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Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

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Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#121

Post by ianai »

tunap wrote: post #79
ianai wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New Mexican - agree. You can dial the heat to whatever you want, but I'm there for the flavor.

For me, I seek certain peppers for the taste & heat is a bonus... especially fresh chiles. A mild habanero, however, I don't know if that would fly. IANANM, but my college roommate was. We roasted+peeled pounds of red & green chiles when his mom sent the fresh crop. Tasty times.

It's funny how NM chiles can be hard to find. As soon as I cross the border they go from a main ingredient to "it's a what?"

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#122

Post by baddox »

blhack wrote: post #83
huherto wrote: post #11

Mexican here. I find it amusing that people focus on how spicy their peppers are. They are missing the point. There are many pepper varieties and each has a different flavor. That is the interesting part and how it mixes with different foods in a variety of recipes. Focus on the flavor, not the burn.

I think it's kindof funny that people somehow associate Mexican and Indian food with being spicy. I almost think it scares them off of trying some of those dishes. In my experience, Mexican food is rich , but not spicy. Same thing with (some) Indian food. Maybe I'm trying the wrong food, though? I've only traveled in western India (Maharashtra). I would love some recommendations for dishes to try! BBQ (from the US) i…

I've never had American BBQ that is even remotely spicy. In my experience it is very sweet.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#123

Post by lokedhs »

platz wrote: post #112
nostrebored wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then post about it on the internet

How convenient that your position entails silence from your opponent.

What is he going to answer? Any reply at all from him/her would immediately be taken as an admission that posting about it online is the reason for doing it in the first place.

When reading stupid comments online, it usually better just to walk away. I try to do it most of the time, but even I get lured into it at times.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#124

Post by mindcrime »

blhack wrote: post #82
calvinbhai wrote: post #80

I'm not sure why people go for the heat. I'm from India and there are many hot/spicy options available. But most chili peppers are used for their flavor or color (e.g. Kashmiri Red Chilli powder is very red, less spicy) and varying the levels of heat/spiciness by adding more of less of it, instead of using the spiciest variety (like the ghost peppers that have caught the fancy of the west). I wish the flavor componen…

People go for the heat because it's fun. In my refrigerator right now I have a variety of hot sauces ranging from ~100,000SHU (Scoville Heat Units[1]) to 1,500,000SHU. The 1.5M sauce is way, way, WAY too hot to eat regularly, but it is kindof fun to put it on something and then see if you can get through it or not. I would put it in the same vein as playing two podcasts at the same time and seeing if you can comprehe…

Yeah, I use everything from jalapeno pepper to Carolina Reapers and everything in between at various times. I never make anything that's just plain loaded down with nothing but reapers, but I use a mix of peppers to make things that are really hot but also have a nice flavor. The heat just makes things interesting, but heat for its own sake isn't very interesting to me. You could buy pure, refined Capsaicin, but what's the point. It would taste disgusting, like "Dave's Insanity" which is hot but nasty.

Here's a neat trick I like... combine Scotch Bonnet peppers (or pepper sauce) with the hotter stuff like Ghost Pepper, Trinidad Scorpion or Carolina Reaper. The Scotch Bonnets aren't terribly hot (a little less than Habanero) but taste really good... and then just a little bit of the other stuff to jack the heat up leaves the nice flavor while still making you sweat.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#125

Post by mindcrime »

markdown wrote: post #76
duaneb wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my understanding, capsaicin is in the flesh around the seeds, but the seeds themselves are not spicy and tend to add sweetness. Is that correct?

I too have read that, but my experience is completely different. Nothing burns like the seeds.

That jibes with my experience. Leaving the seeds in seems to create a hotter dish.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#126

Post by chrismcb »

jghn wrote: post #100
blhack wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's kindof funny that people somehow associate Mexican and Indian food with being spicy. I almost think it scares them off of trying some of those dishes. In my experience, Mexican food is rich , but not spicy. Same thing with (some) Indian food. Maybe I'm trying the wrong food, though? I've only traveled in western India (Maharashtra). I would love some recommendations for dishes to try! BBQ (from the US) i…

Where are you finding BBQ which registers as "the hottest food"? I can't think of a single regional BBQ style which would qualify as needle moving at all for me.

I'm guessing you're never met "the man" direction Dixie's BBQ. I'm not a big fan of spicy BBQ but there is definitely hot BBQ.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#127

Post by kranner »

calvinbhai wrote: post #80

I'm not sure why people go for the heat. I'm from India and there are many hot/spicy options available. But most chili peppers are used for their flavor or color (e.g. Kashmiri Red Chilli powder is very red, less spicy) and varying the levels of heat/spiciness by adding more of less of it, instead of using the spiciest variety (like the ghost peppers that have caught the fancy of the west). I wish the flavor componen…

> varying the levels of heat/spiciness by adding more of less of it

Not just by adding more or less, the heat is tempered by pairing with ghee or yogurt in the dish, as Capsaicin is fat-soluble. Also of course by pickling peppers in e.g. mustard oil.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#128

Post by flashman »

crazygringo wrote: post #93
calvinbhai wrote: post #80

I'm not sure why people go for the heat. I'm from India and there are many hot/spicy options available. But most chili peppers are used for their flavor or color (e.g. Kashmiri Red Chilli powder is very red, less spicy) and varying the levels of heat/spiciness by adding more of less of it, instead of using the spiciest variety (like the ghost peppers that have caught the fancy of the west). I wish the flavor componen…

Because sometimes you're eating some boring-ass flavorless overcooked chicken breast with no skin and you need something to make it palatable distract you from what appears indistinguishable from tough, stringy cardboard. :) But really, it's just fun. Enjoying extreme spiciness has nothing to do with enjoying food. Think of it as just a totally separate activity. And I get that plenty of people don't find tongue-numb…

> Enjoying extreme spiciness has nothing to do with enjoying food.

I'm convinced there's a significant element of machismo: "Are you tough enough to eat this?"

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#129

Post by nullc »

guitarbill wrote: post #90
avar wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not "fully subjective" by any sensible definition. Yes humans are the measurement device, and humans differ and are unreliable, but given a sufficient number of samples you arrive at more accurate numbers. Nobody's going to give a paprika the same rating as a Carolina Reaper. You might have some give two very strong peppers the same rating, but then you might just need more people to test it. In any case, the pr…

Isn't there going to be a huge sampling bias? I certainly refuse to eat Carolina Reaper, and can't be the only one.

No, the Scoville test is based on a comparison of diluted samples. Trials are rerun with increasing dilution until the testers cannot detect the sample, and the level of dilution determines the score.

Re: Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?

#130

Post by girzel »

blhack wrote: post #83
huherto wrote: post #11

Mexican here. I find it amusing that people focus on how spicy their peppers are. They are missing the point. There are many pepper varieties and each has a different flavor. That is the interesting part and how it mixes with different foods in a variety of recipes. Focus on the flavor, not the burn.

I think it's kindof funny that people somehow associate Mexican and Indian food with being spicy. I almost think it scares them off of trying some of those dishes. In my experience, Mexican food is rich , but not spicy. Same thing with (some) Indian food. Maybe I'm trying the wrong food, though? I've only traveled in western India (Maharashtra). I would love some recommendations for dishes to try! BBQ (from the US) i…

I've never been to India, but of course have eaten lots of spicy Indian food in restaurants. The one time I had dinner at an Indian person's home (in China) she made dishes that were so hot I had to stop. I don't know where in India she was from. They were absolutely delicious, but so spicy I had to take a break. There were these hunks of fish with some sort of herb/spice mixture seared into the outside...
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