Vodka – How to Make Pepper-Flavored Vodka for Enhanced Cocktails

Granted, my peppers were farmed in California, not India, but they should be well within an order of magnitude of its variety's rating.

Actually, they shouldn't necessarily. All chiles, are very sensitive to the environment they are grown in. Even trivial changes in temperature, humidity, and soil pH can affect the heat of the chile. The Naga Jolokia in particular can be at least as low as 500,000 Scoville units. The hottest one has been recorded at over 1 million. Many American growers intentionally grow them much milder than those found in India; this makes them much easier to sell.

The Scoville scale is a measure of capsaicin concentration. In other words, quantity of capsaicin per fixed volume. Originally, it was measured by a panel of five tasters who tasted a dilute solution of capsaicin oil which had been extracted from a fixed quantity of dried chile. The degree of dilution at which the capsaicin is undetectable is the Scoville rating.

Modern methods use high performance liquid chromatography to precisely the pungency units of a chile, this is equivalently the parts per million of capsaicin. Multiplying the pungency rating by 15 gives you the equivalent Scoville rating.

What does all this mean? Well, since it's a measure of concentration it's important to realize that by eating one chile or 20 chiles the concentration doesn't change. However, with more chiles you are exposing your mouth to a greater quantity of capsaicin. If this is what you mean by "intensity" then sure, it's more intense with an increase in volume. Personally I think of intensity as concentration instead of volume.

Those paragraphs should answer your question overall, but I'll go through your list just the same:

1. The intensity is the Scoville rating. Again, intensity to me equates to concentration.
2. The capsaicin is most concentrated in the seeds, so chewing them will release a greater quantity of it.
3. Not that I am aware of.
4. Not sure what you mean by cooked down, but yes both volume and concentration affect the quantity of capsaicin.
5. A larger fruit of the same Scoville rating (concentration) will contain a larger amount of capsaicin.
6. Yes, the capsaicin concentration is seven times greater.
7. Yes that is a reasonable use.

One habanero per six quarts of chili, containing approximately one quart meat, provides a solid heat that an average palate can handle. I have cooked chili on numerous occasions for groups of people and found this formula works for most people. Typically I stack it with other, lower-Scoville peppers to produce a well-bodied heat.

Other things to bear in mind:

• one habanero per six quarts will not really showcase the subtler flavors of the habanero, only bring out its heat.
• capsaicin is fat soluble, more fats in the chili gives you more wiggle room to add more heat. Up the meat or oil (bacon fat), up the peppers
• browning your meat in the diced peppers will lock away some flavor in the meat as long as you don't stew it forever
• using the bulb's flesh, rather than up by the stem will lower the capsaicin in the pepper, discard seeds and pith as well; this will allow more pepper flavor without overwhelming spiciness
• some habanero peppers are weaker than others, you might seek out some that are less spicy if trying to add heat
• If all you're looking for is heat, a plurality of pepper types/cultivars will yield better heat; single pepper chili can be hotter, but have a thin kind of heat as opposed to a whole-bodied punch in the jaw kind of heat