become an expert in chile!
Is it CHILE or CHILI ?
What are Capsicum peppers called? Is it CHILE or CHILI, or even CHILLI or CHILLIE ? It depends of where you are in the world. Nowadays, the Capsicum pepper is referred to by most people as the CHILE, where as the meal made from meat and chile peppers is referred to as a CHILI. Even so, CHILE PEPPER can appear in the local dialects as something else.
What Makes a Chili Hot?
The substance in chilies that makes them spicy is called capsaicin. It is concentrated in the veins of the fruit (not the seeds) and stimulates the nerve endings in your mouth, fooling your brain into thinking you’re in pain. The brain responds by releasing substances called endorphins, which are similar in structure to morphine. A mild euphoria results, and chilies can be mildly addictive because of this hot pepper “high”. The seed contain a small portion of capsaicin (the stuff that makes a pepper hot). The “hot” comes from capsaicinoids concentrated in the inner wall of the pepper and don’t forget those white lines that run from top to bottom, these to contain small amounts of capsaicinoids.
What can I do to cool down?
There are several theories on this and there have even been studies done. Milk and milk based products are the best bet for you. Remeber Beer and Water will only spread the flames!
I like eating spicy food like curry and chilli. Is this food healthy during pregnancy?
It’s fine to eat spicy foods while you’re pregnant, as long as you feel OK while you’re eating them. While you’re pregnant, you should eat a healthy balanced diet, to make sure that you get enough energy and nutrients for your baby to grow and develop, and for your body to cope with the changes taking place.
I love hot and spicy Mexican food, even though it tends to give me heart burn. Are hot and spicy foods bad to eat and can they actually damage my stomach?
The “hot” in hot, spicy Mexican food comes from capsicum peppers, better known as chili or red peppers, which have been eaten in large quantities by many cultures for at least 400 years. Along with being highly desired for their pungent, hot quality, they are rich in vitamins A and C. And, as many of us have learned the hard way, they can set your mouth on fire. The ingredient in the peppers that causes the “burning sensation” is the alkaloid capsaicin. This can be fairly powerful stuff. It is used in antidog and antimugger sprays and as we all know very hot sauces. But capsaicin will not damage your stomach. Aspirin is more of a concern.
Does hot sauce burn calories?
Capsaicin appears to increase your metabolic rate so you can burn more calories. This is an important finding for dieters. If you sprinkle cayenne pepper flakes on your low-fat pizza or soup, toss some sliced jalapeno peppers into your salad, or chop some habanero peppers into your turkey chili, you may be able to lose weight faster! You’ll also benefit from the other perks: lower triglycerides and great digestion.
What’s the hottest sauce?
The hottest hot sauce we carry is 357 Mad Dog Collectors Edition. It registers at 600,000 Scoville Units. There are hotter items, but those are extracts and the hottest one of those available on the market today is Blair’s 6 am which ranges from 10.3 million to 16 million scoville units. Caldera, also made by Blair’s, runs a close second with ranges from 1 million to 13 million scoville units.
What is the hottest pepper?
The hottest pepper on record is the Red Savina, but recently the Chocolate Brown Habanero and the Naga Jolokia have been rumored to have higher heat ratings.
If there’s a hot sauce that I’m looking for and you don’t carry it, can it be specially ordered?
We place specialty orders for 1,000’s of sauces. If there’s something in particular you are looking for, simply email us your request and we’ll see what we can do. Send us a request or fill out our mail order form for more information.
I heard you can die from eating too much hot sauce (ie the hottest hot sauces)?
The super-hot sauces will not seriously harm you. “Comprehensive nutritional studies have not shown any adverse effects of chile or capsaicinoids even at ten times the maximum use levels,” wrote the one world’s experts on capsaicin, V.S. Govindarajan, author of the mammoth study, Capsicum–Production, Technology, Chemistry and Quality. But even if you do overindulge in super-hot sauces, do not worry, for they are quickly metabolized in the liver and excreted in the urine within a few hours. (Excerpted from The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia, by Dave DeWitt, William Morrow & Co., 1999).
Do you need to refrigerate hot sauce?
It depends. If the sauce is vinegar based with no special ingredients (so it is basically made up of vinegar, peppers and salt), then no, you do not need to refrigerate it. So your basic Tabasco and Louisiana type sauces do not need to take up room in your refrigerator, but any other styles of hot sauce should be kept refrigerated. I’ve found that I like to keep all my sauces refrigerated that way they maintain a consistent flavor. If you don’t have room in your fridge, try getting a mini fridge, more often then not you can pick up a cheap mini fridge around a local college come summer time. Or if you have the space, get a full size fridge (if your wife will let you) and you’ll be amazed at how many sauces you can fit in it. If the sauce is unopened it can remain unrefrigerated for about 6 months to a year (depending on the manufacturing date) and still maintain it’s flavor. In fact, like wine, some hot sauces get better with age. Tabasco hot sauce is aged for years before being placed on the market shelves.
