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Made an interesting sauce last year

I

ipreferamediumroast

I was teaching an organic chemistry lab and the final 2 experiments were let the students do what they want. I worked with this one student: We cut up a bunch of habaneros and poured liquid nitrogen into a crucible to crush them up fine (more surface area) and then added hexane and heated up (a little) for 2 hrs then we distilled off the hexane and vacuum evaporated the rest. The resultant oil (not much, about 1/4 teaspoon) was fantastic with just putting a pin in the oil and touching your tongue being quite enough for both a burn and a great taste.

Sidenote: I looked up pure capsaicin powder, it is like 300 dollars a gram.
 
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ipreferamediumroast said:
I was teaching an organic chemistry lab and the final 2 experiments were let the students do what they want. I worked with this one student: We cut up a bunch of habaneros and poured liquid nitrogen into a crucible to crush them up fine (more surface area) and then added hexane and heated up (a little) for 2 hrs then we distilled off the hexane and vacuum evaporated the rest. The resultant oil (not much, about 1/4 teaspoon) was fantastic with just putting a pin in the oil and touching your tongue being quite enough for both a burn and a great taste.

Sidenote: I looked up pure capsaicin powder, it is like 300 dollars a gram.
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Howabout distilling Nagas or Kantharis?
I can give you some next year.

NJA
 
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Noshownate said:
sounds like you are a scientist:)
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Chemist, but I teach at the moment. I was very surprised after we did the experiment in looking up pure capsaicin. It is a white powder that is ridiculously expensive that makes me think that even in a whole habanero there might be a milligram of it. Powerful stuff. I would be curious if anyone here has tried the pure stuff?
 
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I believe there is 1ml (by volume) in the vial;

100_0337.jpg


It's the one in the middle. I think I paid $225 for it.
 
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paulky_2000 said:
I believe there is 1ml (by volume) in the vial;

100_0337.jpg


It's the one in the middle. I think I paid $225 for it.
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Can't open the pic. Have you used it in cooking? If I remember correctly, cap can be detected at 1 parts per billion in food (not by any members on this board though, the tolerance builds up fast)
 
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ipreferamediumroast said:
Chemist, but I teach at the moment. I was very surprised after we did the experiment in looking up pure capsaicin. It is a white powder that is ridiculously expensive that makes me think that even in a whole habanero there might be a milligram of it. Powerful stuff. I would be curious if anyone here has tried the pure stuff?
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I only know of two people who have actually tried the real true pure cap resin or whatever it is called. One of them is Blair who makes the one Paul has in the pic. He said his tongue blistered and he was in pain for three days. The other was a guy who put a grain of it in a cup of noodles for a radio station prank and ended up with respiratory problems and a ride to the hospital. I wouldn't recommend trying it. I'm sure the oil you made is plenty hot enough.
 
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JayT said:
I only know of two people who have actually tried the real true pure cap resin or whatever it is called. One of them is Blair who makes the one Paul has in the pic. He said his tongue blistered and he was in pain for three days. The other was a guy who put a grain of it in a cup of noodles for a radio station prank and ended up with respiratory problems and a ride to the hospital. I wouldn't recommend trying it. I'm sure the oil you made is plenty hot enough.
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I can imagine. Just the cost of it should tell you low little cap is actually in peppers.
 
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