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Chili Oil Notes

uptointerpretation.com

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Re: Chili Oil Notes

#51

Post by OJFord »

mortureb wrote: post #41
fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The spores are, but the toxin is the problem and breaks down with heat so, in theory, if you boil the food for a bit before eating it, it would be safe.

I’m pretty sure it’s the opposite. You can kill the spores with heat but it leaves the toxins intact.

No, that's not correct. Hence it being a (overblown US citizen internet commenter) concern with preserved food. Can something like tomatoes, not naturally that acidic in a preparation that doesn't lower the pH much, and even though you've heated it and killed things in the process and it's now in a vacuum, it can potentially still develop.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#52

Post by hardwaregeek »

mortureb wrote: post #29
elderlybanana wrote: post #10

My favorite chili oils take the chilis just beyond a perfect maillard "sear" and venture very slightly into burnt territory. Many peppers have a natural bitterness when dried, and that slight bitterness added from the barely burned flavor brings out some extra, magical, umami depth. Adding some acidic elements makes for some incredible dishes. I have found that smoked chilis lose their smokiness with high heat though…

I agree. Indian cooking uses a lot of flavored oil as “tadkas”. Spices (cumin, coriander, garlic, mustard etc.) including whole red chillies are brought up to temp in a small metal bowl with ghee over a flame and then added to the final dish. I’ve made chili oil this way and it seems to draw out more flavor and there’s the slight burnt flavor that I love.

I've learned from cooking more Indian food recently that it's okay to burn spices a little. In most cuisines you're told to only bloom spices briefly but Indian food isn't afraid to really cook spices to their limit.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#53

Post by hardwaregeek »

yawnxyz wrote: post #37

Have y'all tried steeping in anchovies for salty / umami flavor? It definitely moves away from Asian chili oils and into Mediterranean, but I find anchovies add quite a hard-to-describe depth to the chili oil.

Interesting! I've mostly added umami from mushroom powder and MSG. Anchovies or fish sauce could be an interesting addition, although that does make it more of a sauce than an oil.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#54

Post by hardwaregeek »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #27
civilitty wrote: post #3

> I’ve also thought about doing a really low and slow extraction, say by using a sous vide machine. You do run into food safety issues, since the chilies can contain botulism. Sous vide was my first thought, since that avoids the evaporation and oxidation that decreases the intensity of the low and slow method. However I don't think botulism is any more of a concern here than any other sous vide dish and high heat do…

I did sous vide chilli oil by placing the oil and chillies in glass canning jars in the water bath. I let them rip for about 90 minutes at ~88°C/190°F and the results were pretty good. I like the roasty/mildly bitter results from flash heating, but this was quite smooth and pleasant. I think some purists would think it tastes weird. It's a very "clean" chilli flavour. I think it would have been a lot better with more…

Have you tried blending it with a hot flash oil? My suspicion is that the two would be better than the sum of their parts.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#55

Post by lfpeb8b45ez »

civilitty wrote: post #18
throwaway892238 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would this concern you more than anything else? If you cook the fish, it's not going to "go bad" as quickly as if it were raw. If you cook anything to a particular temperature and time, it should kill most bacteria in it. Then the acidity of the tomato should help resist bacterial growth a wee bit longer than something pH-neutral. On top of all this, "obvious death" from bacteria in food is some serious hyperbole…

> it's quite rare to die of food poisoning. I’d go so far as to say it’s virtually unheard of for healthy adults to die of food poisoning from cooked food going bad*. It’s mostly children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised that are at risk. The fast majority of microbes that cause food born illness are really common in our environments and we’ve built up plenty of immunity. * fecal contamination and other toxins…

There’s always this case from 2008: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3232990/

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#56

Post by mauvehaus »

Tangential, but related: my partner claims that putting oil and garlic in a cold pan and warming them together yields a different flavor than heating the oil, and then adding the garlic. I'm pretty convinced that she's right.

Has anyone experimented with this rigorously? I'd happily nerd out reading a similar article in that subject.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#57

Post by kelipso »

michaelteter wrote: post #13

With regard to the health risks many comments note, I wonder how many natural (collaborative, so to speak) ingredient mixes might contribute to positive food safety despite the known threats. For example, I had a roommate who would cook salmon in a tomato sauce and leave it to sit overnight. From my background, this sounded like obvious death, but he assured me it was a common recipe in South Africa. I did try it, an…

Some fish curries from kerala can be left outside for days and the flavor is supposed to improve. The curries have high heat and acidity, so it makes sense it doesn't go bad.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#58

Post by elhudy »

I love nerding out on food as mich as the next person. On food and cooking is one of my favorite kitchen tools. Sichuan chili oil is a staple condiment in our house.

That said, i find the following to be an oft-repeated bs phrase parroted across the internet. You can find it tracing back to reddit threads over ten years ago.

> You can end up with what are called fines and boulders, fines being tiny, dust-like pieces of coffee that create bitterness in the cup, and boulders being large chunks that create sourness or emptiness in the cup.

I dare any coffee drinker to blindly try their coffee with a crappy grinder, and compare to their $200 carbon fiber whatever. You wont detect the difference. I once looked into someone’s reddit account who was repeating this - and found that they were selling grinders elsewhere. Must be awesome margins.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#59

Post by bradgessler »

elhudy wrote: post #58

I love nerding out on food as mich as the next person. On food and cooking is one of my favorite kitchen tools. Sichuan chili oil is a staple condiment in our house. That said, i find the following to be an oft-repeated bs phrase parroted across the internet. You can find it tracing back to reddit threads over ten years ago. > You can end up with what are called fines and boulders, fines being tiny, dust-like pieces…

It matters if you’re brewing pour-over coffee. If you don’t use a burr grinder the fines settle towards the bottom while pouring and clogs it up. Takes forever!

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#60

Post by xapata »

elhudy wrote: post #58

I love nerding out on food as mich as the next person. On food and cooking is one of my favorite kitchen tools. Sichuan chili oil is a staple condiment in our house. That said, i find the following to be an oft-repeated bs phrase parroted across the internet. You can find it tracing back to reddit threads over ten years ago. > You can end up with what are called fines and boulders, fines being tiny, dust-like pieces…

Comparing my cheap spice chopper and my cheap burr grinder, I noticed a clear improvement. Maybe that's because the spice chopper was so bad at chopping coffee beans. I doubt the fancy burr grinders make much difference, but then again I was skeptical of the cheap burr grinder until I tried it.
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