• If you can't find a "Hot" category that fits, post it here!

Building a heat tolerance

dvg

dvg

Being relatively new to hot peppers and hot fiery foods, I suppose I jumped into this hobby with both feet.

When I joined this forum, after growing some Habs and Japs last summer, my eyes were really opened up wide to the world of the Chile-Head.

After seeing what Super Hots were and what some of the members were doing with them, I decided to step my heat game up and build a better heat tolerance.

So every day for the past month or more, I have eaten at least one whole, raw orange Habanero a day and sometimes more than that.

In addition to that, I purchased locally grown red Habaneros at our local farmers market.

These red Habs are greenhouse grown and are considerably hotter than the orange Habs, so they may be red Caribbean Habaneros.

Eating one of these sets my mouth on fire, while an orange Hab doesn't seem too hot at all.

In addition to the Hab a day, I have been buying hot sauces and adding those as well as ground hot red pepper powder to my food.

So, after all of this, I can definitely say I have built up some heat tolerance.

And my tongue also feels a bit numb lately.

I can still taste flavors, but the so called 'hot' salsas from the grocery store don't really register as hot anymore, if I can even detect any heat from them at all.

Today my wife and I were at the farmer's market and she dragged me over to a booth to try some Habanero/Pineapple wine jelly.

I could taste the wine flavor and some of the fruitiness of the jelly, but could not detect any heat whatsoever.

I mentioned this fact to the vendor and she asked me if I ate a lot of hot foods, to which I confessed that I had been doing so lately.

Next I tried some Hot Habanero mustard from another vendor. She was sure that I'd get a real bite from the mustard.

I could feel some heat, but it was very subdued.

But I get the feeling that if I had eaten the same sample a couple of months ago, I would have really felt it.

I haven't yet tried any of the true Super Hot peppers, but have started seeds of these for next year's growing season.

I'm just concerned that once I start eating some of the Super Hots, I just won't be able to even taste the heat in regular fare hot food that 'normal' people eat.

It seems that the more tolerance I build, the less effect hot sauce and my hot pepper flakes are having.

I'm beginning to see why some Chile-heads might resort to 'pepper flavor' or pepper extracts to still feel the heat.

I don't like the idea of eating pepper extracts, and would rather rely on eating hotter peppers to get my heat fix.;)

I'm not sure where the continual eating of a Hab or two a day will lead, but it has certainly deadened my ability to feel the lower levels of heat in foods that others can still detect.

So if I'm cooking something up, I doubt that I would be able to reliably judge if the heat level would be acceptable for others.

I would have to assume that it's best to keep the food quite bland, and then later add the neccessary spices to my own liking.

Those are just some of my thoughts and experiences with hot foods over the last month or so.

It's definitely been an interesting ride thus far.

Cheers,

Doug
dvg
 
cheers, doug,

I'm not surprised to hear of your vendor's reactions as most of the general public eats mild-medium sauces.

Chileheads definitely appreciate heat and flavor and you're building up the tolerances in a good way.
 
I guess that would be a "downfall" of building a tolerance. The hotter you go, the more the "old" sauces and peppers just dont cut it. BUT, with super hots, once you have had them, thats it. I think that's why a lot of us that have had the super hots Start to just seek out the better tasting peppers, even if they arent as hot. True, you can eat extracts. Good luck eating THOSE every day. Nothing GOOD can be had by eating extracts. Taste like SH*T, and screw your body up. True, there are a couple that taste decent, but just dont compare to regular sauces made with just peppers.
Some people will stick with eating super hots. I know that some people, including myself, have started going backwards a little and search out taste over heat. But, for ME, to keep my tolerance up, I still eat super hots on a regular basis to keep the tolerance up. Hell, I usually carry a little shaker with either super hot powder, or super hot flakes, just so I can get some heat in my food when I go out. lol
 
Franzb69, it's hard to remain inconspicuous once you've started to pour a noticeable layer of hot pepper flakes over your food and then follow that up with drenching it in hot sauce while the other dinner guests at the table just stare at you with mouths agape, incredulous. That's when it best to just casually ask for someone to please pass the salt and pepper.;)



Salsalady, you're absolutely right on point there. It's actually very difficult to find hot salsa sauce at some of the large grocery store chains around here in Edmonton, Alberta. There's lots of mild and some medium salsa, but it's a good score whenever I can find some decent hot stuff around.

