If you thought Sriracha was hot, think again: these chilli peppers are so potent they’re exploding.

Well, not really. These images were actually captured by Adam Voorhes for a Men’s Health photo shoot — and they were made possible by placing firecrackers inside fresno chillies. Voorhes’ camera was rigged up with a sound trigger mic, so that when the firecracker exploded it started snapping the explosion.

The result is probably some of the most dramatic food photography we’ve ever seen. If you want to know more about the technical details of how the photographs were shot, Strobist has a great run down of what Voorhes did. [Adam Voorhes via Strobist via Peta Pixel]