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pungency
EntityQ1517948· pop 30· linked from 235 articles

Also known as hotness, spiciness, pungent, piquant, piquancy, spicy, pungent flavor, spicy flavor

thumb|300px|A display of hot peppers and the Scoville scale at a supermarket in [[Houston, Texas]]

Described at

Link to a page describing this subject · not written by Vinony

Wikidata facts

Subclass of
taste
Image
Habanero closeup edit2.jpg
Has use
seasoning
Show 5 more facts
measurement scale
Scoville scale
has effect
sweating
topic's main category
Category:Pungent flavors
has cause
capsaicin
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~5 min read

Encyclopedic overview

7 sections
Contents
  • Terminology
  • Uses
  • Mechanism
  • Favoring by humans
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

thumb|300px|A display of hot peppers and the Scoville scale at a supermarket in [[Houston, Texas]]

Pungency ( ), commonly referred to as spiciness, hotness or heat, is a sensation that contributes to the flavor of certain foods such as chili peppers. Highly pungent foods may be experienced as unpleasant. The term piquancy ( ) is sometimes applied to foods with a lower degree of pungency that are "agreeably stimulating to the palate". In addition to chili peppers, piquant ingredients include wasabi, horseradish and mustard. The primary substances responsible for pungency are capsaicin (in chilis), piperine (in peppercorns) and allyl isothiocyanate (in radishes, mustard and wasabi).

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “pungency” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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