Can you hurt yourself eating chilli peppers?
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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 component had some kind of a quantifiable unit instead of the scoville units that has fueled this craze of feeling the burn.
Don't fall for this tongue numbing "hottest wings/sauce in the world". Enjoy the flavor :)
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 comprehend them both. It's stupid, but it's just silly to see if you can do it.
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.
This year I have been growing Bhut Jolokia (ghost peppers), Habanero, Scotch Bonnet and Jalapeños both in a small greenhouse and outdoors. I afterwards dehydrate the fruits to prevent mold and so I can store them over the winter.
My favourite blend for DIY chili powder is Scotch Bonnet mixed with Bhut Jolokia for both taste and heat.
I haven't tried it in a decade, but I remember liking the flavor... although maybe that was their salsa?
When I was in university I noticed it tended to be the guys with inferiority complexes that were the ones to bring up how hot they like their food, and would try to work it into conversation.
Spice/heat is a meme.
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.
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-numbing to be fun at all. For all I know, there's a gene for it. But for those of us who do find it fun... it's fun!
Thanks, finally an honest answer to this question. This I can get on board with.
I'm convinced there's a significant element of machismo: "Are you tough enough to eat this?"
I've read somewhere that the body releases endorphins because you trick it into thinking its in pain (and for some it is painful) but if you enjoy eating spicy foods this might explain why you'd want to push the envelope.
No pain no gain :)
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.
I know Sriracha became meme-levels of popular but I remember the first time I tasted it, thinking: "Oh shit, a hot sauce that actually adds a great taste". Being from a country where the only hot sauce for 20 years was tabasco, and eating vindaloo in a non-authentic Indian restaurant tasted nothing but mouth death. I still never buy "Ass reaper" sauces or anything with similarily ridiculous names, but I love getting as much of different chilis into dishes as I can for taste without ruining it with pain.
Just think of it as sort of a culinary sky dive.
That's not to say that I don't enjoy other tasty, less hot, peppers. E.g. Bishop's Crown aren't particularly hot, but their taste is great and very fresh.
> I wish the flavor component had some kind of a quantifiable unit instead of the scoville units that has fueled this craze of feeling the burn.
> Don't fall for this tongue numbing "hottest wings/sauce in the world". Enjoy the flavor :)
I agree, but you need a certain tolerance to heat before you can stomach enough chili to notice the flavour.
To westerners with low heat tolerance, "hot" is literally the only taste they detect.
I've always had high heat tolerance, so I'm able to debate with my wife whether green or red or dry chilies would be better for a particular dish - because to us (and to you) it really makes a difference in flavour.
To them, more or less heat is the flavour, so that is what they tweak.
Apart from the machismo factor of proving your superiority by eating a vegetable without crying ;-)
Not really, because the flavor (other than heat, which is itself considered one of the basic flavors) comes almost entirely from the body of the pepper, the heat mostly from the seeds and ribs; preparation choices can very much control the relative presence of each in a dish.
And what's nice about building up an extreme tolerance to capsaicin is that afterwards you are able to better experience the flavor of peppers, without focusing entirely on the heat.
For anyone picking up the hobby, know this, you will reach the point where your stomach and other parts of your body will become a limiting factor so build up slowly. I own a bidet.
I think that the American culture (especially thinking about the Midwest) has the idea of "spicy vs not spicy", but not the idea of which flavor of pepper goes well with which kind of food. A lot of restaurants here will have black pepper and Tabasco sauce, but not much else, despite the fact that the vinegar in Tabasco will destroy the flavor of a lot of foods.
There's a culture of "spicy and mild", but not a culture of "spicy, but subtly flavored". Of course, I can always go to a Mexican restaurant and find a salsa that matches my food well. But even there, there are usually "mild", "medium", and "hot" labels on almost everything, rather than telling you what kind of peppers were used in preparing the sauce.
Then I moved to Norway. Oh, I was so wrong about selection. Tacos and Mexican-type flavors are very popular, albeit very mild. If I don't want the single 'normal' variety, I have to search for fresh peppers and hope they have them in stock. There isn't generally even an option for mild vs spicy. Wanting different flavors from different chilis is downright exotic.
But yeah, Norway is a horrible country for food. You pay an arm and a leg for barely edible stuff, and if you want to get really good ingredients you have to pay double or more!
"Norway is a horrible country for food" .... It is a great country to live in if you want to vastly improve your cooking skills, though :)
I actually think some of my cooking skills have declined, mainly because the stuff I liked to cook before require ingredients that are harder to find here (and cooking is less fun for me when I can't find what I consider to be quality ingredients).
