Which spice do you add when you want more heat?

Inspice's Spice Curry spice sets contain no chilli - no togarashi, cayenne pepper or chilli, the usual main source of heat - because we want children, and anyone who is not good with heat, to be able to enjoy spice curry too. The style is that whoever is eating adjusts it to taste.

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So let me put together some notes on which spices to reach for when you want to bring the heat yourself.

Heat comes in many forms. That sharp sting of wasabi is one kind of heat. Black pepper can supply heat too, and the tingle of huajiao, Sichuan pepper, counts as heat as well. Where chilli gives a burning heat, sansho and huajiao are distinctive for a heat that leaves the tongue numb.

Still, when it comes to heat in a spice curry, it is chilli.

And what confuses matters here, I think, is that chilli goes by so many names.

“Chile”, “chile pepper”, “hot pepper”, “red pepper”, “cayenne pepper”, “ichimi togarashi” (Japanese ground red chilli), “takanotsume” (a small dried Japanese chilli), and on it goes.

These are in fact all the same chilli. The same pepper is called different things depending on how it is processed and how coarsely it is ground.

So if you want to add chilli heat, any of the above will do. As a general rule a coarser grind reads as hotter than a fully powdered one, so keep that in mind.

And if there are people at home who want a hot curry and people who do not, there is no need to cook two separate pots. Make one pot of the curry without heat, serve it, and anyone who wants heat can sprinkle chilli over their own plate 🌶

From here it gets a little nerdy.

Chilli contributes more than heat. Its aroma is an important element in setting the direction a spice curry's flavour takes. It is a hot spice, so I doubt anyone eats chilli on its own, but chilli contains fruity esters, grassy aldehydes and citrusy limonene.

So what about Inspice's Spice Curry spice sets, which contain none of this chilli, one of the important aromatic spices for spice curry?

We make up for that aroma with paprika powder.

One of paprika powder's other names is Hungarian pepper, and it is in fact a relative of the chilli: a chilli that is not hot.

The idea is that by using paprika powder in place of chilli, we draw out the chilli-derived aroma by crossing it with the other spices.

Let's leave it there for today.

If you have made a fiercely hot and delicious curry with Inspice's not-hot Spice Curry spice set, we would love you to share the recipe.

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When you order online, write “chilli please” in the notes field and we will include about 2 tsp of coarsely ground chilli. A small thank-you to anyone who read this to the end.