Malagueta

Crushed together into oil and left to sit. That is piri-piri and nothing else is.

Capsaicin dissolves in fat and not in water. The oil is the delivery, not the dressing.

Split the bird, paint it, grill it hard. Portugal and Mozambique both claim this.

Acid sharpens the burn and shortens it. Squeeze after the heat, never before.

Steeped in vinegar it keeps for months and the heat leaches out clean.

Sweet shellfish takes a burn this fast without losing its own flavour.

Dende carries the heat and stains everything orange. Bahia cooks with both at once.

Coconut fat catches the capsaicin and hands it back slower and rounder.

Farofa takes the sting off a plate the way bread takes it off a mouth.

Whole fish, slashed and rubbed. The heat sits on the skin where the char is.

Green aldehydes against a fruity burn. Angola does this and Portugal mostly does not.

Tropical acid over a chilli that is already fruity. Hot sauce that reads as jam.

Mexico proved chilli and cacao; nobody has run it with this one. Bitter meets sting.

Bromelain and capsaicin both work on the mouth. One softens it, one sets it alight.