31
votes
Accepted
Is there a quintessential Italian hot sauce?
Bottled hot sauce is not much in demand in Italy. I'm in central Italy, but I think in the south where spicy food is popular, chili is added fresh or dried to a dish rather than through a bottled ...
- 541
16
votes
Is there a quintessential Italian hot sauce?
I have family both in the very north and the very south of Italy.
In the north, spicy food is not super common but there is usually a jar of dried chilies in olive oil somewhere in the kitchen and ...
- 261
15
votes
Is there a quintessential Italian hot sauce?
The only one I know of is the Calabrese Spread/Sauce.
Whenever I see spicy food in Italy they mostly use hot chili.
Other than that, oil flavored with spicy chili.
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15
votes
Accepted
Does peppers (capsaicin) actually burn?
The "heat" associated with capsaicin isn't something that would show up in thermal imaging. Spicy foods will not be warmer on your plate or in your mouth than a non-spicy item exposed to the ...
- 9,092
11
votes
Accepted
Why is spicy food less spicy when it's allowed to cool?
Capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers spicy, activates a sensory receptor which can also be activated by heat. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin#Mechanism_of_action)
That means that when ...
- 612
8
votes
Can I reprocess vinegar hot pepper jelly?
Yes, though to be clear, you unseal, empty the jars into a pot, heat & add sugar, (while re-cleaning/sterilizing the jars) then fill the hot jars and process. You don't just add sugar to the jars.
...
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7
votes
Accepted
Did I kill my chili's heat by processing the tomatoes and onions together?
So, first, that chili recipe will always be heavily meat-flavored because it has 3lbs of beef in it; at a glance, that recipe is more than half beef by weight. So if you want a recipe with a subtler ...
- 65.6k
6
votes
can ice help with spicy food?
No.
The chemical action of capsaicin (the compound that triggers the burning sensation) is an effect on chemical receptors in your taste buds. It's perceived to a degree as temperature but it's ...
- 14.9k
6
votes
What pepper is used in Sriracha sauce?
Huy Fong Sriracha Sauce is made with a specific variety of red jalapeños which, at this point, is grown only for them.
Note that this is different from traditional Thai sriracha, which is made ...
- 65.6k
6
votes
What is considered "mild" vs. "hot" in different countries? (measured empirically)
Nobody has published reports on this kind of empirical evaluation, and there's a few reasons why not (in the below, "heat" refers to spiciness from capsaicin):
Heat tolerance and preference ...
- 65.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Reduce spiciness of chili
To some extent chilli (capsaicin) is like salt in that the best way to reduce the taste is dilution. However with capsaicin you can also make use of the fact that it dissolves in fats. But you can't ...
- 45.8k
5
votes
Accepted
Turning Harissa into Hot Sauce
The only difference between something that would be called "hot sauce" and a "chili paste" is the consistency, and perhaps how finely ground the chilis are (though harissas are usually pretty finely ...
- 3,063
5
votes
Accepted
How to Calculate Scoville Heat?
You cannot calculate it, you can only measure it.
Scoville is a subjective scale. Wikipedia tells you how it is measured - by testing with human panelists, using a certain protocol.
As all ...
- 141k
5
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Adding cayene early makes it less hot
Cooking over high heat causes capsaicin (the hot chemical in chiles) to break down and to vaporize, leaving less in the finished dish. There's a huge difference between cooking in water at 95C vs. in ...
- 65.6k
5
votes
Too tomatoey gravy?
The video recipe uses a lot of tomatoes, and the resulting curry appears to be heavily tomato-flavored. The quick paneer butter masala I make myself is very tomato-flavored, on purpose, because my ...
- 65.6k
4
votes
How can I wash down spicy food?
Mountain Dew. most sodas don't work well, though some say sugar helps, but mountain dew specifically has brominated vegetable oil as a bridge molecule to dissolve the oil based food color that gives ...
4
votes
How to keep biryani hot and moist for a long time
A Holding Cabinet
I'm assuming by your supplier being far away, you mean you can only get a delivery once per day. Keeping food overnight and then serving it all day is probably unfeasible.
While 8 ...
- 868
4
votes
Accepted
How can I process Hot Pepper without killing the spice (capsaicin)?
My personal experience is that, if you cook the rocoto peppers together with other ingredients in a pan, like in this recipe, or better simmer them in a tomato, cider, or vinegar-based sauce, most of ...
- 65.6k
4
votes
Reduce heat of mustard condiment
You could mix it with mayonnaise to make Dijonnaise, which is an excellent sandwich spread.
- 65.6k
3
votes
Reduce the hot taste in a Cambodian curry
Don't add anything to the curry itself.
Instead, serve it over steamed rice. The starchy rice will do more to dilute the hot pepper flavor than any liquid you would add to the curry.
- 65.6k
3
votes
Reduce the hot taste in a Cambodian curry
If it is about keeping authenticity, more coconut milk would be the answer. If you just want a toned down but well tasting curry, any emulsified fat - coconut milk, cream, yoghurt - will do, as long ...
- 15.3k
3
votes
How to Calculate Scoville Heat?
What SHU measures is (at least intended to be) the ppm by mass of capsaicin in the sauce, and there is a rough conversion factor of 1µg/kg capsaicin = 16 SHU. The concentration of capsaicin can be ...
- 39
3
votes
How long will cayenne peppers extend shelf life of cooked ground pork?
Opinion and learned knowledge without doing searches for citations to back it up to follow:
Spices, including peppers have a history of being used to extend the life of foods including meats. This ...
- 8,682
3
votes
What hot sauce should I use for Buffalo wings sauce?
I make my own hot sauce fairly frequently using whatever chilli peppers are available locally. A good basic Frank's Red Hot Sauce recipe is here: http://www.food.com/recipe/copycat-franks-red-hot-...
- 634
3
votes
How to thicken a hot chocolate microwave recipe
I'm not familiar with psyllium husks or guar gum, but I do know cornstarch and xanthan gum. Cornstarch needs be heated to 203 degrees Fahrenheit to have a thickening effect, but xanthan gum doesn't. ...
- 166
3
votes
Aleppo Pepper + Heat
Try it & see ;)
Aleppo isn't particularly hot; I haven't checked it on the Scoville scale, but just from experience, though it's got a little kick to it, & that kick can be quite variable ...
- 29.9k
3
votes
How to prevent runny nose when eating spicy foods?
Basically you can't prevent this from happening as it is a physiological (part of your body's natural function) reaction to an irritant - in this case the chemical capsaicin in the chili fruit ...
- 17k
3
votes
How *exactly* does the Scoville scale work?
The problem is it doesn't work exactly at all - it's a whole lot of guesswork & subjective impression. It also gets less accurate at higher reaches.
From Wikipedia - Scoville scale
A weakness of ...
- 29.9k
3
votes
Why are spicy curries red in color
There are curries from all over the world. Some are red. Some are green. Some are neither red nor green. Some are spicy. Some are not spicy. One can have a very mild red curry. Once can have a ...
- 78k
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