# Spicy booby trap at a pot-luck? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205 "2010-09-09T18:23:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/41 "2010-09-10T23:52:41Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Horseradish is yummy! I’ve come to expect this level of backwardness from Dodgers fans. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/42 "2010-09-11T00:16:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Habenero sauces may be hotter than jalepeno ones,… The peppers themselves are hotter. With sauces, though, it can go any which way, since you don’t know how much they dilute it. If, for instance, you want a moderate amount of heat but very little actual flavor, then you start with something super-hot like a habanero, and then dilute it down to the heat level you want. And of course there’s the machismo factor, too: If you take bhut jolokia and dilute it by a factor of a thousand, you’d end up with a perfectly reasonable sauce, but people are still going to buy it and brag about how they eat sauce made from the hottest pepper in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/43 "2010-09-11T00:16:39Z")
What kind of vinegar do you use? I don’t care if it is super hot or not, I love Chipotles in Adobo and want to try this sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/44 "2010-09-11T00:36:41Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > > [@evilbeth](#): > > > > I agree with this. Many folks I know who slather habanero sauce on food really have issues with horseradish. It’s a completely different heat and spice flavor. Although, it will alter the flavor, not just add heat. > > Yeah, horseradish/mustard/wasabi spice are completely different from capsaicin spice. It’s not a “burning the tongue” spice, but rather an “irritating the nose/lungs” spice. I wish there was a different name for these two different types of “heat,” because I don’t find them comparable at all. I can literally eat an entire jar of horseradish (not sauce, but pure grated horseradish) without any problem. It’s a very temporary irritation and dissipates very quickly. Like within seconds. And if you don’t breathe incorrectly when eating it, you miss much of the punch, anyway. I could not say the same thing for a jar of habanero peppers. The heat from a single habanero will linger for ten minutes or so. Agreed. I’m flashing back to the summer of 1995, which I spent in Novosibirsk, Russia. Our program director had brought a small (maybe 2 oz.) bottle of Tabasco to spice up the 4th of July chili. The chili served, oh, 60 people. The Russians in the group couldn’t handle it at allo; they were begging for beer to quench the fire, with tears streaming down their tomato-red faces. The Americans didn’t feel the heat at all. Russian mustard or horseradish, though, will kick my ass. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/45 "2010-09-11T00:44:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > So far as I know, there are at least four completely different kinds of “spicy heat”: Capsaicin (found in fruit-peppers), mustard oil (found in mustard, horseradish, wasabi, etc.), piperine (found in black pepper), and cinnamaldehyde (in cinnamon oil). Also onion-heat–i.e., the head you get from biting into a clove of raw garlic. Pretty sure that’s different from any of the ones you mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/46 "2010-09-11T02:33:01Z")
I’m pretty sure it’s different, too, but I’m not sure I’d classify that as “hot”, just as a really strong flavor. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Why](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/96bed5/32.png) [@Doctor\_Why](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Why)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/47 "2010-09-11T02:43:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m pretty sure it’s different, too, but I’m not sure I’d classify that as “hot”, just as a really strong flavor. Where does ginger fit in? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/48 "2010-09-11T02:44:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, horseradish/mustard/wasabi spice are completely different from capsaicin spice. It’s not a “burning the tongue” spice, but rather an “irritating the nose/lungs” spice. I wish there was a different name for these two different types of “heat,” because I don’t find them comparable at all. Too bad you don’t speak Bengali, which has separate terms for – Temperature heat – _gorom_ Chili pepper heat – _jhal_ Mustard heat – _jhãjh_ ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/49 "2010-09-11T03:25:41Z")
I would love to see a bottle of homemade “STFU SAUCE” on the pot luck table, whether I found it to be hot enough to shut me up or not! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/50 "2010-09-11T04:22:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m pretty sure it’s different, too, but I’m not sure I’d classify that as “hot”, just as a really strong flavor. Have you ever tried to eat a whole clove of raw garlic? It’s not really strong, it’s really painful. Closer to horseradish than anything else, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205/51 "2010-09-11T12:09:40Z")
Since we’ve got all the pepperheads together, I have a small question, that also might be relevant to the OP: is there a way to make something spicy without creating that awful (to me) aftertaste? And, consequentially, is there a way to do the opposite, making it burn for a long time? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-booby-trap-at-a-pot-luck/553205.md?page=2)