Today we went out looking for hot sauces, but even those are quite limited in selection and a bit of a challenge to find around these parts.



Thehotpepper, taste is probably one of the overrated senses anyway.;)



Hot Pooper, you make some good points there. I've taken my shaker of hot pepper flakes out with me too.

My wife rolls her eyes and some people shake their heads, but who really has the right to judge how another chooses to season their own food or the condiments they choose to add to it?

It does seem to be two worlds apart...the world of the Chile Head and the just recently departed culinary world of the boring and the bland.

I'm guessing that once you've crossed the threshold of the Super Hots, there ain't no goin' back.;)

Cheers,

dvg
 
Franzb69, it's hard to remain inconspicuous once you've started to pour a noticeable layer of hot pepper flakes over your food and then follow that up with drenching it in hot sauce while the other dinner guests at the table just stare at you with mouths agape, incredulous. That's when it best to just casually ask for someone to please pass the salt and pepper.;)
Click to expand...

what's gonna be the biggest challenge for me is when i'm gonna cook for other people and ask them how hot they want it to be. lol. coz since i can hardly tell the difference what's mild, medium and "real hot" for them. being a culinary student, it's gonna be a problem. lol.
 
franzb69 said:
what's gonna be the biggest challenge for me is when i'm gonna cook for other people and ask them how hot they want it to be. lol. coz since i can hardly tell the difference what's mild, medium and "real hot" for them. being a culinary student, it's gonna be a problem. lol.
Click to expand...

Actually while going trough school culinary school its not that bad. Mostly because you'll only rarely be cooking "hot" food. Though when I went through there were a few times I had to get another students help with adjusting the dishes heat for a "normal" pallet.
 
but i eat chilis every single day. lol. that's what i end up doing, i ask for someone else's opinion on the heat level.
 
wow, you got it going good on your way to becoming a chile head, I gotta work on that myself to, suprisngly chips that used to be spicy aren't anymore haha, if only I could eat or even try a habañero, probably would run straight to the water or something.. lol
 
I have been noticing some similar effects, but I would say on a smaller scale. I have eaten very few peppers whole of habanero-level heat, and depending on the heat of the pepper, sometimes I just can't take it. Ironically, if it makes any sense, it doesn't seem to be the actual heat itself that causes it--but it does seem the pepper's oils getting stuck to my throat causing gagging, which needs to be rinsed down quickly with a drink of any kind (even water) and I'm usually fine. It's just that the peppers that are more likely to do this are, in fact, the ones that are hotter--but the gagging happens long before I feel a thing. Failing to rinse it down results in... I'll just say, it's not pleasant. That is the reason I don't bother eating habs whole very often, am very hesitant to do so, and have yet to do it with anything hotter.

So instead, I just up the number of peppers I add to food; I've moved up to 3 (can't remember, maybe 5?) habs before this last season, and have since experimented with even hotter peppers, but down to one again for comparison with a single habanero (a sort of gauge, I guess). What I've found is that the food seems to increasingly rarely get up to the level of heat that I like--but sometimes I'll be completely surprised, impressed and overall satisfied with the heat. So it's almost like a lot of my peppers are duds, and just not as hot as they could be. But then, I used a Trinidad Scorpion and, to be honest, was kind of impressed with the heat--but the next day on the toilet was the killer. Sometime after that, I made some tacos with two of either Bhut Jolokias or Naga Moriches (can't remember which). Strangely, they seemed to target my tongue heavily, it felt like it literally burned my tongue every time it came in contact (never experienced such a thing before that). I let them cool down a bit to see if it was just the temperature, and it did the same thing--burned the tongue, but was not overly intense anywhere else. But once again, the next day the true heat surfaced... three times in fact... on the toilet. I'll just say, it felt like a blowtorch down there all three times, and it lasted at least 8-10 minutes each time. :hell: I refused to sit down during that time from the burning pain. :onfire: So basically... it seems that the day after eating reveals the true heat of the pepper, and every now and then (even with orange habaneros) I'll hit the heat I'm looking for.

