heat Eating whole peppers....or using them in dishes...heat difference as opposed to hot sauces?

[Dspayre]

Now I like spicy food, like hot sauces. But I'm wondering how much hotter eating peppers directly, or used in dishes is compared to the sauces. I actually don't have problems with the hotter sauces, DaBomb beyond insanity I can also handle fine....it's hot for hotness sake, not exactly flavoury, but its hotness doesn't freak me out.
Of course trying it out seems to be the obvious way to find out ....and I will...trying to grow 6 different peppers which, if succesful, I will sample. That area of eating peppers whole is kind of new for me....aside from some Turkish peppers and some other mild ones.
But I know more experienced pepperheads can tell....I was wondering about it.

 

[Kramer]

I think you'll find eating peppers to be hotter more often than not because most commercial sauces using those peppers have other ingredients and/or milder peppers that essentially water down the hot pepper content.  Some even add sugar, which is thought to compete with the heat sensation and sort of temper the burn on your tongue, not sure how true that is but I could see it.
 
I like to make very basic sauces, just hot peppers fermented with a bit of garlic and pepper for a few months, and just a little vinegar added at the end.  They're very hot sauces this way, and taste more like biting into a fresh pod (albeit with a nice ferment tang) because, by the end, it's really just hot peppers and not much else.  I do still enjoy lots of the boutique-y super hot sauces and all the crazy flavors people come up with though, and some of those are wicked hot so what do I know.  lol

 

[Demented]

I find that nothing compares to eating them fresh. Unless you're getting a sauce that's pretty much 100% pepper, it wont be as hot. The average 5fl.oz bottle only holds about 130-160g of sauce. People give me really odd looks when I'm dumping half a bottle of El Yucateco on one taco because it's got all of 4 habaneros in the thing. Cooking with fresh pods is my favourite though. I find it kinda knocks the heat out of superhots so you can enjoy eating the flesh more, but the entire dish does get substantially hot.

 

[Dspayre]

I really like that xxxtra hot Yucateco one....it's a nice one for Mexicsn style foods indeed and packs a good punch....too hot for people not into heat and probably one in the middle maybe if you like it hot.

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[Demented]

I really like that xxxtra hot Yucateco one....it's a nice one for Mexicsn style foods indeed and packs a good punch....too hot for people not into heat and probably one in the middle maybe if you like it hot.

Thanks for the input guys.

That one is pretty good. I go through at least a bottle of it a month. For comparison to fresh pods, that sauce is usually under 50k SHU.

 

[SpainChillihead]

My opinion is the same as Kramer and Demented.
Industrial sauces have a lot of ingredients that dilute the heat from the peppers. Also, in many recipes, peppers are not the main ingredient.
Instead, homemade sauces are a good option to add hot. The best, in my opinion, are the fermented sauces. You can add all the hot peppers you want.
Another option is homemade dips. They can be made of all types and, again, you can add as much spice as you want.
Finally, say that there is nothing better than eating fresh peppers. In harvest season I always add fresh chopped peppers to almost all my meals. Finding a piece of 7 Pot or fresh Chili is always a nice and hot surprise. I even have almost any bags of hot peppers in the freezer to keep doing this.
So in my opinion, I conclude that it is better to eat peppers directly. You taste the full flavor of the pod and all its heat.
I hope I've been helpful.
Greetings.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I would go with what is best for the recipe. For example, chili is made with peppers, mostly, dried. A stir fry may beg for some fresh peppers! And hot sauce may go great on pizza, or on that stir fry, or even in that chili! Go with what fits the meal and adjust accordingly. If using a reaper hot sauce you may want your peppers to be anchos in the chili, and thai in the stir fry. Why? Flavorrrrrr! And balance! If you want it hotter dice up that reaper!

 

[Dspayre]

I would go with what is best for the recipe. For example, chili is made with peppers, mostly, dried. A stir fry may beg for some fresh peppers! And hot sauce may go great on pizza, or on that stir fry, or even in that chili! Go with what fits the meal and adjust accordingly. If using a reaper hot sauce you may want your peppers to be anchos in the chili, and thai in the stir fry. Why? Flavorrrrrr! And balance! If you want it hotter dice up that reaper!

True, one sauce works better than another depending on the dish, which goes for peppers too.
I ate a pepper whole the other day.....the typical Spanish pepper most people here use to spice things up, comes wrapped with cut vegetables for making Chinese style food. It was laughable....tasted like a bell pepper with a very tiny hint of heat.
The sauces I use/tried so far are varied and I like to try/eat them on chicken wings/legs to get the taste....and because it's just great to eat. A lot of them are clear as to where to use them in....like that Yucateco for Mexican stuff, Pimenterie Bollywood (which I love) on chicken/Indian style foods. Others are just trying out to find out if it's good. I like Fiyafiyah with stirred eggs for example.
Still have 4 plants growing and really going well, so these whole peppers are hopefully coming from them. They were under heavy attack from aphids though....one was literally infested with them (and the others had them too) where you could hardly see green anymore...in no-time that happened. A bath of spirit combined with dishwashing soap took care of that....almost looked like the baddest one would not survive but they are quite sturdy, next morning it was already on its feet again so to speak, looking towards the sunlight.

 

[Hammer Town]

I find fresh pepper pods to be far spicier than the other options. I think it has something to do with the capsaicin oils being excreted, extracted, and literally being pushed into the flesh of the mouth from the chewing. Lately I’ve been having a big pot of soup regularly and cutting up fresh pods into bite sized chunks to add to it. I can definitely tell when a spoonful has a chunk of ghost in when chewing the vegetables.

 

[ze_test]

hi
Yap the burn is different in fresh pods .
..."I ate a pepper whole the other day.....the typical Spanish pepper most people here use to spice things up, comes wrapped with cut vegetables for making Chinese style food. It was laughable"...
What is the typical Spanish pepper ???? padron ?

 

[Dspayre]

The Chili pepper.....more known here as Spanish pepper.....don't ask me.

 

[bazzaroo]

Funny I should find this thread while searching for something else! It tickled me, because I thought back to the takeaway curry I ordered last night. It was supposed to be vindaloo strength, but really wasn't spicy at all! The veg soup I had for my lunch was way hotter.... thanks to finely chopping about six Scotch Bonnets, then lacing the soup with those! I'm finding myself doing that much more regularly rather than using hot sauce, especially this time of year when I've got an abundance!

 

[PollenNut]

Diluted or undiluted... a sauce is generally just a diluted form of the actual pepper with added vinegar, honey, sugar, etc. depending on the specific profile the sauce maker is going for. A pepper on the other hand is undiluted... having eaten a fair amount of peppers from Carolina Reaper on down on live television and home video... I can assure you that no regular sauce is going to compare to a fresh pepper. Now if you sauce is using extracts... then you are talking a whole different ball park.