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Hot oil extraction

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Pepperfire

I work in a restaurant and we have been working with varying ground peppers to make a super hot oil extract to dip fried foods into before serving.  We have been utilizing a host of different peppers and have had great success creating varying heat levels, but we are struggling to make our oil, basically inedible.  
 
One technique is to get a pot of oil to about 300 degrees and mix a set amount of ground pepper, such as trinidad scorpion and remove from the stove and allow to cool.  The hot oil does pull more heat out of the ground pepper than room temperature oil or even oil at 150 degrees or so.
 
The problem we are having is that we seem to be hitting a saturation limit and can't seem to get an oil that is infused with enough heat
 
Our general configuration has been 3 lbs oil and (between) 4oz and 10oz ground Trinidad Scorpion powder, but there isn't any significant difference between 5oz and 10oz.
 
I'm not a bonafide pepper head, but I would say we are fairly accurately able to make sauces that vary from boring to about 200hu.  However, I feel like I can buy sauces off the shelf that are hotter than what we are making and the inability to make this oil blistering hot is becoming a production problem.
 
Any suggestions on how to make this oil bath hotter?
 
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:welcome: to THP.
 
Pure Evil won't work or I'd suggest that.  :lol:  It's that whole oil-n-water thing... ;)  But there may be a couple other options. Check your PM's. 
 
salsalady
 
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Capsaicin is oil-soluble and as such you could "boost" your oil bath by adding in pure capsaicin extract or the crystalline form.  You will quickly move beyond anything resembling a "flavourful oil" though and start treading upon the dominion of in-edibility.
 
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Is capsaicin a terpine? 
 
I have no idea!  that is for others more scientific and knowledgeable than I to reply.   Hopefully one of our resident chemists will chime in on that subject!   
 
Technically, capsaicin is one of many capsaicinoid compounds found in chiles. There are over 20 capsaicinoid compounds in most chiles.  The different compounds react differently in the mouth and body causing the mouth burn and the body endorphin rush.  They've kind of all been erroneously lumped together under the general heading of "capsaicin" because that is the most prominent capsaicinoid compound in most chiles.   
 
I'm not a food scientist, chemist, or PA. so take these comments with the usual grain of salt... (and lime, onion, cilantro, tomato and.......)... :cool:
 
that was a generous Bump for the topic, that's all.  :lol:
 
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As I understand it and i could be wrong on this as I am not a scientist, though I did play one on stage once and I did stay in a Holiday Express last year. Capsaicin is a vanilloid and there are some Terpines that exhibit a vanilloid like tendency in binding. Here's an abstract I found on it:
 
Copied from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9761427
 
"Selected naturally occurring unsaturated dialdehyde sesquiterpenes and related bioactive terpenoids were assayed for vanilloid-like activity. Out of the 25 compounds tested, eight inhibited completely the specific binding of [3H]resiniferatoxin by rat spinal cord membranes: binding affinities ranged from 0.6 microM for cinnamodial to 19.0 microM for hebelomic acid F. These values were comparable to the binding affinity of capsaicin (2.7 microM). With the exception of four ligands, compounds that inhibited resiniferatoxin binding to rat spinal cord membranes were also pungent on the human tongue where they showed cross-tachyphylaxis with capsaicin. As expected from their reactive nature, these compounds possess additional sites of action, as reflected in the complex behavior of the stimulation of calcium influx by cinnamodial and cinnamosmolide at high concentrations. This observation might explain the unexpectedly weak membrane depolarization by cinnamodial compared to capsaicin. We conclude that a range of sesquiterpene dialdehydes and related terpenoids, both pungent and non-pungent, may function as vanilloids. These compounds may represent a new chemical lead for the development of vanilloid drugs, structurally unrelated to either capsaicin or resiniferatoxin."
 
With regard to your "Hot" oil, you stated that your using a powder. Have you tried to create your oil using whole dried pods or fresh pods? While it's all going to be in the powder, there could be a difference in using whole pods or fresh pods to the powder. Most infusions I've seen done were with whole pods and also were allowed to sit for a week or 2 for the infusion to happen.
 
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RocketMan said:
As I understand it and i could be wrong on this as I am not a scientist, though I did play one on stage once and I did stay in a Holiday Express last year. Capsaicin is a vanilloid and there are some Terpines that exhibit a vanilloid like tendency in binding. Here's an abstract I found on it:
 
Copied from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9761427
 
"Selected naturally occurring unsaturated dialdehyde sesquiterpenes and related bioactive terpenoids were assayed for vanilloid-like activity. Out of the 25 compounds tested, eight inhibited completely the specific binding of [3H]resiniferatoxin by rat spinal cord membranes: binding affinities ranged from 0.6 microM for cinnamodial to 19.0 microM for hebelomic acid F. These values were comparable to the binding affinity of capsaicin (2.7 microM). With the exception of four ligands, compounds that inhibited resiniferatoxin binding to rat spinal cord membranes were also pungent on the human tongue where they showed cross-tachyphylaxis with capsaicin. As expected from their reactive nature, these compounds possess additional sites of action, as reflected in the complex behavior of the stimulation of calcium influx by cinnamodial and cinnamosmolide at high concentrations. This observation might explain the unexpectedly weak membrane depolarization by cinnamodial compared to capsaicin. We conclude that a range of sesquiterpene dialdehydes and related terpenoids, both pungent and non-pungent, may function as vanilloids. These compounds may represent a new chemical lead for the development of vanilloid drugs, structurally unrelated to either capsaicin or resiniferatoxin."
 
With regard to your "Hot" oil, you stated that your using a powder. Have you tried to create your oil using whole dried pods or fresh pods? While it's all going to be in the powder, there could be a difference in using whole pods or fresh pods to the powder. Most infusions I've seen done were with whole pods and also were allowed to sit for a week or 2 for the infusion to happen.
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Yup, capsaicin is a vanilloid, having the vanillyl group (the benzene ring with alcohol and O-methyl side group). The oil saturated with capsaicin will make it harder and harder to pull out more capsaicin. So the only alternative is to add pure capsaicin as suggested by KingLearUK if you want an atomic oil, but like KingLearUK mentioned it will border pure evil. Commercially, the capsaicinoid nonivamide is used to make food hotter as it is more heat stable and cheaper to make.
 
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Your purpose is not to cook in this oil but to 'dip fried foods in' directly before service yes?  Like poppers fresh out of the fryer, dipped into said oil and then onto the plate with garnish and serve right?  And you want it big mean dog style but not big big ornery bad dog style.  My suggestion is to move away from the oil and find a different solution - specifically why not start adding your ground scorpions to your breading mix or batter mix?  If you're currently using previously cooked and frozen items then I'd suggest mixing spices (and pure evil) into a water based almost 'dressing' that you could mist onto the food with a spray bottle right before it goes out.  
 
If you're damn determined about using the oil then heat the oil, remove from heat and add the spices and allow it to steep.  For a good long time, like a month.  It'll pick up a lot more color and flavor as it ages - especially if you're using powders.  I still think you're going to run into mushy breading dipping a hot just-from-the-fryer food into spicy oil, but maybe drizzled from a squirt bottle would do.  Best of luck and welcome to THP.   :)
 
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