January/February 2001

Some Like It Hot

While some foods are bland and compliant, hot sauce is downright confrontational. It will not be kicked around or intimidated by anything. If it’s in there—even a little bit—you know it!
    Chilies of the genus Capsicum are distant cousins of the vanilla bean. They produce an oil called capsaicin that, when eaten, brings a fiery sensation to the mouth. This stuff creeps slowly and takes the tender mouth lining by surprise.
    Drinking water does nothing to put out these fires. Capsaicin is soluble only in oils and alcohol, so water just spreads the oils around more evenly. Whole milk helps and bread is even better because it sops up the oils.
    South and Central American cultures were using hot peppers at least 9,000 years ago and the ancient Mayans used cayenne to treat gum inflammation. About 5000 B.C., native North Americans began cultivating cayenne peppers and, about 6,500 years later, both cultures began trading cayennes and habaneros to the European explorers, who returned to the Old World with cries of, “Wait’ll you try this stuff!” Shortly thereafter, pepper trade with the Orient spread the joy in all directions.
    In 16th-century Europe, capsicum was used not only as food but also in medicines to promote digestion and stimulate circulation. Capsaicin is still used in medicinal products to treat pain.
    It has other uses, as well. In 1991, it was reclassified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a biochemical pesticide and registered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a repellent against insects, dogs, birds, voles, deer, rabbits, and tree squirrels.
Any product containing capsaicin must be used with caution. Capsaicin, used around the world in pepper sprays, can be extremely irritating to mucous membranes and the eyes.
    More than two million acres are devoted to the production of cayenne pepper. Experts believe it to be the most widely consumed spice in the world, with more than 25 percent of the world’s population eating these peppers every day.
    So why would anyone want to eat something like this? Apparently, there is an addictive joy to eating them. Peppers produce a mild euphoria within minutes after they are ingested because the body secretes its own natural pain relievers, endorphins. The chemical makeup of endorphins is like that of the opiates. Also like other addictive substances, repeated use of capsaicin produces reduced response. Ergo, the more often you eat them, the more it takes to get the effect.
    In 1865, Edmund McIlhenny sparked the hot sauce industry on Avery Island, Louisiana, with Tabasco. Most restaurants still carry this pepper sauce—minus the cologne bottles—somewhere behind the counter.
    Most of the hot sauce mystique circulates around the pleasure of the heat, but the different flavors of the sauces themselves elude many people. Those of us who have survived a lifetime of self-inflicted pain learn to appreciate those more subtle nuances.
    Keeping in mind the increased-tolerance factor, start small. If you want more heat after some practice, go for it. You must become accustomed to the heat before you can enjoy the flavor, and a lot depends on what you want to spice up. Sauces have bases of tomato, papaya, onion, mustard, even oysters, but some have such a distinctive flavor that the food they are supposed to enhance ends up tasting just like the sauce.
    Cayenne, habanero, jalapeño, and Scotch Bonnet pepper sauces have distinct flavors. Any preparation that contains the word “habanero” or “Scotch Bonnet” should be approached warily and poked with a stick—unless, of course, the dinner guests were uninvited.
    If your idea of “plenty of seasoning” is Worcestershire or A-1 sauce, you might not understand the appeal of an eye-watering bowl of chili, but a lot of people begin to salivate as soon as they read the words “hot sauce.” To those with more masochistic taste buds, there is no doubt about it; hot sauce is cool.

Ken Richards, a freelance writer based in Ft. Myers, is a self-confessed Chilihead.