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When I was a child, I didn't like spicy food. The nearest I can figure is I had wimpy taste buds. At about fifteen or so, I had some hot ribs, and I realized that the flavor was wonderful.
Now, being young and dumb, like a lot of fifteen years olds are, I thought that eating spicy food would make me more 'masculine'. All I can say to that, is it hasn't worked yet.
So now, in my fifties, I love the taste of jalapenos. Absolutely love them. The thing is, I like my food with a bit of kick. Generally, I use reaper chilies or ghost chilies for the kick, and jalapenos for the taste.
A few weeks ago, I was making some nachos (since I'm a diabetic, I make them with pork rinds instead of corn tortilla chips) and I accidently sprinkled the dry ghost chilies in the same manner I would something with less of a kick. Like salt, or pepper, or ketchup.
I realized after I put the ghost chilies down what I had done. Being so frugal a person that I could teach Ebenezer Scrooge a thing or two, I didn't want to waste my pork rinds, cheese, and salsa, so I decided I would eat it anyway.
I have often heard that your entire life flashes before your eyes when you die. That is not so. I didn't see anything about my birth or the first year and a half of my life, which is really too bad. I wanted to see Riverside California back then.
After I was revived, I vowed never to use that many ghost chilies on my food. There is one problem, however. Some of my pain receptors do not seem to have made it along with the rest of me. To have a kick in my food, I find I need a substantial amount more of hot stuff than I used to use. Not sprinkled liberally, but definitely not conservatively.
Interestingly, I need to use jalapenos more liberally than I used to, because I don't like the taste of ghost chilies. Only the kick. I want the jalapeno chilies to drown out the taste of the ghost, which makes my food hotter and hotter when I don't get it right the first time. Sigh Gotta get some more reapers. They taste much better.
Comments
Can we get the advertisement
Can we get the advertisement changed here? Somehow, "Hot Peppers" appearing above an ad fore breast forms just doesn't seem right.
Hugs!
Rosemary
Hot Hot Hot
I always enjoyed growing (and eating) Thai peppers or Tabasco peppers. Hotter than Jalapenos, but not like Ghost peppers. Great flavor.
Tabasco peppers
I love those little peppers when pickled! It's the only 'pickled' food I like.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
I love tobasco peppers too.
I love tobasco peppers too. Great flavor as well as a bit of heat.
Hugs!
Rosemary
Medicinal capsaicin
Lately I've been using sriracha sauce on my breakfast to clear up my recurring morning sinus headaches.
Good old Rooster Sauce
I've been addicted to the stuff since around 1980 when there was only the brand available and you had to go to an Asian market to find it. It's sweet, hot, and garlicky, and has just the right level of heat to where (for my 67 year old stomach anyway) you don't have to worry about hurting yourself if you pour it all over something like ketchup. I actually get more of a dyspeptic reaction from plain old rice for some weird reason + never eat anything rice based after 3 pm or it might try to come up. 8-10 years ago I discovered Trader Joe's amazing house brand sriracha. It has more of garlic kick than Huy Fong, which makes it better for things where garlic is preferred, but for not everything i use sriracha on.
The humble jalapeno is a great little chile with a wonderful flavor too, but I don't mess with ghost peppers. If I want more heat I've good habanero sauce where the little thermometer on the label has red all the way to the top of it, and that's hot enough for me (a very subjective way of measuring heat- Taco Bell brand salsa has a thermometer too but I think theirs is busted) . It's not a contest and seeing food preferences as a vice or a virtue ("I drink my coffee black because I'm a REALIST who faces life head on!") or a measure of one's "manliness" (like those guys snorting wasabi on Youtube) is just plain silly.
~hugs, Veronica
And remember...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifLqzLEB3E0
Taco Bell has a good flavor
Taco Bell has a good flavor in their fire sauce, but their diablo, I believe has ghost chili in it to kick up the heat. It tastes like it has ghost chili, which have kind of an iron flavor. Probably from the blood of those who didn't make it through eating one. LOL.
No, I don't believe it's a good measure of one's manliness. I can handle a lot hotter than most people, and I don't think I would be a good comparison in that department.
Hugs!