But there are some weird things I noticed. Hot sauces, while they're not as hot to me as they used to be, still seem to bring a very nice, even heat--even if they're nowhere near as hot as the peppers I use; apparently it's just more concentrated or something. And some of the home-grown jalapenos I've eaten on pizzas... yes, jalapenos... have kicked my ass severely, more than just about any chinense variety I've had in a long time. Ironically, that includes those two Nagas. Really, I don't know what's going on here, maybe my heat tolerance so far is primarily toward Chinense species? Or maybe my jalapenos are just that wicked hot? Also, recently I baked a pizza with 5-6 orange habaneros cut and spread finely across. This should have definitely been hot as hell, but I ended up eating the whole thing with very little problem. The next day, again, no problem... so they must really not have been hot. They were picked in fall when the temps were colder, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was it.

As for not detecting low levels of heat most other people would... I surpassed that point a long, long time ago. Way back before I even heard of a habanero, and would squeeze several packets of Hot/Fire sauce all over everything at Taco Bell. Basically, I'm at the point where "a little bit of heat" to me is "hot" to most other people. So I can somewhat gauge... kinda. :)
 
As a cajun/creole the way I judge cooking for other people when cooking with pepper if we used a jalapeno or serrano, 1 for basic taste, 2 for medium, 3 for hot, 4 for I really know what I'm doing. This equates to 1/4 tsp cayenne, 1/2, 3/4, and 1 tsp.

I do a lot of backing up so I my heat from a various number of peppers. It's just more fun for me that way.
 
When I cook for others, I learned to let them add sauces, etc, after I give them what I've made. When I cook and add in the heat the way I like it, others can't take it. What has a yummy spicy heat to me, is insanely hot to others!

My tollerance has been built up pretty much by adding various hot sauces to what I eat. I used to think the Ass Kick'n hot sauce (the one with the kicking mule on the label) was hot, but now it's as hot to me as standard heinz ketchup. Now, I pour on sauces made from ghost peppers, habaneros, etc. Rarely have I over-sauced myself - I think that happened only once at a Pho restaurant in Seattle a few years ago when I turned my Pho noodle soup into a fiery inferno - I poured in so much of their hot chili sauce that the broth went from a standard chicken soup look to a deep bright red! :hell: I couldn't quite finish the dish, but came really really close.
 
I started building up my tolerance by the addition of increasing amounts of crushed hot pepper in foods. I'm able to eat some of my pods without even blinking. My capsaicin addiction has affected me in other ways but hurting my family. When I introduce some of my pepper-liking family members to a new recipe, I often describe the heat level as "not that bad." Often, my "not that bad" is pretty dang fiery to those that haven't embraced their love for the taste of fire. Since then, I've entered into the chilehead's twelve step program but have been falling off the wagon... :hell:
 
Franzb69 and DaQatz, that's funny that you both should say that you relied on another's 'normal' palate to help you judge whether or not your prepared foods were too spicy or not.

To be be honest, before yesterday I would have been doubtful about that, but when my own sense of taste for low level heat took the day off, I'm a believer now.

I guess that's why Pepper Heads might add so much heat to their food...partially just so they can even taste it.;)



TheAlaskan324, when i first tried Blair's Death Rain XXX Hot Habanero Kettle Cooked Potato Chips, after only three or four chips, my mouth was already plenty hot enough.

But after eating a few bags of them over time, I could go through three quarters of the bag and only had to stop because I was full.

If you continue to eat hot foods and add hot sauces or hot pepper flakes to your food, you'll end up getting there sooner than you think.



UltraZelda64, i've found that sometimes when i first bite into a Habanero pepper and inhale at the same time, that the fumes or oils from the Hab make me want to cough.

And i've read that the occasional rogue Jalapeno pepper can cause more heat and havoc than the typical orange Habanero.

Others have complained that the odd Jalapeno burns more intensely than a typical Hab and for longer, with up to half an hour of burning reported.

It's really interesting that peppers that one thinks will be hot can turn out not to be as hot as anticipated, and others that we take for granted can turn around and bite us a good one!;)


Hot stuff, that's a very good idea...having a heat reference for different chiles and powders.

That way, even if we can't really tell by taste how hot a dish might be for others, a reference for pre measuring the heat to be added to a dish, will ensure that others can still enjoy our cooking too.

I'm going to recite those measurements you've shared to memory.;)



DuvallDaves, that scenario is bound to happen to all of us sooner or later when we are playing around with the hot stuff.

