I’ve always been a nut for those little pepperoncini peppers. In the old days I would eat a bunch of them along with a great big glass of milk 'cause I know that milk neutralizes the “hot” part of the pepper.
Alas, I can no longer digest milk, but I’m still nuts about the peppers. Anyone know of any other drinks (or foods) which would replace milk? (And for the record, anything which contains alcohol, while perhaps of general interest, won’t help me.)
Thanks
I wasn’t aware that milk “neutralized” capsaicin in the first place. I’d just keep eating the peppers.
Well, it looks as though milk does, in fact, offer some relief. Not enough to “neutralize”, but it seems to help lessen the effects a bit. Also, there are some other suggestions for you to try. Sugar water may work.
I’ve used bread to cool the heat. From what I’ve been told, whatever causes the heat is oil based, so water, soda, beer, etc are pretty ineffective. The bread actually soaks up the oils.
Good luck.
Hmmm…wouldn’t “sugar water” be about the same as soda pop? I know coke doesn’t work too well.
Olive oil might be worth a try, but only if I sop it up with bread. Trouble is, it didn’t score so well on your test.
At our county fair, the judges of spicy foods use crackers, bread, milk, and bits of cheese (for the oil I suspect). Each has their preference, and I’ve found that none of them do much more than dull the effect.
I’ve had rice with very hot foods, at that seems to work fairly well actually. I imagine it’s the soaking up the oil principle.
Or, you could try soy milk maybe.
Tequila. Cecil Adams on Why water won’t help after eating spicy hot food
It is a well known fact that milk is good against hot spices. According to Fiery-Foods.com:
Depending on what part of the milk you cannot digest, there might be something you could try. If you’re lactose intolerant, maybe you could try yougurt, where I believe that the lactose has been decomposed into simpler sugars, but the casein should still be there.
Or you could try milk chocolate, beans or nuts.
It’s time to experiment!
Testosterone always worked for me.
Suck it up.
Lettuce works. That’s why a lot of mexican restaurants put lettuce on the plate.
Plain Yogurt?
You may run into the digestion factor though…
For my intolerance, yogurt (and ice cream) goes through me better than milk.
The spiciness is caused by capsaicin’s high alkalinity. So you want to offset it with something acid. Tomato works well, or you could even suck on a lime or something if you’re trying to go non-dairy. As has been noted previously, Milk/dairy products have some additional effects that generally make them the best for putting out capsaicin fires - but if you can’t do dairy, just try to find something acidic.
Then why, pray tell, when I make salsa, which is ninety-five percent tomato, and maybe 2 percent hot pepper (cayenne) is it still hot? Even after a year in the jar?
You may wish to try hot tea or coffee. The pepper oils are also dissolved better by hot liquids, just as washing grease off of a surface is assisted by hot water instead of cold.
Tonight I tried pepperoncini and orange juice since somewhere it talked about citrus.
Taste-wise this was a real loser. (Though it was pretty lousy OJ to begin with.)
Just enjoy the afterglow