Fear Itself

One of my stockings this Christmas yielded a fiery little bottle of Iguana Gold hot sauce that Sophie picked out for me at a great store here in Ottawa called Chilly Chile's. I've been adding the liquid fire to soups and casseroles already, and it has a fantastic taste. According to the website, the heat factor is only a 4 /10, but the flavour definitely makes up for the mild kick, and at least Soph can partake as well.

I got to wondering if there was a standard for rating these sauces, as it seems completely relative. I mean...the name just doesn't cut it anymore - they've used everything..."Ass in Space", "Colon Cleaner Sauce", "Fear Itself", and my favorite "No Shit - This is Hot". Turns out there is this thing called the Scoville rating, which basically measure how much of a sugar solution is needed to add to a dish to remove the heat. It was developed in 1912, and is apparently much more scientific now, but the basic unit of measure still holds.

So then I get to wondering who holds the record for hottest sauce in the world. I noticed in the Ottawa store that some of the products had legal waivers to sign, and that you had to be at least 21 years of age. Then I found this site...some guy named Blair has been racking up the Scoville units into the 16 million range (Tabasco comes in at a measly 2000 units!). His latest invention isn't really a sauce, but a vial filled with pure capsaicun crystal. Wild.