Food - Drink
The Mild Ingredients To Look For If You're New At Buying Hot Sauce
By ERIN SHAW
If you're new to purchasing hot sauce, starting with milder peppers is the way to go. Options like jalapeño, serrano, or even a cayenne pepper-based hot sauce are great gateways.
Peppers are deemed mild, medium, or hot based on how much capsaicin they have in them, and they are also rated by the Scoville scale, which measures units of heat.
When in doubt, you can look up how spicy a pepper is before you consume it or anything made from it.
For comparison, mild options like Anaheim chiles and Poblano peppers rate between 1,000 and 2,000 on the Scoville scale. Hot peppers like habaneros rate about 80,000 to 600,000.
Jalapeños, serranos, and cayenne peppers are in the middle range, which makes them common ingredients in hot sauces, but not so hot that they'll blast your face off.
Jalapeños rate between 2,500 to 8,000, while serranos rate between 6,000-23,000. Cayenne peppers rate between 100,000-125,000 on the Scoville scale.
To the uninitiated palate, hot sauces made from hotter peppers like habanero or scotch bonnet can feel like you're eating fire.
However, the more you gradually expose your taste buds to spice and heat, the more you'll be able to take. The key is to start slowly.
If you want to try a hot sauce from a hotter pepper, start with smaller amounts. If you want to put tasty hot sauce on your tacos but can't take the heat, begin with milder sauces.