What is the Scoville scale and what is it used with? (7 photos)
“I wish there was some hotter pepper here. It would be great food." This is what spice lovers say when they are served a dish that doesn’t contain enough of them. It turns out that the notorious “spicier” has a whole scale that allows you to accurately set the spiciness of the seasoning. 
Humanity owes its appearance to the clever Wilbur Scoville (1865-1942), an American chemist. The Bridgeport native is a shining example of how a man came to be in his place. Wilbur was an exemplary family man and an outstanding pharmaceutical researcher. He has two serious books to his credit - “The Art of Mixing, a textbook for students and a reference book for pharmacists in the compounding department,” which was used to train pharmacists until the 1960s, and “Extracts and Perfumes.” 
Wilbur Lincoln Scoville
The scientist did not determine the degree of pungency on himself experimentally, otherwise he would have been left without the ability to feel pungency at all. In 1912, Scoville introduced a test to the public to determine the level of spiciness and heat of capsicums. To do this, Wilbur measured the level of capsaicin, an alkaloid found in various types of capsicums. For example, the fruits of vegetable pepper contain about 0.03. Whereas Pepper X, the hottest pepper to date, contains as many as 3,180,000 units! 
Of course, this became clear later, since the Scoville scale, which is already more than a century old, is quite outdated. Nowadays, another algorithm is used to determine pungency and pungency - chromatography. This is a physical and chemical method of separating a mixture of substances by distributing them between two immiscible phases, which was created by botanist-physiologist Mikhail Semenovich Tsvet. But they decided to name the principle itself, the test and the scale in honor of Scoville, since it was he who became the pioneer in this area. 
By the way, about the little-known properties of capsaicin. Novice lovers of spicy dishes, who have not calculated the dose of seasoning or sauce, strive to douse the flame that is blazing in their mouth with the first one that comes to hand. Usually this is water. And that's wrong. Because the substance does not dissolve in water at all. Only in alcohol. Therefore, a glass of mineral water or tea will only worsen the situation, as it will help the spread of capsaicin into the upper respiratory tract. It is better to put out the fire blazing in your mouth with milk, ice cream or beer. 
What is your limit of savory and spicy on the Scoville heat scale?
