Hot Sauces

The Sapling has taken to applying Tobasco to his morning eggs at school.  However, he now thinks he needs more bang, especially on those mornings when he needs to sing right after breakfast!  (Perhaps we should make up some of this "Sinus-Aid Hot Sauce.") To start, it's worth reading the Wikipedia bacgrounder on the Scoville scale, which measures the "heat" of hot pepper sauces.  The top of the line is 16 million Scoville units (pure capsaicin), while Tobasco peppers (not the sauce) run 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units.  Today's Chemist describes how Scoville units are measured with chromatography. 

One resource that looks good is the Hot Sauce Blog, which includes a photo of a bottle of the ultimate (apparently) Blair's B-99, which is decorated with exquisite squiggles of wax on the top of the bottle.  If you want to make your own hot sauce, here is a kit - they even have different types of pepper mashes!  For those with less energy, try out Mo Hotta Mo Betta a compendium of hot food items, with some very nice "baskets" of sauces so you can try out more than one.  Should I send The Sapling The Pain in the Ass Sampler or the Hot Stuff Valentine Day collection?  Or maybe Dave's Mini Bottles so he can carry his sauce surreptiously and not worry about refrigeration?  Or, is he brave enough for the Hottest Sauces on Earth sampler?  Stay tuned.