Chili con carne, chorizo, tabasco sauce, all have something in common: the spiciness. Everything you need to know about it and the most popular spicy dishes.

Not everyone can tolerate it, but some people love it: spiciness in food. But what is spiciness anyway? Like sugar or flour, spiciness in itself cannot be identified by a quantity or an ingredient. Rather, it is a sensory impression that occurs when certain additives in food irritate heat and pain receptors in our mouth, nose or even throat smoke. This irritation causes us to perceive a food as spicy and makes us feel warm, which can also be recognized by a slightly reddened cheek.  

One measures the spiciness of a food or rather the causers of the spiciness with a certain unit or on a certain scale: the Scoville scale.  

Probably the best known spicy is the chili. Belonging to the category of peppers, it causes, unlike the mild variants, the slight spiciness in the food due to the capsaicin present. Tabasco sauce, which is made from habanero peppers, is also correspondingly hot. 

In addition to the peppers, pepper is also considered a spicy dish, which is why some people prefer to do without the addition of this spice. If one remains with the spices and ingredients, then one finds beside pepper also the radish, mustard, garlic, the onion, ginger, in addition, the clove or allspice, which lend a light - perhaps sometimes also not so light - spiciness to the food.

Probably the most famous spicy dish is and remains the "chili con/sin carne". Here, meat and chili peppers (at least in the basic recipe) shake hands and play around each other in such a way that the slight burning sensation on the tongue and the heat remind us where the dish comes from: southern North America. Meanwhile, the dish also has a meat-free (sin) version.

If you look back to the European continent, you will find the slightly spicy Debrecziner as well as the Spanish Chorizo, both of which lead to a special taste experience due to a slight spiciness in the finish. While the Debrecziner is primarily found in soup or as a side dish to a potato salad, the Chorizo as a hard sausage is either simply snacked on or used as a topping for bread or pizza. A similarly spicy representative can also be found in Hungary: the Hungarian hell sausage.

Anyone who spends time in German cities will certainly have noticed one or two curry sausage stands. In addition to enjoying a simple, yet quite mild currywurst, you can also bring your own nerves a bit to glow. 

Many of these stands offer sauces with the most different Scoville here. Some of them even only to customers over 18, to be on the safe side. 

In addition to all the delicious dishes that can naturally be spiced up a bit with the addition of ginger, pepper or chili, there's also something in the sweet tooth corner that makes for a fiery hot experience: chili chocolate. 

A little fun fact: spiciness even has an aphrodisiac effect, so that you don't just feel warmer in the mouth and palate...

You should also read: "Use them directly in the dish or serve them as a dip: spicy sauces"