Ghost Pepper

A fruity chinense aroma under a heat that, in Paul Bosland’s account of the name, makes the eater give up the ghost.

Scoville heat units

1,001,304 to 1,041,427 SHU, per NMSU’s HPLC test gave 1,001,304 and a 2004 test by the Assam grower Frontal Agritech gave 1,041,427 (Fiery Foods, Zoschke); DeWitt’s heat scale rounds to 1 million. Log scale against the hottest chile in this guide.

The ghost pepper, or bhut jolokia, is a chile of northeastern India. In 2007 Guinness World Records recognized it as the hottest chile in the world after testing at New Mexico State University. In American chili it belongs to novelty pots, canned specialties, and heat challenges.

Dr. Paul Bosland, director of NMSU’s Chile Pepper Institute, collected its seeds in Assam in 2001 and grew the plants under insect-proof cages for three years to produce seed for field trials. He says the name bhut jolokia translates as ghost chile. A Fiery Foods report by Harald Zoschke, written with Bosland and Dave DeWitt, records other names from Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur, including naga morich and raja mirchi, king of chiles.

DNA work cited in that report places the chile in Capsicum chinense, the habanero’s species, with some Capsicum frutescens genes. The pods vary in shape even on one plant, often have three chambers and a bubbly, uneven skin, and ripen from dark green through orange to deep red. In India it is used in pickles and to heat meat dishes.

In NMSU’s replicated tests it measured about one million Scoville units, 1,001,304 by HPLC, nearly double the 577,000 of Red Savina, the previous record holder. A 2004 test by the Assam grower Frontal Agritech reported 1,041,427. DeWitt’s heat scale lists it at one million.

Ghost Pepper

Sources