Serious Heat: Taming the Chile Fire
Editor's note: On Thursdays, Andrea Lynn, associate editor of Chile Pepper magazine, drops by to drop some Serious Heat.
Photograph from TooFarNorth on Flickr
When the fiery power of a chile catches you by surprise, calming the scorching pain is a necessity. The key to extinguishing the fire is understanding the chile and its heat. Science experts David Joachim and Andrew Schloss explained this in a recent article we did in Chile Pepper. According to the duo, hot and sweet peppers are members of the same botanical family, Capsicum, but sweet peppers have a recessive gene that prevents them from producing capsaicin.
This spicy compound is produced by a chile pepper's placenta, the white internal membrane or "core" that holds the seeds. From there, capsaicin migrates into the seeds and along the inner walls of the pepper in lesser amounts. The outer, edible layer is the pericarp.
When consumed, capsaicin makes you feel warm, increases your metabolic rate, and stimulates blood flow and sweat. Curiously, only mammals are affected by capsaicin; birds are immune to it.
So what can you do to control the pain? At Chile Pepper, we're pretty much experts on this issue. While working on our March Hot Sauce issue, we tasted more than 350 hot sauces. Yesterday, we powered through 40 salsas--just another day in the office. Here's how we get through the scorch:
- Cooling dairy products like sour cream, yogurt, or milk draw the heat away from your tongue. The fats found in these products go a long way to soothe the pain. In 1989, John Riley, editor of the journal Solanaceae, found that a protein in milk called casein strips capsaicin from the nerves
- Eating bread or crackers absorbs the heat
- According to Joachim and Schloss, cold temperatures do a good job of relieving burn by chilling the nerve receptors. To douse the flames after a spicy bite, drink something cold like beer or milk again. (That's two points for milk!)
- One thing that surprisingly doesn't help as much? Water. Capsaicin is soluble in fat or alcohol but not in water. Water just spreads the capsaicin around your mouth, which can make things even worse
Take it from the experts. Don't forget to wash your hands after handling chiles or chile-infused products, otherwise you'll spread that burning sensation to other sensitive areas, such as your eyes. Ouch!
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12 Comments:
What a gorgeous photo.
dhorst at 3:48PM on 03/12/09
Did you try: chocolate (used to tame spiciness in some Mexican recipes) or the juice of a lime? Opposing strategies but largely effective in practice.
Rickk at 4:18PM on 03/12/09
That is a beautiful photo. And thanks for the PSA on washing hands after handling chiles, but why tiptoe around the issue? The term "sensitive areas" applies to a whole lot more than eyes. Ouch, indeed. :-P
toad3000 at 4:26PM on 03/12/09
All those colorful peppers look like a party. So gorgeous.
Another tip: NEVER EVER attempt to take your contacts out after working with chilies.
juliebugsmama at 4:37PM on 03/12/09
If you're going to be working with chiles a lot for a certain recipe, you may want to use a pair of rubber gloves. Sometimes washing your hands (even repeatedly) is not enough to purge your skin of the heat, I've touched my face and felt the heat hours after chopping chiles and washing my hands.
Buckethead at 4:49PM on 03/12/09
even washing your hands with soap and water will not remove the offending oil from your hands. Try rubbing your hands with veg oil and THEN washing your hands - takes it right off.
nowonder at 5:13PM on 03/12/09
The best way to tame the heat is to use sugar or something sugary, like a stick of gum. The best and fastest way to tame a rippin hot mouth.
ESNY1077 at 5:32PM on 03/12/09
I don't think i've ever seen or tried a purple chili before. Where do I find some of those?
Raiders757 at 6:57PM on 03/12/09
Those colors are glorious! Mother Nature might fool me into commiting arson on myself.
PerkyMac at 7:37PM on 03/12/09
Beautiful.
You could start a scientific serious eats section and discuss the various compositions and chemistries of veggies, meats, spices and yummy foods!
arathi at 10:30PM on 03/12/09
Gorgeous photo!
@juliebugs - you've done that, too, eh? I made the additional mistake of trying to put said lenses back in the next morning as well. Ended up wearing the glasses to work that day...
@nowonder - the oil trick is awesome. I always do that now. Ever since the contact lens incident.
trillian42 at 10:41PM on 03/12/09
@Rickk: I tested out your two suggestions. Swishing the lime juice around the mouth did help get rid of the heat. Chocolate really helped tame the fire too, but seemed a tad wasteful for the scrumptious chocolate! From my personal experience, dairy products work the quickest.
@Raiders757: Purple chiles are more on the rare side but are out there. Here's a run-down of chile varieties: www.g6csy.net/chile/var-f.html
Andrea Lynn at 10:21AM on 03/13/09