Food glossary
What is Habanero chillies?
Habanero chillies — Habanero chillies are hot, hot, hot! There's an official heat scale for chillies known as the Scoville scale, developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912. To give you an idea of the range of heat in an habanero: a sweet pepper scores 0 on the scale, jalapeño and chipotle chillies score anything between 2,500 to 10,000 and habaneros score 80,000 to 300,000-plus! Try using them whole so that the flavour…
Habanero chillies are hot, hot, hot! There's an official heat scale for chillies known as the Scoville scale, developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912.
To give you an idea of the range of heat in an habanero: a sweet pepper scores 0 on the scale, jalapeño and chipotle chillies score anything between 2,500 to 10,000 and habaneros score 80,000 to 300,000-plus! Try using them whole so that the flavour infuses dishes such as fish stews, casseroles, jerk sauces and Caribbean curries.
They're also good for making chutneys and chilli sauces. They're very similar to Scotch bonnets and Jamaican hot chillies (both of which score upwards of 80,000). It's very important to avoid contact with the eyes or any sensitive skin - even washing the hands after preparing chillies may not be enough to remove all the capsaicin, the volatile oil in the fruit that gives it its hot taste.