The heat ladder: one Sichuan dinner, every heat

The gentle pot: fragrance in the base, heat in the bowl

Many everyday Sichuan dishes already work this way. Chengdu wonton shops serve the same wontons two ways: clear-soup wontons, 清汤抄手 (qīngtāng chāoshǒu), in plain broth, and red-oil wontons, 红油抄手 (hóngyóu chāoshǒu), dressed with chili oil, sweetened soy sauce, ground huajiao and garlic. The filling and the wrappers don’t change. The dressing does, and it is built in the bowl.

Dan dan noodles are layered the same way: sauce at the bottom of the bowl, then noodles and greens, then pork on top, with the diner mixing it all at the table. The Mala Market’s recipe divides the sauce among individual bowls, so each bowl can sit at its own heat.

So the pot carries what everyone shares: stock, ginger, scallion, garlic, soy sauce, sesame. The chili stays out of it. For dishes whose heat is a finish, the heat lives in the bowl.

The zero-prep tray

Four things go on the table, and none of them needs making tonight.

The ordering words, and the 麻 pips

The ladder uses the words people already say at a Sichuan counter or hot pot table. China’s national broadcaster and The Paper both describe 微辣, 中辣 and 特辣 as the everyday heat levels, and both note that there is no shared standard behind them. A restaurant’s 微辣 in Chongqing can be hotter than another city’s 特辣. On the ladder, each word means a measured amount in one bowl, nothing more.

The tingle is a separate dial. 麻 (má) comes from Sichuan pepper, not chili. It is a buzzing numbness: a 2013 University College London study found that the pepper’s active compound sets off the touch-sensing nerves in the lips that respond to vibration. 麻辣 (málà), “numbing and hot”, is Sichuan pepper and chili together. So each bowl gets a heat word and a number of 麻 pips, from 不麻 (bù má, no tingle) up to 特麻 (tè má, full tingle). A bowl can be 不辣 with two pips, or 特辣 with none.

The house ladder, bowl by bowl

Amounts are for one bowl. Spoon from the jar into the bowl, not the other way round, and taste a mouthful before moving up a stop.

• Taste your jar first. Jars differ in heat and salt. A quarter teaspoon on plain rice tells you more than the label.
• Chili crisp seasons as it goes. Crisps are usually salted, so season the pot for the 不辣 bowl and let the jar add the rest.
• Some jars bring their own 麻. If yours lists Sichuan pepper, go easier on the ground huajiao in that bowl.

Set the whole table: choose a heat and a tingle for each person and get a tray plan. The Heat Card puts this ladder on one page; download the Heat Card free, no email needed.

Floors: which dishes can be finished at the table

Every dish is one of two kinds. Finishable dishes take their heat from red oil, huajiao or knife-edge chili added at the end, so the pot can stay at 不辣. Base-bound dishes build their heat into the base at the start, with fried dried chilies, chili bean paste or pickled chilies. That heat can’t be taken back out at the table, so the recipe prints the lowest stop it can honestly reach: its floor.

For dishes whose heat is a finish, the heat lives in the bowl. When it’s cooked into the base, we print the floor.

待试 Draft floors: these become final when each dish has been cooked and logged. See the kitchen log.

Can mapo tofu be made not spicy?

Not all the way. Mapo tofu starts by frying doubanjiang, the Pixian chili bean paste, in oil until the oil turns red, and chili is one of the paste’s main ingredients. Its heat is in the sauce before the tofu goes in. Restaurants run into the same wall: when a dish’s seasoning is mixed in advance, asking for 不辣 usually removes only the extra chili on top.

You can lower the floor, at a cost:

• Use less doubanjiang. Omnivore’s Cookbook cuts 3 tablespoons to 2 for a less salty, less spicy mapo. The sauce also loses savour and colour, because the paste carries both.
• Leave the extra chili out of the pot. Many recipes add chili powder or chili oil on top of the paste. RecipeTin Eats notes that the dish’s red oil comes from chilli powder. Leave those for the tray instead.
• Blend in a non-spicy bean paste. Just One Cookbook mixes non-spicy and spicy doubanjiang to keep the heat gentle, in a Japanese-style mapo that also adds miso. It tastes less like Sichuan mapo.

Each step moves the dish further from mapo tofu, and none reaches zero while there is chili bean paste in the base. That is why the house floor is 微辣. For a 不辣 bowl tonight, cook tomato and egg alongside: it has no chili in the pot, and it sits happily next to mapo on the same table. More on doubanjiang and its heat.

Taste the paste first

Base-bound dishes lean on salty jars, and jars are not equally salty. A 2020 study of eight Pixian doubanjiang brands bought in Pidu measured salt from about 14% to about 20% by weight. So before any paste goes in the pot, taste a dab from the spoon, start with two-thirds of the recipe’s amount, hold back the soy sauce, and add the rest only after tasting. Why two-thirds.

The upgrade path: homemade red oil and knife-edge chili

The tray works with the jar you already own. Two homemade additions can take its place on nights you want them:

• Homemade red oil, 红油. Hot oil poured over Sichuan chili flakes, often in two or three pours at falling temperatures: the hottest for fragrance, the cooler ones for colour. Which oil to use, and how to pour it safely.
• Knife-edge chili, 刀口辣椒 (dāokǒu làjiāo). Dried chilies and Sichuan pepper toasted slowly in a little oil until crisp, cooled, then chopped with a knife, which is where the name comes from. It brings both heat and 麻 in one spoonful.

One table, every bowl

The point of the ladder is a single dinner that everyone at the table eats, with each bowl finished the way its eater likes it. Set the whole table, or print the Heat Card for the fridge door.

Heat is a table preference. Questions about a child and spicy food belong with your pediatrician.