Thanks to everyone for the kind words and encouragement!
@Bradley, I figure that I can make fairly rough assessments of Scoville ratings - after all I do have nearly 30 years of experience with hot peppers under my belt (I turn 35 on Thursday - I started with peppers at a young age), ranging from sweet bell peppers to ghost chilies - and I've always been very good about learning the scoville ratings of peppers that I've eaten to improve my basis for judgment. I doubt I'd be accurate to actual scientifically tested ratings, but I'd be in the ballpark.
@Cherrybomb - Oh, the tasting is the best part. I'll detail that here in just a moment. As for learning from the wonderful folks here, I've learned a lot that I'm applying this season, and a whole lot more that I'll be applying next season - for instance, next season, I'll be borrowing Kat's grow light/box plans, and starting everything from seed in January - so that, come April/May, when it's warm enough to put everything outside, I'll have nearly mature plants.
Taste test results from the last batch:
I tasted while I was making my first hot sauce last weekend. It's going to be a five pepper hot sauce (because that's how many varieties I'm using).
First up were the Thai Hots, since I had tried them previously. Yup, same nice kick. I'm really loving these little guys, even though they're not what I expected at first.
Next was the cayenne. That big boy got cut into six pieces, and I sampled the one that was about a third of the way down the pepper from the stem - the hottest part. Immediate WOW! Such a nice burn - I think I've been doing a great job at distressing my peppers this year, because every one I've tried has been hotter than any fresh peppers I've tried before. That cayenne was definitely on the hotter side of the scale for cayennes - probably pretty close to the 50,000 Scoville top limit. It took me two breadsticks and a beer to cleanse the palate after that one. Nice heat. I'm proud.
Next was the Serrano - one I probably should have done before the cayenne, as it doesn't tend to be as hot, but oh well. That's why I had breadsticks and beer. I cut the Serrano into four pieces, and sampled the second piece from the stem. Oooh! Very sweet and kind of citrusy... no real heat at first. I was almost about to get disappointed, but then the heat blossomed, starting at the top of my throat, and quickly consuming my entire mouth. It had a wonderful burn to it, sitting right around the warmer side of the 15,000-25,000 Scoville range for Serranos.
After another cleansing of the palate, came the Orange Habanero - one of the most beautiful peppers I've ever seen - my first habanero was literally a perfect pepper (and I have a bunch more growing, and looking just as perfect! *squee*). It was big for a habanero (at least compared to the store-bought versions I've had in the past), at nearly a inch wide and almost two inches long. In my experience, large habaneros tend to be more mild. I cut it into 8 pieces, to make it small enough for the blender to liquefy nicely. The piece I sampled was about 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch, and contained a good amount of seeds and white ribbing. I popped it in my mouth, chewed it up, and was greeted with a delicious citrus/pineapple flavor, but no heat. Habaneros, in my past experience, almost always announced their heat right up front. Not this one. I was starting to ge....... oh wait... holy crap... that's warm... that's really *hic* warm... oh *hic* WOW! *tears* HOT! *profuse sweating* That was the hottest orange habanero I've ever eaten. They're only supposed to top out around 350,000 Scoville, but I honestly think that one was tickling the 400,000 Scoville range. It took over an hour (without any help - I was really enjoying the burn) for it to cool down on its own.
Everything pictured in my last post (except the cherry tomatoes and the rutgers tomatoes ended up in the blender, along with an assortment of other ingredients and got liquefied. The current result is a very mild hot sauce with a VERY good flavor that's just waiting for the next 2-3 harvests of peppers to give it the heat it wants. If the recipe turns out to be a good one (I'll know in late September/early October when it's ready) I'll post it here.
Anyway... moving on, my next pepper harvest was today! Here's the take:
1.5 Orange Habaneros (the half is because of the small one - he's only about 1/2 inch in diameter)
1 Chili Red (the one pepper I neglected to mention in my last post)
11 Thai Hots
Every plant I have is producing like crazy. It seems all they needed was to "learn" how to grow peppers with their first one, and then, once the first was ripe, they exploded with tons more. We're expecting a beautiful, sunny day tomorrow, so I think I'll finally be able to get some good photos of the plants as they are currently. They're so much further along than they were in my last big picture post.
