Feeling hot, hot, hot

10 April 2012

There is a real vogue for chilli sauces at the moment and we are rapidly becoming aficionados. No longer will a dash of the brilliant Tabasco always suffice.

Happily, there is a whole world of hot chilli sauces waiting to be explored, and as well as livening up even the dullest dishes there are other benefits.

Capsaicin is the alkaloid that makes chillies burn the mouth and it is said to act on the endorphin centres of the brain in much the same way as opiates. In 1912 the Americans devised a way of measuring the heat of chillies and invented the "Scoville unit".

For example, the mild Anaheim chilli rates 1,000 units, the Habanero is 300 times hotter at 300,000 and the hottest chilli of them all - the Naga from Assam, which is now also cultivated in Dorset - delivers nearly 1,000,000 Scoville units.

For trickling over an oyster or adding a civilised punch to a bloody Mary it's hard to beat the old favourite Tabasco - it now comes in several varieties and strengths as well as the original red - the travel pack (three tiny bottles) is a sensible accessory and has revived many a ghastly airline meal.

As an alternative to sauce there is a growing trend towards chilli jellies or chilli jams and they do offer a very easy way to add a whisper of chilli heat to stews and sauces in much the same way as redcurrant jelly is used to enrich game dishes.

But which of the hot sauces is hottest? Debate rages between supporters of those that have an American heritage and those with a Caribbean one.

The Caribbean sauces tend to be made using the Scotch Bonnet chilli - this is the Habanero in all but name - and have a fruity heat to them. The special (and expensive) extra-hot American sauces are more likely to have seen the inside of a laboratory than a kitchen, they tend to be too hot for anything other than showing off in macho company, one drip being enough to inflame an entire stew.

The best tip on using hot sauce is to buy a medium sauce and use it carefully - it is easy enough to add a little more, but impossible to take any out.

Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, W1 (customer information 08708 377377). Tabasco Travel Pack (6 x 3.7 ml bottles) £3.65. Tabasco Smoked Red Jalapenos £2.95. Caribbean Calypso Island Hoppin' Sauce £3.95.

Ditto Deli, 2 Barmouth Road, SW18 (020 8871 2586). Jules & Sharpie's Extremely Hot Pepper Jelly 340g £4.95; Sogo Sweet Chilli Jam 200ml £4.95; Atkinson & Potts Green Birdseye Chilli Jam 120g £2.95.

Harvey Nicols Foodmarket, Sloane Street, SW1 (020 7235 5000). A great range including a sauce called Da Bomb - The Final Answer, delivering 1.5 million Scoville units! 55ml £24.95; Pain Is Good Jamaican Style Hot Sauce batch # 114 delivering 2,000-3,000 Scoville units. 190ml £5.50; Kick Yo Ass Hot Sauce 142ml £5.20.

Waitrose - most branches stock Nando's Hot Peri-Peri Sauce 125ml £1.45.

www.scorchio.co.uk An amusing website that caters for chilli addicts - one of the most virulent chilli sauces on offer is Dave's Insanity Sauce - 142g £4.99 - from Costa Rica. Also supplies of the world's hottest chilli - dried Naga Joloka chillies 25g £3.99.

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