Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) Dilution Calculator
Calculate how much neutral base (vinegar, water, or sauce) to add to dilute a hot sauce or chilli extract to a target heat level.
Results
What is it?
The Scoville scale measures the heat of chilli peppers and hot sauces in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Capsaicin concentration reduces linearly with dilution, making it straightforward to calculate how much mild base to add to tame a fiery sauce.
How to use
Enter the original SHU of your hot sauce, your target SHU, and the volume you are starting with. The calculator tells you exactly how many mL of neutral base (vinegar, water, tomato sauce) to add to reach your desired heat level.
Example scenario
You have 10 mL of habanero hot sauce at 100,000 SHU and want a mild 1,000 SHU table sauce. Dilution factor = 100x. Add 990 mL of neutral base to get 1,000 mL of sauce at exactly 1,000 SHU.
Pro tip
Scoville dilution is multiplicative � halving the concentration halves the SHU. For blending two sauces, use: blendedSHU = (SHU_A � volume_A + SHU_B � volume_B) / total_volume. Pure capsaicin extract is ~16,000,000 SHU � handle with extreme care.