It's a whole new world of stimulation!
"The genus Zanthoxylum belongs in the rue or citrus family, and, despite its name, is not closely related to either black pepper or chili pepper."
For a long time, importation was forbidden because the US is very protective of its citrus crop. We had to bring it back over from China.
I regularly consume habaneros, and I've recently tried ghost peppers in the form of hot chicken wings. I didn't know hot sauce could make my whole hand burn, but it did, for an entire day. I can see why people put on gloves to handle ghost peppers. I want to try them again, but my wife doesn't think I should.
Wearing gloves is a good idea while processing capsicums, but also quietly chant to yourself "Don't touch your eyes. Don't touch your eyes. Don't touch your eyes."
I frequently put them on in situations where they aren't terribly necessary exactly to remind myself to keep my fingers out of my eyes.
We don't all agree that beer tastes bad, but a lot of Holden Caulfield-ish high school kids (the main xkcd shirt buying demographic) would agree to that to demonstrate their intellectual superiority. Like it's a open secret that people don't like beer, but it's just an excuse to get drunk, and ole Randall is holding his nose because beer is terrible but he still wants to drink. How precious.
Oh but I assure you they do.
In fact everybody I know drinks beer exclusively for the flavour. Why else would they?
Even my 93-year-old grandmother drinks it, but she can only drink half a bottle, after that it will start to affect her. She complains bitterly how she'd like to drink more, but can't anymore.
> or non-alcoholic beer would be a lot more popular than it is, since it just tastes like beer
I have never found a tasty alcohol-free beer. I'd be happy to find some. I love the taste of beer, but after a few I need to stop before it goes to my head.
The process that removes the alcohol somehow also removes the pleasant taste (maybe because the alcohol content partly determines the taste?)
> without the bitterness of alcohol.
The bitterness comes from hops, and possibly malt.
If it were the alcohol that was bitter, wine would be quite bitter, and Vodka would be unbearable.
I don't mean this as an attack on you at all, but you seem to have little experience in the matter.
I've drunk plenty of beer and it all tastes bad. I'm not inexperienced. I much prefer the flavour of fruit juice. I really do think there's a huge social pressure to get to like beer. Maybe after a while our brains get to enjoy the bad flavour and associate it with pleasant past experiences. I have learned to put up with the flavour of beer and sometimes I am able to ignore the bad flavour of beer if there are other parts of the flavour that are enjoyable.
I don't think anybody likes beer the first time they try it.
I feel the same way about coffee too. It's a bitter drink and it smells bad. It cannot possibly be true that these substances would be popular if it were not for the side effects. What is a popular bitter beverage or food that has no other side effects?
I suppose you did, yes :-) Homebrewer here.
> Alright, beer is great, we must all do our part! ;-)
That's the spirit ;-)
> I've drunk plenty of beer and it all tastes bad.
Fair enough, I know a few people who don't like the taste.
> I'm not inexperienced.
Respectfully, assuming all other persons' motivations to be identical to your own makes you appear inexperienced not in matters of alcohol, but rather in (I'm struggling to find a good expression here -- I hope you get my meaning) how the world works.
> I much prefer the flavour of fruit juice.
Fine by me. I like it too.
> I really do think there's a huge social pressure to get to like beer.
Perhaps. I can't comment on American culture.
Certainly among adolescents in Germany there is some peer pressure WRT alcohol, including beer of course. After a while people tend to emancipate themselves from it though. I have a few friends who dislike alcohol. Nobody cares.
> I don't think anybody likes beer the first time they try it.
I didn't like it, that's for sure.
> What is a popular bitter beverage or food that has no other side effects?
I usually try not to feel side effects from beer. I dislike being drunk. I still like drinking beer though.
Apart from that: Brussel sprouts (ok, popularity is debatable ;-) ). Artichokes. Endive/Chicory. There are also other very bitter vegetables whose name I don't know that are quite popular in Asia; I'd have to ask my wife for the name. They have no effects other than taste that I'm aware of. They were definitely an acquired taste for me, but now I really like them.
Perhaps you just don't like bitter taste. Obviously there's nothing wrong with that.
The gloves are a safety precaution and should be used every time - just in case.
IANANM, but my college roommate was. We roasted+peeled pounds of red & green chiles when his mom sent the fresh crop. Tasty times.
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) is the hottest food I have ever found. Mexican and Indian food barely registers compared to that stuff.
It's also near-lethal... consume with caution.
