JohnTheTexican
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2006
- Messages
- 8,196
It's that time of year again. I can't believe my Carolina Reaper plants are five years old now. Unfortunately, I picked all the ripe peppers a couple days ago and didn't think to take a pic first. The first of the year's foison was pretty spectacular; they looked like Crunchberry bushes from the old Captain Crunch commercials. Here's what they looked loike after having been picked over:
A few have ripened in the mean time, and I expect in another couple of weeks they'll be loaded with red fruit again. There are lots of green ones that don't show up in the pictures. But there are a few that were half green a few days ago that are a nice orange now.
I've pretty much run out of thing to do with them. They're really good for a jelly to put on fried pork belly or bacon and stuff like that. The sugar tames the heat. I've also used them in hot sauce, mostly blended with milder stuff like habaneros and Thai chilis. But there just so darned hot that a little goes a really long way. I've been seeding them before grinding them up (more flavor and a little less heat), but they're still excessively hot. About the same on the Scoville scale as some commercial pepper spray, from what I've read.
The Aultmore bottle is left over from last year. The little square one is what I made today. After giving away most of the chilis, I took what was left -- about a gallon by volume -- halved them, seeded them and ground them up. Then added about a tablespoon of salt and half a cup of 9% vinegar and bottled it. Super-concentrated stuff.
I did all this outside because so much capsaicin gets into the air just from cutting them up. Also had to wash the blender and knife and stuff outside because when running water hits the utensil it makes a capsaicin aerosol that, in an enclosed space, can make breathing a bit uncomfortable. I also wore nitrile glove through the whole thing. Of course.
After I was finished, I removed the gloves, taking care not to let my skin touch the outside of the gloves. Then I washed my hands a couple times. Then the slow burn started to build. And build.
Nitrile gloves just don't cut it. Somehow, the oils from the chilis make their way through the gloves. And washing my hands wasn't enough. Nor was washing them again. Even diving in the pool and taking a swim didn't help. In fact, the water just amplified the heat. Close to the surface, where the water was warmest, it felt scalding on my hands.
It's an hour later, and my hands are still burning. But it's a kind of a pleasant burn.
A few have ripened in the mean time, and I expect in another couple of weeks they'll be loaded with red fruit again. There are lots of green ones that don't show up in the pictures. But there are a few that were half green a few days ago that are a nice orange now.
I've pretty much run out of thing to do with them. They're really good for a jelly to put on fried pork belly or bacon and stuff like that. The sugar tames the heat. I've also used them in hot sauce, mostly blended with milder stuff like habaneros and Thai chilis. But there just so darned hot that a little goes a really long way. I've been seeding them before grinding them up (more flavor and a little less heat), but they're still excessively hot. About the same on the Scoville scale as some commercial pepper spray, from what I've read.
The Aultmore bottle is left over from last year. The little square one is what I made today. After giving away most of the chilis, I took what was left -- about a gallon by volume -- halved them, seeded them and ground them up. Then added about a tablespoon of salt and half a cup of 9% vinegar and bottled it. Super-concentrated stuff.
I did all this outside because so much capsaicin gets into the air just from cutting them up. Also had to wash the blender and knife and stuff outside because when running water hits the utensil it makes a capsaicin aerosol that, in an enclosed space, can make breathing a bit uncomfortable. I also wore nitrile glove through the whole thing. Of course.
After I was finished, I removed the gloves, taking care not to let my skin touch the outside of the gloves. Then I washed my hands a couple times. Then the slow burn started to build. And build.
Nitrile gloves just don't cut it. Somehow, the oils from the chilis make their way through the gloves. And washing my hands wasn't enough. Nor was washing them again. Even diving in the pool and taking a swim didn't help. In fact, the water just amplified the heat. Close to the surface, where the water was warmest, it felt scalding on my hands.
It's an hour later, and my hands are still burning. But it's a kind of a pleasant burn.
