Betcha Didn't Know! (Peppers)

So I know you all have a lot of burning questions about peppers, and here's the real deal. There are several red hot tips to help you with everything from health benefits to cooling down your tongue after eating something hot. Check it out and comment and tell me what you think!

What makes peppers hot?
Most species of Capsicum contain capsaicin (methyl vanillyl nonenamide), a chemical that produces a strong burning sensation in the mouth. Capsaicin is mainly present in the pepper’s placenta, the white "ribs" that run down the middle and along the sides of a pepper, as well as in the seeds, and it is also unevenly distributed throughout the flesh. The amount of capsaicin in peppers is highly variable and is dependent on genetics.
Sometimes, both sweet and hot cultivars can be found within a type, and even in the one cultivar cool weather, excess water and nitrogen will increase sweetness, while stress adds pungency. The only pepper without capsaicin is the bell pepper.
In hot peppers you can see the capsaicin in the form of a shiny yellow substance on the placenta. A hot pepper can be made considerably less hot by removing the placenta.

How can I cool the heat from peppers in my mouth?
The least effective way to relieve the burning sensation in the mouth produced by peppers is to drink water. Capsaicin, the pungent substance in peppers, is poorly soluble in water, but more soluble in fat, oils, and pure alcohol. Therefore, some more effective solutions may be to cool down the mouth and throat with rice, cheese, buttered bread, yoghurt, ice cream or milk. The good news is that if nothing works, you can be sure that the burning sensation will gradually fade away by itself

What's the hottest pepper in the world?
The hotness of a chilli pepper is usually measured using the Scoville scale. The scale uses Scoville Heat Units (SHU) to indicate the amount of capsaicin present, this being the chemical that makes peppers hot.
Pure capsaicin measures 15,000,000-16,000,000 SHU, while a bell pepper measures 0 SHU. As of April 2006, the hottest pepper in the world is the Dorset Naga. It measures 876,000-970,000 SHU, some way ahead of the Red Savina Habanero Chilli, which returns a figure of 350,000-580,000 SHU. The Dorset Naga is too hot to be consumed directly, so it is used in contact with other food

Can peppers prevent Cancer? What's the benefits?
Several studies at different universities have found that capsaicin, the substance that makes peppers hot, can inhibit prostate cancer. According to the American Association for Cancer Research (www.aacr.org), researchers in the USA fed capsaicin to mice, and this caused the cancerous cells to die off. However, researchers advise that many compounds that show beneficial results in mice may not be as effective in human cancer patients. The evidence is not conclusive, and increasing your weekly intake of the hottest known chillies is not recommended

Capsicum species are an excellent source of vitamin C, and have been used extensively as a medicinal plant in different parts of the world. Some of the health benefits traditionally linked with peppers are their healing effect on respiratory problems, their ability to control and often cure sinus and nasal passage problems, and their power to reduce headaches. The pepper has been used as a digestive irritant, a stomachic stimulant, and a tonic. The plants have also been used as folk remedies for dropsy, colic, diarrhoea, asthma, arthritis, muscle cramps, and toothache. Modern Western medicine uses capsaicin, the pungent chemical present in peppers, as a circulatory stimulant and pain reliever.

How should I handle a hot peeper to avoid the burn?
You should be really careful when handling hot peppers, because they can not only burn your mouth, but your skin as well. The substance that makes peppers hot, capsaicin, is mainly present in the pepper’s placenta, the white “ribs” that run down the middle and along the sides of a pepper, as well as in the seeds, and it is also unevenly distributed throughout the flesh. Therefore, you should wear rubber gloves when handling hot peppers, especially when removing the seeds and the ribs. Always wash both the gloves and your hands very thoroughly with soap and warm water, and never, never touch your eyes, nose or mouth until you have washed your hands and gloves. Dried chillies are less hazardous to handle, but you should be careful all the same. Read more!

"Sour Grapes" Wine Tasting 101

Many of my friends ask me about wine selections and how to pair wines and I'm always happy to assist. Here's a little article I found that will also help you with wine tasting so you won't stick out like a sour thumb at that next posh dinner, or meeting the boss for lunch or so on.

So how does one taste the wine? In four steps: look, smell, taste, spit/swallow. Step one is to look at it (once it's in the glass) and evaluate its color. In general, the younger red wines are more red than the older that tend to become more brownish. The intensity of color tells you how concentrated the wine is. White wines also change color with age, from quite pale yellow to deep yellow. Notice though that some grapes and some climates will affect the color of wine as well, so these general rules not always apply! One other thing that people do is to watch at the so-called tears: the translucent drops or thin layer of liquid that you can see descending on the walls of the glass after you stir the wine. These tears are considered by some people to be a sign of quality, although this is just a myth - they are solely an indicator of how much alcohol there is in the wine. Nice to look at nevertheless!

Step two in wine tasting is very important and is the one that separates wine from soda and other common drinks. Smelling! As you may know we have a few thousand of smell receptors in our nasal cavity, in contrast to just five basic tastes that our tongues percept. Wine contains a lot of volatile flavor molecules that are so important to feel to really enjoy wine. So, stir the glass to release the flavors into the air and put your nose into the glass - and smell. Do it one more time. Good wines have a complex pattern of flavors, although some wines don't smell that much and still can be good. Try to describe all the smells you can identify. Many of them should be familiar to you, and with time you should be able to identify which grapes have been used in certain wines just be smell alone. The easiest ones to discern are e.g. Chardonnay from Sauvignon Blanc. Then also, the different wine producers, climates, years of harvest, terroir, etc. will also have their effect on the smell of wine.

Step three is to drink a bit of wine without swallowing it, and also to get a breathe of air into your mouth so it further releases the volatile flavors in the wine. This is how the wine should be appreciated, both on the tongue and in the nose. Now you may feel additional flavor molecules in your mouth, some that you haven't smelled before. Try to describe the taste.

Step four is either swallowing or spitting out the wine gracefully into a barrel and then - not finished yet - feel how long time a wine leaves its impression on your tongue. The longer time the better quality. Usually above six seconds is a very good sign, while below three is quite bad. Why the choice between swallowing and spitting? It all depends on how much wine you want and can drink. Usually, a professional wine tasting involving many wines does not allow for much swallowing, since one may quickly get drunk!

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