Disclaimer: was last there >10 years ago, so much may have changed.
I can find nearly any food item on the planet that somebody has decided to jack up to 11, that doesn't make that food item the most generally hot thing out there.
And then obviously tons of Mexican restaurants around the US (I live in Phoenix).
But yeah, even the spicy regions are (mostly) less spicy than "American Bengali restaurant signalling authenticity with too much spice" that I expected before I got here.
Here, it's entirely plausible (and frankly likely, given how easy it is to come up with a dismissive answer like yours) that the author meant something like "those who are inspired by cuisines that traditionally use a lot of peppers, like Mexican cuisine, seem not to understand the reason they're used in those cuisines."
I'm not trying to offend, just to be clear and to clarify the other person's position in the process.
I am not angry at the poster, but I sincerely think that the first dismissive statement here was the one I replied to. It shuts discussion down before it gets to happen.
As someone who enjoys spicy food (and used to eat super spicy food), I have been confronted with this argument often. If you put yourself in my shoes for a second: it is pretty insulting -- here's something you care and are excited about. And there's someone who doesn't understand, and claims you're missing 'the point'. I think it's valuable for a discussion to point this out in no uncertain terms.
Edit: thank you for the feedback though! Next time, I'd probably say the same thing with a bit of extra sugar coating.
http://www.jem-journal.com/article/S0736-4679(16)30256-6/ful...
Why is the BBC not aware of this? A simple search would have yielded a more timely, accurate and interesting story. Somewhat disappointing.
This is similar to saying that walking can cause fat embolism (a life threatening condition): while walking you can fracture one of the long bones in your leg (e.g. your femur). A rare complication of long bone fracture is fat embolism.
I can't find anything that tells me why it happened.
I ate one miracle berry tablet (I think the recommended dose is half a tablet, but screw it). The tablets were pretty old, so after consuming it I tested with yoghurt to see if the results held up. Indeed, the yoghurt tasted like cream and was not sour at all, so the tablet was good.
Afterwards, I tasted Sriracha sauce, Tapatio and Valentina Extra Hot. All sauces retained their usual taste, except there was no burning sensation in the tongue and mouth at all. However, the sauces retained their burning sensation in the throat, completely intact, as far as I can tell.
I'm afraid that I didn't have a control spoonful of sauce before the tablet, because I didn't think of it, but I can have some once the tablet wears out. I seem to recall, though, that a spoonful of Sriracha does normally burn my tongue.
Habanero peppers on the other hand - have a wonderfully fruity flavor. I wish I had a bit more stamina with regards to eating them. :(
Which my brain - to my astonishment - interpreted as the smell of particular kind of very fine dry sand, on a varm day. It was hilariously wierd to drink a liquid and not get any taste sensation, or even any significant feeling of imbibing a liquid for that matter. Never has 1cl of liquor made me as giddy as that one time :)
http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/content/files/Suave.pdf
However, I have only seen them sold as seeds, and I prefer normal habaneros so I've never tried growing them.
It is possible to separate out the heat from the flavor using a centrifuge. I remember seeing a cooking show where that was done to make a ghost pepper milkshake without any of the spiciness. If you're keen to explore the taste of peppers, you might look into it.
I'm not sure if that "day" was the cause of my increased sensitivity or if I just age related but now I can barely enjoy red pepper flakes. Oh it goes down just fine but later... later I'm writhing in pain rolling around in the bed at night ... and then later on the toilet ... well I think you know what happens next.
As I get older it seems to get worse which seems like it shouldn't. Shouldn't the receptors be more tolerant? Or maybe it is more like allergens where there is a certain threshold and then once that threshold is exceed you become more and more sensitive (e.g. poison ivy does this).
BTW capsaicin does have a theoretical LD 50 based on mice. So yeah if you eat enough it will probably kill you but it is an outrageous amount (~ 50-100mg/kg). You would have to have it extracted to do it (some one actually went ahead and did the math here on how many peppers: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/6810/can-you-die...).
I am very curious what the physiological basis for this change is.
> In Scoville's method, an exact weight of dried pepper is dissolved in alcohol to extract the heat components (capsinoids), then diluted in a solution of sugar water.[3][4][5] Decreasing concentrations of the extracted capsinoids are given to a panel of five trained tasters, until a majority (at least three) can no longer detect the heat in a dilution.[4][5][6] The heat level is based on this dilution, rated in multiples of 100 SHU.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale#Scoville_organo...
