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Q: My brother and I have been arguing over the heat of peppers. He insists that serranos have more heat than habaneros.

Please solve this argument for us so he'll finally admit he's wrong.

- Carl Inselman, McArthur, Calif.

A: There's actually a scale of measurement for the hotness of chiles. It's called the Scoville scale, and it measures the amount of capsaicin (the chemical that creates heat) in the average pepper.

A bell pepper, for example, has a Scoville rating of 0, while pepper spray (the weapon) clocks in at somewhere between 2 million and 5 million. So there's a range.

Because not every chile is exactly the same as the next, too, there's a pretty large variation - one jalapeño may be exponentially hotter than another.

The heat in chiles is found mostly in the stems, ribs and seeds. If you just want the flavour of a chile but want to mediate the hotness, the best thing to do would be to discard the seeds, trim away the ribs and rinse the chile.

And, of course, either wear gloves or wash your hands thoroughly when you're dealing with chiles; the oils they give off are brutal on the eyes and other sensitive parts.

So, to answer your question, you're right. While the serrano clocks in at a perfectly respectable 10,000-23,000 Scoville units, the habanero hovers between 100,000 and 350,000.

Congratulations - but try not to rub it in.

Q: At what temperatures does sugar syrup turn into one-string, two-string and three-string consistencies?

- Anjana Paryani, Somerset, N.J.

A: First of all: thank you! This has been the first question in years to stump us.

Basically, "string consistency" is a term you see mostly used in Indian cooking, mostly for desserts and pickles, and refers to the amount of water that's been boiled out of the syrup, and the resulting viscosity.

One-string consistency means that you can pinch (very carefully after dipping in ice water) a bit of the syrup between two fingers, and it'll form a single thread between your fingers when you pull them apart.

Two- and three-string are similar, with corresponding numbers of threads, and there are in-between stages: 1/2-string consistency means a thin thread that breaks immediately, and 2-1/2 string occupies a vague realm between two and three, though it's not entirely clear how.

If you (completely justifiably) don't feel like putting your fingers in jeopardy, you can also use a candy thermometre.

One-string generally clocks in somewhere between 230 and 240 degrees F; two-string between 240 and 245; and three-string between 245 and 250.

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