Learn English – Word to differentiate the spiciness of chilli pepper and mustard

single-word-requests

We use the word hot or spicy to describe the kind of sensation you'd experience with chilli pepper. A burning of the mouth and throat.

But is there a separate word for the kind of sensation you'd experience with mustard or horseradish? The fizzy nasal feeling you get when eating things like this.

E.g. Chilli is hot, mustard is _____, and ginger is both hot and _____.

Best Answer

The distinctive flavor of horseradish, mustard, or ginger is primarily an olfactory sensation:

What Does Horseradish Taste Like? The horseradish root possesses a potent flavor, commonly described as hot, spicy and peppery. Unlike hot peppers that burn the tongue, the intense spice of the horseradish is experienced through the nose and sinuses. — Christina Kalinowski, “What Does Horseradish Taste Like?” eHow.

Pungent is the most common descriptive, sometimes sharp, with the entire sensation called bite.

The distinctive pungent taste of horseradish is from the compound allyl isothiocyanate. — Wikipedia

Half spicy and peppery, half lemony, slightly sweet but pungent: that's how you might describe the flavor of ginger. — “Ginger: Kitchen Basics,” Harvest to Table, 12 April 2007.

There is no flavor in the world quite like that of ginger. It is hot, zesty and biting yet sweet and warm. Ginger is quite pungent and spicy with a very slight woody flavor that lends a certain mildness to its overall flavor profile. This particular ingredient is as aromatic as it is flavorful. — Spiceography

Spicy, warm and sharp are all words that have been used to describe ginger's taste. — T8N Magazine

The pungency can be attributed to the presence of gingerols; one of the main culprits here is the compound 6-gingerol. This particularly chemical is not too distant from capsaicin, the compound that gives chillies their spiciness, and piperine, found in black pepper. … Cooking produces zingerone, which is less pungent, and is characteristic of the ginger flavour found in gingerbread. It’s less pungent than the gingerols, leading to a differing flavour to fresh ginger. Another class of compounds that can be produced by cooking or drying are the shogaols, which are approximately twice as pungent as the gingerols which proceed them. This helps explain why dried ginger has a greater pungency than fresh ginger. — “The Chemistry of Ginger – Flavour, Pungency & Medicinal Potential,” CompoundChem.com, 27 Nov. 2014.

What is ground ginger?
Taste: Pungent
Most Popular Use: Baked goods, spice rubs, meat

Ground ginger, sometimes labeled powdered ginger, is made by simply drying out peeled fresh ginger root, then grinding it to a fine powder. It is pale yellow in color and should have a pungent, spicy smell to indicate freshness. Ground ginger has a warm, spicy bite, is a little bit sweet, and is not as strongly flavored as fresh ginger. — Kelli Foster, “Inside the Spice Cabinet: Ground Ginger,” TheKitchn.com.

The magic of mustard's pungency and heat comes from enzymes that convert into mustard oil once the seed is broken. The nasal-clearing burn produced is a natural defense against insects, but when mixed with a liquid, this reaction can be stabilized to varying degrees, resulting in a condiment that can add the right bite to complete hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches, and so much more. — Joshua Bousel, “Mustard Manual: Your Guide to Mustard Varieties,” Serious Eats

The word mustard has its heat hidden within: it derives from Latin mustum ardens, ‘burning must’ the latter being the juice of grapes before fermentation or in its initial stages (cf. Ger Most, same meaning). The ground seeds were added to make a condiment.

Horseradish, however, doesn’t have a horse because it has a “kick,” but because horse was appended to popular plant names to indicate ‘strong, large, coarse’, as in the horsemint.

Related Topic