Rosemary
Measuring "manlyness" with hot peppers
This had to be close to 15-20 years ago. Back then on 4th of July we always had a huge cookout at our house. For me it would begin the day before, placing brisket, whole turkeys, chickens, and anything else I could think of in the smoker to begin the slow cooking. Then the next day the gas grill got hot dog, hamburger and keeping any side dishes warm, while the barrel grill got a load of wood burned down to coals to cook the steaks on (Yes I'm one of those snobs that won't cook a steak on a gas grill)
Usually had anywhere from 30-60 people show up for the big yearly cookout. This one day son had invited his high school friend. And as boys and many men will do when faced with a table full of various hot salsas and sauces, the two decided to to see who could handle the hottest.
So the two got me to point out and describe the various salsas and sauces and what they were made of and how i rated them. They started at the stuff I called mild and began working their way up in heat, using one chip per try. Both were feeling the heat at the end, and something got said about which one I liked best. My son responded that I never bring mine out until later when I can keep an eye on it because it was pretty hot.
My son talked me into letting him bring it out from where it was sitting in the fridge and the two sat with the bowl in front of them daring each other to try it, when my 6 year old daughter came running by and noticed "My salsa" on the table, looked at the two boys and said, "Oh you brought out the good stuff!" grabbed a chip, dipped it and ran off eating the chip.
My son did try to warn his friend, even after his friend was ribbing him about letting his baby sister eat hotter stuff than he would, but his manlyness would not allow a 6 year old little girl to out do him.
My son got a great video of his friend running around like his hair was on fire and dousing himself with the garden hose drinking water, then letting it run over his head and face trying to cool off.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Very funny!
Very funny!
Hugs!
Rosemary
Thanks for tip on Trader Joe's Sriracha, I bet I will enjoy!
Thanks! :)
Capsaicin antagonist
Capsaicin is the pain messenger molecule in the body, it's what makes peppers taste hot. The pain receptors detect capsaicin by means of a binding molecule called the capsaicin antagonist or capsaicin receptor. The stores of this antagonist can be depleted by repeated use of capsaicin on your food. Then you need more pepper to get the same reaction. The pleasurable effect appears to be a release of endorphins in the brain when it stops hurting. :)
The way to stop the escalation of needing ever more peppers is to take a pepper holiday. No extreme peppers for a period of days to restore the body's store of capsaicin antagonist. The longer you go without, the more pepper-effect you will get when you return.
This numbing effect is used in the treatment of pain caused by peripheral nerve atrophy. Capsaicin binds to the receptors better than natural compounds released by your body (capsaicinoids), and so depletes the body's ability to sense the phantom pain caused by damaged nerves.
I researched this stuff when my Dad was suffering from peripheral nerve dysfunction due to poor circulation. I know I have simplified how it works but the outline is usefully correct.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Hmmmm.... Interesting, but
Hmmmm.... Interesting, but like coffee, I don't think I could go without long enough to do any good. As an old truck driver, I have to drink coffee. When the blood level in my coffee stream gets too high, I get irritable.
Similarly, when the capsaicin level in my nerves gets too low, I get... well... nervous.
Hugs!
Rosemary
I enjoy spicy food, but there are limits
When I make chile I use Ortega or Anaheim chilies for flavor and I throw in some Habanero for the heat. They are a bit hotter than Jalapeno but still have decent amount of flavor vs heat. If I'm cooking for competition I add some red Thai Chilies. Since I like to eat a lot of chile and my wife thinks ground black pepper (like most people have in their pepper shaker) is the hottest pepper that should be allowed in a kitchen, I don't get to fix chile often.
So that means I don't have a particularly high tolerance for spices. So I can only stand to eat only samples of my competition chile. So when cooking for competition, I separate the chile into two batches part way through the process.
The separation comes just before the addition of the hot chilies. At the start of the process, while the meat is cooking (I use boiled, shredded meat and reserve the broth for cooking the beans) I gut the the Ortega or Anaheim and Habanero chilies and grind the seeds, and then mince the Thai chilies really fine and add them to the ground seeds. This mixture I place in a small microwave dish and add some water and microwave it down to a paste. I suspect this would be good for pealing paint. Then after I've got my chili about ready, I separate what I'm going to eat at home and add the paste to the competition batch I let both simmer for several hours. I then let them rest over night. Chile is always better the next day.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Dang! Do you sell online? I
Dang! Do you sell online? I want some of that competition chile! Sounds wonderful!
