Cooking with Spicy Peppers

I want to dive into the spicy side of peppers today. Then in future newsletters, I’ll share ideas on ways to use fresh and dried peppers. So make sure you tune into the scheduled programming. You won’t want to miss it. There might even be a Carlton dance at the end of all this for you 🕺.

Burn baby burn

So a couple of weeks back, a newsletter reader (*cough*my mom) asked me about cooking with chile peppers. She was a bit intimidated by the wall of peppers she saw at the grocery store.

And I don’t blame her.

Spicy peppers literally cause you pain. It’s mostly from natural chemicals in the pepper called capsaicinoids. And capsaicinoids fire the same nerves on your tongue that a physical burning sensation does. 🔥 When my wife tells me something is hot, my first question is always “temperature hot or spicy hot?” Interestingly, to your pain nerves, they’re the same thing.

But let’s not get overheated thinking about it.

Scoville Heat Scale

An American pharmacist named Wilbur Scoville created a method for measuring the spice level of a pepper. It looks at the concentration of capsaicinoids (of which capsaicin is the most common) in a pepper. The scale is based on Scoville Heat Units (SHU). It goes from a bell pepper at 0 SHUs to 1,000,000+ SHUs for ghost peppers.

The crazy thing about the spice level of each pepper is that they can vary wildly based on their growing conditions. Jalapeños for example can range from 2,500 to 8,000 SHUs. Habaneros range from 150,000 to 325,000 SHUs. 🥵

So what does that mean for our cooking?

It means we need to try peppers before we use them to know their true heat level. We don’t want anyone crying at dinner. So take a teeny, tiny bite. Do you have a really spicy one? Use less of it. Or make conscious decisions to tame the spiciness.

How do we tame the spiciness? Hold that question for just a moment…

Cooking with Spicy Peppers

We cook with peppers not because it makes our food spicy (well some people might) but because they add a depth of flavor: smokiness, fruitiness, earthiness…the list goes on.

But because cooking with peppers can literally cause your loved ones pain, you might want to consider a few things…(unless you’re cooking for a sibling, then I can totally understand the urge to ignore these tips).

(1) The seeds aren’t the enemy

Contrary to popular belief, the seeds are not the spiciest part of the pepper. While they do have some levels of capsaicin, they are actually more bitter than spicy.

So who’s the real culprit? The ribs, vein, pith, membrane, and placenta (I swear everyone on the internet uses different names). They’re just fancy names for the, usually, white insides of a pepper that go from the tip to the stem.

Remove them. All of them. It adds more spice than flavor.

(2) Add a squeeze of lime. Always!

While you should always finish with acid anyway, I heard Ed Currie (the creator of the Carolina Reaper—which is on record as the hottest pepper in the world) say he uses lime juice. And if it’s good enough for a guy who literally eats, sleeps (okay not literally on that one), and breathes spicy chile peppers, then it’s good enough for me.

Apparently, the acid breaks up the oleoresin (totally had to look that one up), which reduces the length of the burning sensation. Good to know, right?

(3) Dairy is your friend

Dairy products have a protein called casein that will prevent the capsaicin from triggering as many pain receptors in your mouth. That’s why a study found a glass of milk as an effective way to cut the spice. 🥛

So when cooking with spicy peppers, consider using a dairy product to reduce the spiciness. They balance each other out. Speaking of that…

(4) Fight sensation with sensation

Because our tongue is tricked into thinking it feels the heat, chile peppers give us a hot sensation. But we can actually cool down the temperature of our mouth to trick our brain into thinking there is less heat. So yes a cold drink will help cut the heat. But so will a cold condiment. Make sure to use a dollop of cold sour cream on a spicy taco or yogurt on curry. Plus, flavor isn’t the only thing that makes food enjoyable. The contrasting sensations of hot and cold will balance each other and not only make the dish seem less spicy but also more interesting to eat. 💥

(5) Pass the sugar, honey

Capsaicin also decreases our perception of sweetness. So consider adding a bit of extra sweetness when cooking with a spicy chile. It will balance your dish. Plus, since sugar stimulates the pleasure centers of our brain, the pleasure will help distract us from the pain.

So what did I learn from writing this? Based on #2, #3, #4, and #5, I have decided to always serve lime ice cream as a side with spicy foods! 🍦

Where I learned this: The Science of Cooking and this wonderful article on Cooks Illustrated