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If heat equals strength and this is the World's Strongest Man Contest, the habanero chile can lift an 18-wheeler. The serrano can lift a VW van. The jalapeño can lift a Vespa, which is still pretty powerful compared to the pepperoncini lifting a Big Wheel way down at the bottom of the Scoville scale. But there is much more to a chile pepper than its brawn. Different varieties have different flavors, colors and shapes and play different roles in cooking. Here’s a breakdown of three popular varieties. The habanero: Lantern-shaped and bright yellow or orange, the habanero is the hottest chile that is readily available in U.S. groceries. You can seed habaneros to lower the heat, but when working with them, wear gloves and keep your hands away from your face. Wash anything that touches the chile's seeds or juices. The habanero's floral, tangy flavor works well as the focal point of a dip. The serrano: Looks like a slender jalapeño. As it ages, it turns from green to red to yellow. Rich and potentially blistering (though sometimes fairly mild), serranos show up most often in salsas, marinades, sauces and chilis. Its size and shape make the serrano difficult to core and seed, so the best way to temper it is by using less of it. The jalapeño: A workhorse pepper that is easy to find in most grocery stores. It's easy to work with, too. If you have a moderate tolerance for heat, you should be able to handle a jalapeño without removing the seeds and ribs. (If you're less tolerant of heat, try taking out the seeds and ribs.) Jalapeños are dark green (red when extra ripe) and have a sweet flavor that is similar to a bell pepper with a kick. Reference: Help! I ate a hot pepper! (Cookthink) Reference: How to seed a chile pepper (Cookthink) Reference:: Why are some jalapenos hotter than others? (Cookthink)

What is the difference between stock and broth?

The two terms are often used interchangeably but retain an aura of cloudiness like the unskimmed foam on a simmering pot of stock or broth. Stock is the strained liquid that you get once you've cooked various meat, poultry, fish or seafood, vegetables, herbs and seasonings in water. Brown stock is made by browning bones and vegetables first in oil before adding water and/or wine to the pot. Stock is the basis for many a soup, stew and features in many sauces, often reduced. White sauce is made from white stock made with chicken, veal or other poultry; brown sauces incorporate brown stock made from veal, beef or poultry meat and bones. A court-bouillon is also a stock. Vegetable stock is made with vegetables which may or may not have been first sautéed in oil or butter. Broth is also the strained liquid that's left after you've cooked meat, poultry, fish or seafood, vegetables, herbs or seasonings in water. Broth is also called bouillon. Nevertheless, cubes of instant stock that is reconstituted with water as a cooking shortcut are called bouillon cubes. The liquid in a pot-au-feu is also called bouillon.

What is adobo sauce?

Adobo sauce is a spicy, dark red Mexican sauce made from ground chiles, herbs, garlic, tomatoes and vinegar. It is also used as a marinade. Chipotle chiles (dried, smoked jalapeño peppers) are often stewed and packed in adobo sauce.

What is a chipotle?

A chipotle chile is a fully ripened, dried and smoked Mexican jalapeño (as seen on the right). The peppers naturally turn red at the end of the season, so the peppers that were not picked fresh for market get smoke dried into chipotles. The sweet-hot flavor that results from the long, slow smoking process is unique and lends an exotic tang to recipes. Chipotles are most commonly available ground or canned, usually in adobo sauce, a marinade made from chiles, tomatoes and garlic (as seen on the left). The peppers lend a smoky-sweet flavor to sauces, marinades and salsas. In Mexico, pickled chipotle are eaten as appetizers. Chipotles have caught on in recent years in the U.S. and are now used widely in Mexican-American and Tex-Mex cuisine.

What makes cheddar cheese sharp?

Cheddar cheese is branded as sharp or extra-sharp when it is aged and its flavors become more concentrated and biting. Generally, the older the cheese, the sharper it will be, as enzyme-producing bacteria break down the protein and fat of the cheese and give it what we metaphorically call a sharp flavor. The taste difference between mild and sharp cheddar is startling, but it's not an exact science and depends as much on the way a cheese is produced as how long it has been aged.