My wife is allergic to peppers of any kind (even black) so when I cook anything with even a touch of spice, I make sure she isn't in the house. Even fumes can make her sick. If she's around, I shake dried chilis onto my food for the kick. I make chile, but not very often. Let's just say, it has bad effect on the air quality inside the house and leave it there.
Generally, I make salsa, however. Something that goes well with many different types of food. I don't think the folks at Pace would like me very much however. "This stuff's made in Spokane, Washington?" "Getta rope!"
I'm okay right now, however. I've been quickly dwindling down a gallon of Pace in my fridge.
Hugs!
Rosemary
Local brand made in Comanche Iowa
There is a local brand of Salsa made in Comanche, IA called "Kramer's" They make it in 'Mild', 'Hot', 'XXX' and 'EXTREME' Great flavor with heat and unlike most brands labeled "HOT" you find in the store, theirs truly is.
I love their HOT, have tried the XXX (but found it a bit extreme for everyday use) and hesitant on buying the EXTREME.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Spiciness
I don't normally contribute to blogs not involving TG fiction in some way, but this is special to me.
Ages ago when I stabbed pipe and threw the break-out tongs, I shared a house in the nearby town with other workers including a Mexican who loved to cook. But he loved food hot. I thought I was as strong as him so I ate it down and it became a thing for him to make me the meal I could not eat. If that is not macho bullshit, I don't know what is.
I developed a skill in tolerating hot food which has proved useful, and I have anecdotes I could tell (I tend to do that as some may know).
But I have learned to love hot food, and to find the flavor and balance the heat.
Jalapenos have their own flavor, and habanero too (I love Marie Sharps from Belize - remember that tabasco has less than 20% pepper content) but ghost pepper just has heat - but curiously, in my experience, not out the rear end. There are many more chilies from the Americas (try scotch bonnet) and just remember that is where some of the other chilies widely used in Asia come from. I have heard that the ghost pepper chili came back from India as the Indian curry became progressively more spicy. Thai chilies are bred from stock from the Americas.
Basic "pepper" from Asia is different and if you have not tried szechuan pepper you should, because of its special tongue numbing heat, like raw fugu fish but not as deadly.
Sriracha is a fermented sauce based on birds eye chili - as I understand it. I still think that the best stuff is the original Thai Rooster brand.
Other hot sauce experiences to consider - a good harissa from the middle east, and any one of the hot sambals from Indonesia or Malaysia.
Happy hot times
Maryanne
My wife and I occasionally do
My wife and I occasionally do mystery shops, and I have found my favorite burger through that. It is a jalapeno cream cheese burger on Texas Toast. It has a burger, cream cheese, jalapenos (of course), grilled onion, and bacon. Sitting on top is a whole jalapeno stabbed through with a toothpick. The burger tastes like a giant jalapeno popper.
It is also so thick, there is no way to pick it up to eat it either.
Hugs!
Rosemary
World-wide
All capsicum (chili) peppers come ultimately from the Americas, like most other solanum (nightshade family) food plants--potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, tomatillos. Tobacco is also a New World origin member of this group.
Old world edible solanums include the various kinds of eggplant, red, green, white and purple.
But chilis (or chiles) are nearly unique in producing capsaicin, apparently as an insect repellent and a deterrent to hungry mammals with seed-destroying molars. Birds use a different class of chemical as their pain messenger and are uneffected by the heat and so eat the fruit and spread the seeds far and wide.
Contrary beasts that we are, we humans can learn to love the heat (dogs can get acclimated to it, too, but it isn't really their thing). We've spread the little semi-tropical flavor bombs around the world, further than any bird.:) Even colder countries like Hungary and Korea have found varieties that can thrive in their climates--and cuisines.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
My favorite "good tasting"
My favorite "good tasting" hot sauce, really isn't very hot. I love the flavor or Tapatio. I think of all the types out there, that I can find anywhere, theirs is the best. If I can't find that, Cholula is another good one that I can find anywhere.
Driving truck, I think I developed a taste for Cholula, as most truck stops have it, as well as good ole tobasco sauce (my favorite for biscuits and gravy).
Hugs!
Rosemary