31
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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 ...
- 551
27
votes
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How can vegans alleviate the effects of spicy food?
I have done no testing of this at all but I was surprised to find on this site that they recommend trying a spoon full (or cube of) sugar.
Perhaps the easiest way of calming down a flaming mouth is ...
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22
votes
Unambiguously referring to "spiciness"
Spiciness is a taste perception, and as such, it is simply subjective. There is no way to create an objective scale for rating it.
I read your comment about "objective spiciness", but it is not ...
- 136k
17
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 ...
- 271
15
votes
How can vegans alleviate the effects of spicy food?
Avocado would be the classic answer IME (often in the form of guacamole, but not required to be in that form.) AFAIK it's the fat effectively diluting the hot pepper oil in either case, (where it's ...
- 15.8k
15
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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.
- 20.5k
15
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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 ...
- 9,047
11
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How can vegans alleviate the effects of spicy food?
There's a great answer to this from Vietnam, where super-spicy food is popular and dairy generally isn't. It combines many of the other suggestions into something wonderfully smooth and soothing:
...
11
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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 ...
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9
votes
How can vegans alleviate the effects of spicy food?
Try a nut milk (almond comes to mind), soy milk or coconut milk. Here's a highly rated recipe for vegan "Sour Cream".
- 58.5k
9
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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.
...
- 15.8k
8
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How can vegans alleviate the effects of spicy food?
I've always liked the bread solution more than the dairy solution. It somehow feels to me that bread "mops up" the spicy stuff from my mucosa, while dairy dissolves it, but also spreads it around in ...
- 136k
7
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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 ...
- 61.4k
6
votes
Unambiguously referring to "spiciness"
I don't think there is an unambiguous system -- for example, the Thai places in my town alone have vastly different systems for rating how hot their dishes are (so an extra hot at one place is a ...
- 1,947
6
votes
Accepted
Unambiguously referring to "spiciness"
The best choice, in my opinion, is not to try to communicate - but to ask for a taste! Places that use spicy sauces will likely be willing to give you a small taste of the sauce (as spicy sauces are ...
- 5,683
6
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 ...
- 136k
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 ...
- 61.4k
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 ...
- 61.4k
5
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Unambiguously referring to "spiciness"
No, there is no objective way, other than the Scoville scale or measuring the moles of capsaicin per gram, because people lose sensitivity to spiciness as they get used to it. I would describe how ...
- 1,110
5
votes
What makes spicy heat linger?
I've lived (and eaten my way around) South East Asia for nearly the last fifteen years, and I think I know the effect that you're describing. Feel free to let me know if I'm off.
If what you're ...
- 4,084
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
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 ...
- 43.7k
5
votes
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 ...
- 61.4k
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 ...
- 61.4k
4
votes
How can vegans alleviate the effects of spicy food?
Im surprised not to see raw cucumber here - I thought it was a standard go-to. Sliced, or just munch on one raw, depending on how much of your mouth is on fire :-)
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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
What spicy ingredients hit the sinuses?
There are several different compounds that affects our nervous system in a way that we colloquially call "spicy" or "hot". The most common ones in culinary use are Capsaisin, Gingerol, Piperine and ...
- 8,863
4
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How can vegans alleviate the effects of spicy food?
Obvious answer is strong alcohol like vodka. It doesn't contain any animal products so I suppose vegan can use it.
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