I have been questioned a lot about pepper. Well there are over 50,000 different types of pepper worldwide and I’m not about to discuss all of them in this post. Just the most common. Pizza is but one way to make a dish with a spicy type of pepper in it. You toss a “mild” pepper into chili, pizza or a BBQ meat of some sort, only to end up chugging milk like it’s water. It’s not your fault—most folks think “jalapeño” means medium heat, but it can swing from barely warm to eye-watering. The real issue is guessing based on color or size. Truth is, heat hides in the placenta (that white veins inside), not the skin. So let’s cut through the chaff with something concrete: the Scoville Scale.

From alibaba.com, we get a good explanation of the Scoville Scale, or SCU units. For many years, different cultures worldwide have been adding peppers to their food for spiciness ranging from mild and sweet to intensely hot for centuries. The SCU scale measures that spiciness. (I’ll For instance, Bell peppers have an SCU of 0 as do Banana peppers. Poblano 1000, Jalapeño 2500, Serrano 11,000, Cayenne 40,000, Cayenne 40,000, Thai 75 ,000, Habanero 100,000, Red Scotch Bonnet 150,000, Jamaican Red 150,000, Scotch Bonnet 200,000, Caribbean Red 445,000, Trinadad Scorpion 1,000,000 and Naga Morich and Naga Jolokia 1,000,000, Ghost pepper 855,000 – 1,041,427 and the Carolina Reaper 1,400,000-2,200,000+. The heat comes from the compound called Capsaicin, which is found mainly in the white veins inside the pepper, not the skins. (To see more information on the peppers listed, use the hot link.) (Bell peppers, which my wife can’t eat and I love Stuffed Peppers, to Jalapeno are about as high in SCU that I can handle.)

So let’s look at some varieties of pepper. The hottest pepper known is the Pepper X 2,693,000, (2) Carolina Reaper 2,200,000 – 200x as hot as a jalapeño, (3) Trinidad Moruga Scorpion 2,009,231, (4) Pot Douglah 1,853,936, (5) Pot Primo 1,469,000, (6) Trinidad Scorpion “Butch T” 1,463,700, (7) Naga Viper 1,349,000, (8) Ghost Pepper (Bhut Jolokia) 1,041,427, (9) Pot Barrackpore ~1,000,000 and (10) Red Savina Habanero 500,000. (pepperhead.com 2026 data)

Now you have the peppers, so what can I cook them with? Here are some ideas. Tellicherry (black), a premium pepper with meats, sauces and everyday use. Malabar (black – classic Indian and less pungent that Tellicherry) with Indian curries, etc. Madagascar (black) excellent all-purpose with balanced sharpness. Sarawak (black) great table pepper or for lighter dishes. Lampong (black) with a stronger bite and good for robust dishes and grilling. Muntok (white) good for cream sauces, poultry and seafood. Sarawak White (white) complements delicate flavors. Green Pepper (green and not a bell pepper) often used in a brine and in sauces and light meats.

So there you are. Tread lightly when using these peppers. I gave you some ideas for using them in your cuisine. That is by no means all of the uses.