So I’m making chili tonight, and I decide to replace the 3/4 cup chili powder with the real thing, or at least an assortment of whatever hot peppers Price Chopper had in it’s produce section. As I dice each kind up and throw it in the pot, we tried a slice to see how hot it was. The first few, chili peppers, no sweat. The wrinkled ones started to tingle the nerves a little. But then we got to these little orange things that were hard as hell to dice, but we tried a slice and it was hot.
About five seconds after swallowing the burning set in, nothing major. I drank a few sips of milk and was fine. Then I rinsed my face as my eyebrows were starting to sweat. The problem happened about thirty seconds later when my cheeks started burning. The oil from chopping the peppers and tossing them in the pot had been spread by my hands, which were at this point starting to burn.
…So it’s 8 hours later now and still my hands kind of burn, when will this go away?
I’ve often experienced the same thing. My favorite trick for stopping the burning on the hands is to rub the insides of your thighs or if you happen to be male, like myself your *alls. It’s allways worked for me, no more burning hands…at least, I don’t notice them anymore!
[sub]Pay no attention to drunks, could be hazardous to your health.[/sub]
The active ingredient is an oil, any oil removing substance (soap) will help.
I figure what works on the throat will work on the skin. See Cecil’s column Why water won’t help after eating spicy hot food You can try rinsing your hands with rubbing alcohol. Or milk, or orange juice, or salt…
Rumor has it that you can neutralize the capsaicin in peppers with an aqueous solution of potassium permanganate. It’s probably illegal for the makers of canned peppers to do it this way anymore, but if you are really desparate, and don’t mind purple hands, it might be worth a try. Unfortunately gargling with solutions of powerful oxidizing agents is a BAD idea !
Sounds like you either got a hold of some habaneros or pequins, both pretty hot.
I’m surprised you can still feel it 8 hours later, but I’d agree with using soap to wash it off, or try something base to neautralize it, like rubbing some baking soda on your hands. Good luck.
Oh yeah, did you eat the chili? Expect some burning at the other end of your body soon…
Learned this in Mexico.If you get it in your eye,rub it with human hair such as someone’s ponytail. Takes the sting right out. Something to do with the oil in hair.
Rub your wet hands on a stainless steel surface like your sink. Nobody knows why this works, but it seems to remove lots of different contaminant oils from the skin.