to any dish without messing with the complications of hot sauce.
For those of you who might want to distill some capsaicin yourselves, it is possible (though somewhat difficult) by following these steps:
1) Chop up hot peppers, probably Habanero.
2) Capsaicin dissolves in alcohol, so soak your pepper chunks in some highly alcoholic liquid (it doesn't have to be expensive). Remove the pepper chunks after they've had a soak.
3) Put a tuna can in the bottom of a saucepan, with a small heat-resistant bowl on top of it. Surround the base of the can with your capsaicin-permeated liquid.
4) Heat the liquid up high enough for the alcohol to evaporate, yet not for the water to come to a boil (151 degrees Fahrenheit, from what I understand).
5) Cover your saucepan with an upside down lid, or a tent of tinfoil such that any condensation of the inside of the lid drips down to the center, and falls into the small bowl.
6) Take the small bowl out after most of the alcohol has burned off in the large saucepan, and allow it to evaporate naturally.
You should be left with a small amount of powder that is very high in capsaicin concentration. You should probably also get yourself a job, because if you followed these steps, you have way too much time on your hands.
Hope this helps.
So I send some to my brother inlaw in Long Island that he can harvest the seeds and try his own plants. He gets the package in the mail & extracts the seeds one afternoon. Late to pick up the wife in Manhatan, he visits the john (aka Loo) and jumps in the car. A few miles along the Long Island Expressway, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, he starts to feel a little discomfort between the legs. By the time he gets to Manhatan he's on fire. He goes into the office building & locks himself in the mens room to bath and flush the affected area. It's about 45 minutes before he can drive home. He still doesn't think this is funny, while for some reason, I still do!