In other words, the test is fully subjective and has been found to be unreliable:
> A weakness of the Scoville Organoleptic Test is its imprecision due to human subjectivity, depending on the taster's palate and their number of mouth heat receptors, which varies greatly among people.[6] Another weakness is sensory fatigue:[6] the palate is quickly desensitised to capsaicins after tasting a few samples within a short time period.[4] Results vary widely (up to ± 50%) between laboratories
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 practical utility of the scale is mostly to get an idea of how spicy something is, it doesn't really matter much if something is 700K or 600K, it's enough to know that it's around 2x as strong as a Habanero.
Piquancy exposure is measured only in scoville-heat-units, which is the spiciness equivalent of the sievert. Clearly, piquancy is in need of at least one additional unit that can abstract away the variations in mammalian tongues. That number, in combination with your personal taste profile, would allow you to predict the perceived spiciness of any given dish when you eat it.
You would just need to objectively measure the concentrations of capsaicinoids, and their TRPV1-activating analogs, put those into a spreadsheet with your own numbers, and determine how piquant something would be in scoville-heat-units when you, specifically, eat it.
Unfortunately, this article is almost completely devoid of real information, and doesn't answer the question at all.
But, hours or a day or so of very serious discomfort aside, there don’t seem to be long-term dangers, per se, in eating very hot peppers. Biologists have observed, however, that administering capsaicin over long periods of time in young mammals does result in the death of the pain neurons, Bryant says. Setting the neurons off repeatedly wears them out, and they don’t grow back.
The article prompted me to ask why our pain neurons interpret the capsaicin burn the approximately the same as a temperature burning sensation. It turns out we don't fully know yet [1]. Some spice hound is going to score big time doing graduate thesis work on answering this question, literally eating spicy food for science.
[1] http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/chili-peppers...
Having said that the stuff in the millions is pretty darn hard to find, they don't stock it or even sell it regularly.
Brighton also has an annual chilli festival. There's a chilli eating competition, and paramedics are often needed by the losers, sometimes the winners.
It's a bit stupid really, a bit like the teenage-boyish pursuit of unnecessarily strong marijuana, but whatever floats your boat I suppose.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/18/ghost-pepper-p...
FWIW, I grow these things, and have foolishly tried eating them raw a few times, and while I really wouldn't recommend it (the pain is indescribable, both in your mouth and in your stomach, and if you forget to wear gloves when handling them, many other places too), there's nothing particularly dangerous about it.
ie. bird's eye chilis 100,000–225,000 SHU vs ghost pepper 1,041,427 SHU
That's the first time I've seen that one. If you're a web designer, please do not do that.
Pff had to almost read to the end for that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_Law_of_Headline...
This reminds me of the Habanero Burger at "The Swinging Door" pub (I'm not sure it had the same name when I went there occasionally over 10 years ago, the first time actually almost 20 years ago in 1997) in San Mateo, CA [0]. (EDIT: It was the Prince of Wales pub previously! Lots of Habanero Burger stories: [1])
They had a "Wall of Flame" with stickers from all people who "survived" eating one. You had to sign a release form before you got your burger (shown in [1]). As another ex-colleague of mine used to say: Good spicy food hurts twice...
I only ever ate one tiny piece off a colleague's plate. Initially I thought "I feel nothing, what's the big deal?" I then spent a good part of the next half hour with my tongue hung out under flowing water from the faucet in the bathroom.
The people I saw try it either ate very fast, to be finished before the full pain set in, or very, very slowly. Except for an Indian friend of mine, who seemed pretty unmoved and ate the whole burger normally.
By the way, I don't remember the day of the week, but I always went there when the "Silicon Gulch Jazz Band" was playing [2][3]. Back then the (good) singer, an old guy (like all others in that band), played a washboard, really cool. The music was really good (the singing too) :-)
[0] http://theswingindoor.com/habanero-burger-xxx/
[1] https://www.yelp.com/biz/prince-of-wales-pub-san-mateo
Oh god. Capsaicin is not water soluble. You just removed everything from your tongue BUT the capsaicin.
For some reason I'm a lot more bothered by extremely localized pain than evenly distributed pain, when you chew a pepper you tend to e.g. disproportionately burn on one side of your tongue. Drinking some water and swishing it around in your mouth solves that problem.
http://www.theliquorbarn.com/polmos-spirytus-rektyfikowany-1...
The stuff sold in stores diluted in vinegar simply can not compare to freshly grown ghost peppers. There really is an upper bound which humans can not safely handle physically. For freshly grown peppers this might just be several cubic millimeters of pepper.