Where my fellow cooks at???

[columbia]

I've had a rhubarb custard pie that was damn good (if you want to stray away from the traditional approach).

[Sarcastic]

I try rhubarb year after year and each time I put it in my mouth I feel like a pucking goat.

[Froggy]

never rub another man's rhubarb

[shmenguin]

I've been a strip steak man for a while now, but I really had a craving for filet tonight. And it was the best steak I ever made. Perfect crust, and it just melted in my mouth.

I got one of those fancy thermapen meat thermometers. It made all the difference. I could get the meat right where I wanted it at 145 degrees.

[Kraftster]

I put Stubb's Original Wing Sauce (with real habanero peppers per label) on some slow cooked beef shoulder tonight. Holy crap, that is some really hot sauce for coming right out of the jar and not labeling itself as being fiery.

[tifosi77]

I would think that putting "real habanero peppers" on the label was sufficient warning. (So sayeth Tif, whose desk drawer behind him as he types this contains no less than 14 jars of hot sauce, 9 of which are made with habanero)

[Kraftster]

Ha. I guess that's true. I enjoy the heat, use habaneros myself pretty often, I just imagine some folks have a rude awakening when they buy "Original Wing Sauce" which doesn't even say hot on the label!

[OutofFoil]

In my first apartment out of college, I grew some tomatoes and peppers, including habanero's. I had a buddy I worked with over and he'd never seen orange peppers. He asked if they were hot, I told him they had a bite to them. He said he liked hot things and asked about trying it. I handed him the pepper and before I could get the knife to cut a sliver for him to try, he just takes a big honkin bite out of it! Much pain for him and much hilarity for me ensued. I finally had mercy and gave him some milk and bread. I told him it had a bite to it...

[mac5155]

He bit back I guess

[Froggy]

one of my roommates had a bottle of hot sauce laying around the kitchen. I decided to throw some in some rice i was cooking... how hot could it be?

http://www.hotsauce.com/PAIN-100-Hot-Sauce-p/1343.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


it messed me up... i learned my threshold. it's below this.

[blackjack68]

This was my limit.

http://www.hotsauce.com/Dave-s-Gourmet- ... p/1107.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, it did not remove driveway grease stains as advertised.

[tifosi77]

Some friends at work bought a sauce from the UK that was made from ghost chiles and a pure capsicum extract. The ghost chiles were used to lower the heat level of the extract. The final sauce had a Scoville rating of something like 3,000,000; basically, that means if you had 1 ounce of sauce, you would need to dissolve that in 3,000,000 ounces of water - 187,500 pounds - before the heat was no longer detectable. We had a contest to see who could consume the most sauce. I tried two drops about half the size of my pinky fingernail, spaced over about 15 minutes.......... I thought I was going to die. I prepared for the event by bringing in a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and I ate the whole thing in about two minutes, to no avail whatsoever.

About 45 minutes later, just when the pain was finally subsiding, I had to go to the bathroom...........

I've broken bones that hurt less than that stupid sauce. Don't get me wrong, I really like heat and consider myself pretty stout when it comes to heat tolerance. But this was just ridiculous. At no point did I experience an endorphin rush; on the contrary - no kidding - I probably would have welcomed death about 20 minutes in.

[SoupOrSam]

I sprinkle this on my fries just for giggles.

http://www.hotsauce.com/Blair-s-16-Mill ... illion.htm

[columbia]

I'm in it for the flavor, when it comes to hot sauces.

After a certain point of heat....there doesn't seem to be a point.
It's like complimenting a band, because their loud.

[blackjack68]

I sprinkle this on my fries just for giggles.

http://www.hotsauce.com/Blair-s-16-Mill ... illion.htm

No you don't.

[shafnutz05]

I'm in it for the flavor, when it comes to hot sauces.

After a certain point of heat....there doesn't seem to be a point.
It's like complimenting a band, because their loud.

At some point, all it does is tear apart your digestive tracts and stomach. It's stupid.

[Shyster]

I experimented with hot sauces back in college and law school, and I’ve tried quite a few. I don’t care at all for extract sauces; they’re just heat with no flavor. I also came to the realization that I didn’t really like the flavor of the habanero pepper. It just doesn’t taste all that good to me. These days, I mostly stick with Tabasco, although I also have a fondness for sauces made from African peri-peri peppers. I used to be able to buy Nali Sauce from Malawi (I think from Mo Hotta Mo Betta), and that was really good. Unfortunately, the supply dried up and I can’t find anywhere that sells it. If you ever see this stuff (the label cautions “Friends, take care”), be sure to pick some up.

Oddly, my brother, who could always eat way hotter stuff than I could, wasn’t able to take Nali, while I could eat it just fine.


EDIT: Nali has a Facebook page that mentions that Whole Foods in the U.S. will start selling their sauces in 2013. If anyone ever sees this stuff in a Whole Paycheck, please come back here and let us know.

[tifosi77]

Your comment about the flavor of habanero is interesting, because to me the flavor is the big attraction. It has a fruity/citrusy note that's sort of unique in the chile world, and I absolutely love it.

Grant Achatz developed a way to extract the capsicum from chiles and make a 0 Scoville chile 'liquor' so you can taste the pure flavor of the fruit.... but it requires a $10,000 roto-vap machine.

[count2infinity]

Your comment about the flavor of habanero is interesting, because to me the flavor is the big attraction. It has a fruity/citrusy note that's sort of unique in the chile world, and I absolutely love it.

Grant Achatz developed a way to extract the capsicum from chiles and make a 0 Scoville chile 'liquor' so you can taste the pure flavor of the fruit.... but it requires a $10,000 roto-vap machine.

I got one in a room down the hall from my office... let's do this.

[tifosi77]

Seriously...... just juice enough of the chile of your choice (stemmed and seeded) to yield about 1 L of liquid and vap it at 40° C under vacuum. It will boil and produce vapor which will condenses back into liquid; the distillate will be pure chile flavor with no capsicum.

[count2infinity]

wow...i was shocked to see how high the boiling point of capsaicin was (210-220 degrees C). I'm guessing all the flavor compounds boil along with the water in the pepper.

[tifosi77]

Uh.... apparently there's a bit more to it than I thought. It needs to be blended (well, homogenized, really) with something like vodka, which has no flavor and a low boiling point. This apparently is to prevent changing the flavor profile of the distillate from the application of heat. You then allow the alcohol and oil to separate overnight (or fire up your centrifuge at 10k rpm for 45 minutes), leaving behind your pure chile essence. (Apparently the raw unfiltered distillate will be ~120 proof.... zoikes)

http://www.cookingissues.com/primers/rotovap/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (search for the "Habanero Liquor" recipe on the page)

Warning: the distillate of habanero is the most contaminating of any we do. The flavor gets into all the glassware and lubricant in the system. The entire rotovap has to be broken down and cleaned in an ultrasonic bath after a habanero run. Because of this we do a lot of it in a row and then don’t make it for a while. You also need to be extremely careful about boil-over on this product. Even a little boil-over will make your distillate spicy and ruin the effect.

[count2infinity]

we have a centrifuge as well... i'll get working on it tomorrow.

[columbia]

[canaan]

If c2i does this, I will be impresses