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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)

How to seed a chile pepper

Most of the heat in a chile pepper -- whether jalapeño, serrano, habanero, or another -- comes from the white ribs and seeds. Removing both reduces the chile's heat and allows more of the pepper's flavor to come through. First, cut the pepper in half lengthwise. If you want the halves to stay intact for larger slices or a large dice, just trim out the seeds and ribs, cut out the stem, and slice the pepper as thick or thin as you like. Otherwise, it's easier to get the seeds and ribs out if you cut each half in half again. To get the seeds and ribs out, hold each quarter by the end. With the knife parallel to the cutting board, slice across the ribs and seeds. When you get to the top of the pepper, turn the knife downward toward the cutting board and chop off the stem with the same motion. (Here, we used a Granton Santoku knife; you may prefer a smaller paring knife.) 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)

How to mince garlic

When you want a dish to have quintessential garlic flavor that permeates each bite, mince it. You can mince with a knife, or a garlic press. Either way, you need to free the individual cloves. To do that, press down on the head with the heel of your palm. Apply firm, even pressure so the cloves don't fly all over the place. To peel an individual clove, cut of the hard stem end where the clove attached to the bulb. Either stop the cut just short of the skin on the other side and peel the skin around to remove it, or make the cut all the way through and squeeze out the clove. The older the clove, the easier the skin releases. You can also peel it by setting the side of your knife blade on the clove and pressing down until you feel the skin release, though not hard enough to pulverize it, or the skin will get mixed in with the garlic. To mince with a knife, smash the peeled clove with the side of the knife. Then just run your knife back and forth across the smashed clove, chopping as you go until it's as fine as you like. If you don't want individual little pieces of garlic and have a press, just put the whole peeled clove (or cloves, if you can fit them) in the press and squeeze. Use your knife to trim away any clinging garlic.

How to mince a shallot

The flavor of a shallot falls somewhere between red onion and garlic, often without the pungency of either. The shallot's subtle flavor works in soups, stews, sauces, and pretty much anywhere else you'd use an onion or garlic. To dice a shallot, first cut it in half through the root. Next, cut the papery end (not the root end) off and discard it. This will make the skin easier to peel away. Make a series of vertical cuts through the shallot, without cutting all the way through to the end. Then just rotate the shallot 90 degrees, and slice across the vertical cuts to make a dice.

Cookthink PSA: Buy tongs!

Tongs are the most useful tool in the kitchen. Having a good pair of tongs is like having a heatproof robotic arm in the kitchen. Consider a partial list of things you can do with a pair of tongs: stir something in a sizzling pan; flip something in a sizzling pan; move something around in a sizzling pan; spear something in a sizzling pan; push something in a sizzling pan to check for doneness; hold something above a sizzling pan to taste it; take something out of a sizzling pan. And that's just around a sizzling pan. Standing around a grill or reaching inside an oven, tongs are critical. You can spend a small fortune on specialty tongs, but you don't have to. OXO's Good Grips stainless steel tongs are inexpensive and probably as special as you’ll ever need. So here's our public service announcement - buy tongs now.

What's the point of bringing meat to room temperature before cooking?

When you're cooking meat that's been stored in the refrigerator, remember to bring it to room temperature (usually about 30 minutes) before subjecting it to the heat of the oven, stove or grill. If you stick a cold dense piece of meat in a hot pan or oven, you risk drying out the exterior of the meat before you've given the inside a chance to cook through. If you want your meat to cook evenly, do yourself a favor and let it come to room temperature first. If for some reason you can't, then as a last resort, reduce the heat to allow it to cook more slowly without drying out.

How to mince ginger

When you want the flavor of ginger to permeate a a sauté , stir-fry, sauce or braise, mince it. For the most ginger flavor, mince it finely and add it toward the end of cooking. Cooking ginger longer mellows its flavor. We usually start with what we call a "thumb" -- a piece of ginger roughly the size and shape of your thumb. To make the thumb easier to peel, start by cutting off any small protruding parts. You can peel and mince these separately. We like to peel ginger with a spoon. Because a spoon is dull, it easily takes off the soft skin and leaves most of the aromatic flesh behind. Slice the peeled thumb lengthwise into planks, thick or thin depending on how fine you want your mince to be. After you slice away one or two planks, roll the thumb over on the flat side for more stability. Stack the planks and slice them lengthwise into matchsticks. Now just gather the matchsticks together, rotate them 90 degrees, and slice them crosswise to complete the mince. For a finer mince, just run your knife across the pile a few times, chopping as you go.

Help! I ate a hot pepper!

What should you do if you eat a pepper that sets your tongue on fire? Do not drink beer. Water won’t help either. (In a Caribbean folktale, children drown in a river trying to cool their tongues after eating habanero stew. See Dave Dewitt and Nancy Gerlach's The Pepper Pantry for the full story.) Capsaicin, the chemical that makes a hot pepper hot, doesn’t dissolve in water, so even ice water won’t help remove the heat. Your best bet? Get milk. Because capsaicin is fat-soluble, a compound in milk can actually pull the capsaicin off your tongue and relieve some of the burn. Another option: eat bread or rice to absorb the heat. Cucumber can also have a cooling effect. If you are feeling brave (or masochistic), you could try eating another pepper. According Robert Berkley, the author of Peppers: A Cookbook, you can build up a resistance to capsaicin by eating more chile peppers. With Berkley’s approach, you get the added high of a capsaicin-triggered endorphin release. Before you know it, you might be addicted to the hot little things. Reference: How to seed a chile pepper (Cookthink) Reference:: Why are some jalapenos hotter than others? (Cookthink)