How to slice an onion

Onion slices are versatile. In quick-cooking dishes, they stay distinct enough from the other ingredients that they don't permeate every bite as diced onions would. In longer-cooking dishes, they have enough surface area to turn soft and brown, but their natural shape and length keeps them intact. To make contoured half-round slices, first cut the onion in half through the root. Next, slice away the both ends of each half and pull away the onion's skin. Since the ends hold the slices together, cutting them off frees the slices to fall into individual pieces. Starting on one side of the onion with the knife at an angle, make slices as thick or thin as you like. Rotate the knife around the contour of the onion, bring it closer to perpendicular to the cutting board as you go.

Tomato paste vs. tomato purée vs. tomato sauce

Do you sometimes get these confused? Tomato paste is made from tomatoes that have been cooked for a few hours, strained and reduced into a rich, sweet paste. Tomato paste is most commonly used in pizza sauce. A dollop of tomato paste adds a dark, savory flavor to soups and stews. Tomato purée consists of tomatoes that have been cooked briefly and strained to produce a thick, tangy liquid. Tomato purée is used in soups, stews and sauces to add the tomato flavoring without the texture. We use it as the flavor base in certain recipes, this Indian chicken stew, for example. Tomato sauce refers to any sauce made out of tomatoes. That includes the ubiquitous Italian tomato sauce with all its variations, as well as Indian and Thai curries that have a tomato base. Tomato sauce can be canned, jarred or fresh. Time-willing, we prefer to make our own. Try this lasagna with homemade Italian tomato sauce.

Marjoram vs. oregano

Marjoram is oregano's calmer, sweeter fraternal twin. Oregano = zesty + peppery + lemony. Marjoram = delicate + floral + round. The two are often used interchangeably but if you get up in their mix you'll see some big differences. Want to test the difference? Get a fresh sprig of marjoram and a fresh sprig of oregano. Tear an oregano leaf in half. Hold it up to your nose. Smell that piney resin? That jolt? It's sharp, isn't it? Almost one note. Okay, wait a few minutes, then do the same thing with the marjoram. Smell the complexity? The spice is still there but it's perfumed, heady. Almost soapy. (If you use too much of it, that soapiness can take over a soup or sauce.) So, can you use one in place of the other? Sure. If you use oregano when a recipe calls for marjoram (or vice versa), the flavors of the dish won't be wildly different. Still, we like to honor and explore the subtle character differences between the two. Try some of our marjoram recipes or oregano recipes on Cookthink.

What is a tomatillo?

A tomatillo is a fruit that belongs to the same poetically titled "nightshade" family as the tomato. Also called a "Mexican green tomato," it does look like a small green tomato with a papery husk in place of skin. But it has a tart flavor all its own. A key ingredient in Mexican and Latin American dishes such as guacamole and salsa verde, the tomatillo's flavor is deepened by cooking. While tomatillos can also be purchased canned, fresh, ripe tomatillos will keep in the refrigerator for about two weeks (or can be frozen). Tomatillos turn yellow as they continue to ripen, but should be used while still green in order to take advantage of their tart flavor.

What is the Scoville scale?

The Scoville scale measures the hotness of a pepper. A "Scoville Unit" is actually a measure of capsaicin, the chemical that makes a hot pepper hot. Most capsaicin is found in the ribs and seeds of a pepper, which is why seeding a pepper makes it's heat less potent. You might have noticed a Scoville rating on your bottle of hot sauce. Original Tabasco has a rating of 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units. The hottest readily available peppers, Scotch Bonnet and habaneros, share a rating of 100,000–350,000. India's Bhut Jolokia pepper is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the hottest known pepper. It measures 1,000,000 heat units. (Pepper spray weapons hit 5,300,000 units.) The rating of a bell pepper? Zero -- no heat from this pepper. Reference: Habanero vs. serrano vs. jalapeño Reference: How to dice a jalapeño Reference: Help! I ate a hot pepper! (image courtey of wikipedia)