I accidentally poured too much Dave's Insanity Sauce into my food one time. Though I could barely just handle the heat in my mouth with each bite, I took my time and slowly continued to work through the heat and eat the dish.

What i didn't count on was the effect that the pepper extract would have on my stomach twenty minutes later.

The pain was so bad that I had to lie down, and turn from one side to the other every couple of minutes.

It seemed that the side I was laying on would start to burn after a couple of minutes so I would turn over again to escape the burning pain.

I was thinking to myself, "This is crazy. How long is this going to last for?"

Then I remembered reading somewhere that really hot peppers should be eaten with something sweet.

I got up and ate a spoonful of liquid honey.

Much to my relief, that quickly did the trick and within a few minutes the pain was gone.

Another lesson learned about pepper extracts though. I'm not a big fan of them, but i do have a healthy respect for them now.


RedtailForester, haha, yes it's easy to overspice our cooking for others, once we've built up our heat tolerances.

And as you can see, this fiery addiction is a tough one to totally break free of.;)


Cheers,

Doug
dvg
 
And i've read that the occasional rogue Jalapeno pepper can cause more heat and havoc than the typical orange Habanero.
Click to expand...
The scary part is... this was a routine thing last year. It wasn't occasional, unless you consider that I ate food mostly containing chinenses, but when I did "occasionally" eat jalapenos... they never failed to surprise me. I rarely have to stop eating for 10-15 minutes for the heat to settle before eating more, but the one main time I did do that this year the culprits were jalapenos...

Others have complained that the odd Jalapeno burns more intensely than a typical Hab and for longer, with up to half an hour of burning reported.
Click to expand...
In my case, the burn of jalapenos doesn't last near as long as chinenses (which make the back of my throat feel warm for 30+ minutes), but it seems to build up much more quickly and reaches extreme levels, where it lingers for a while, and then quickly tapers off. Chinenses, to me, seem much more gradual and long-lasting. And for whatever reason... less hot.
 
Perhaps the differences can be seen in the different proportions of CAPSAICIN and DIHYDROCPASAICIN in the different peppers.
 
hot stuff said:
Perhaps the differences can be seen in the different proportions of CAPSAICIN and DIHYDROCPASAICIN in the different peppers.
Click to expand...
That's very possible, and it's what I was thinking, but really... I was still dumbfounded that a jalapeno can be so damn HOT :mouthonfire: while a habanero and its relatives can be so easy to handle.

It certainly explains the targeted throat burn I seem to get with habs vs. the general mouth heat from jalapenos. But of course, both will burn all over at times.
 
salsalady said:
cheers, doug,

I'm not surprised to hear of your vendor's reactions as most of the general public eats mild-medium sauces.  

Chileheads definitely appreciate heat and flavor and you're building up the tolerances in a good way.
Click to expand...

This is a daily dialogue on my dining table. I have a very very high heat tolerence and my son has a 1 day old baby's tongue.!!

I have to be extremely careful while preparing curries. Hence I carry my own chilli pepper powder to the dining table and sprinkle to my level.

NJA
 
There is an occasional beneficial payoff from building up a heat tolerance.

I was at the farmer's market with my wife today and the salsa vendor was putting on a hot pepper challenge.

He said that if I signed a waiver first and was able to eat a red hot Habanero and not "freak out for two minutes" after eating it, as he put it, I could pick out any salsa or guacamole mix he had on his table.

If I failed to keep my cool, I'd have to pay him $2.00 for the pepper.

He said he'd started doing the challenge last weekend, and of the eleven challengers that stepped up to the plate, only five were able to collect the prize.

The other six went hurrying off to the food court in search of water.

He also said it was funny to watch the bald guys, especially when the backs of their heads would start to turn red, with the the redness continuing to move forward to their foreheads and then down their faces.

I'm not sure if that was an intimidation tactic, but I have eaten these peppers before and knew that they were screaming hot.

I signed the waiver and chose what i hoped would be a milder version of these screamers.

Luckily for me the pepper I chose was tolerably hot and I was able to hold my composure until the heat subsided after a few minutes.

My nose started to run, but that was about it for physical symptoms, other than that I definitely could feel the heat from that baby.

I let my wife chose a nice guacamole dipping mix.;)

He also made a tasty Habanero Ketchup, that I'll try to grab next time we visit.

dvg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top