Carolina reaper

A Capsicum chinense cultivar at roughly 1,600,000 Scoville. About 20 times a bird's eye chilli and about 600 times a supermarket salad chilli. Treat it as two ingredients. The placenta, which is the pale ridge that holds the seeds, carries about 80 percent of the capsaicin. The flesh carries the aroma: apricot, floral and slightly solvent-like, the signature of the species. Cut the placenta out and the flesh becomes usable as a flavour ingredient at about one fifth of the heat. Wear nitrile gloves. Work on baking paper you can discard. Capsaicin is fat-soluble, so soap will not remove it. Wipe the board, the knife and the pan with oil first, discard the paper, then wash. Never put it in a food processor and never fry it. Both put capsaicin into the air. The burn reaches its peak 10 to 20 minutes after the bite. Do not taste and correct.