AnonSpore posted:What's a good way to build up spice tolerance? My girlfriend can't take spice to the point where your average piece of kimchi is around her max and she can taste things like a pinch of cayenne in an entire pot of stew, and I have absolutely no frame of reference because I love spice and legitimately cannot even detect it at the levels that start making her sweat. She wants to start raising her tolerance but we don't really know where or how to start. I'd go with just keeping going with those. Also I find that a good thai coconut curry can get good and spicy and offset that a lot with the palm sugar etc. Might be possible to bring up the heat and balance with sweetness. Maybe hot + sweet dishes? Those mexican tamarind candies come to mind or maybe even some south american chocolates with pepper in them?
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Jun 20, 2020 00:20
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 23:16 |
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I found that a childhood and youth of toxic mascilinity helped; when I was younger, you basically weren't MANLY unless you could eat spicy food, so I ate food I didn't like for many years in an effort to fit in and become on of the guys. In the end, it worked, and I now eat really spicy food because I like it, so I guess the patriarchy does have some uses.
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Jun 20, 2020 00:50
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Yeah, I'd find unobtrusive ways to weave it into literally everything. Get a bottle of actually hot sauce and titrate drops in anything where it makes sense.
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Jun 20, 2020 03:03
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Yeah I got hooked on the endorphin rush and added hot sauce until my cheeks cramped from smiling so hard
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Jun 20, 2020 03:05
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AnonSpore posted:What's a good way to build up spice tolerance? My girlfriend can't take spice to the point where your average piece of kimchi is around her max and she can taste things like a pinch of cayenne in an entire pot of stew, and I have absolutely no frame of reference because I love spice and legitimately cannot even detect it at the levels that start making her sweat. She wants to start raising her tolerance but we don't really know where or how to start.
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Jun 20, 2020 03:27
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SubG posted:Do y'all drink? I never ate spicy food until I got to university and was hanging out with a crowd that would meet for beer on Friday evenings and then go hit a Thai place around the corner from the bar. For a couple years my heat threshold after a couple pitchers was about twice what it was sober until both thresholds eventually merged somewhere around the level of pickled habs. Ooh that's good advice, I was slowly developing a tolerance for spicy food but one night a friend took me to a tapas-ish place and insisted that the cherry habanero chicken was the best dish there and that I should really give it a chance. Drunk definitely helped but I think also watching someone eat the same thing and absolutely enjoy it helped for whatever strange reason. Thanks all for the quinoa recs by the way. I have enough to try both eating and composting, even.
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Jun 20, 2020 07:36
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My wife couldn't handle any spice when I met her, and I inadvertently built her tolerance by cooking delicious food that happened to be spicy. It was too delicious for her NOT to eat, so over time her tolerance just increased to the point where she covers her food in chili flakes.
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Jun 20, 2020 18:46
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All you need to do to convert someone to the spicy side is introduce them to bulgogi.
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Jun 20, 2020 20:22
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My spouse grew up with Hungarian / Romanian cuisines, and had effectively no exposure to spicy food until we met. She started eating the sweet/spicy mix, like Teriyaki, Hawaiian, etc, and now will eat most anything. I noticed that a lot was just a mental thing and getting used to the feeling of a new taste, just like when people first try fermented/acidic foods. It's new and novel so it's the specific thing that stands out. No matter how spicy (or not) something was, they would just laser focus on that one specific aspect of the food. Adding a complex flavor profile gave more variety in flavor. For instance, with Kalua Pork there was the smoky and fatty pork with the sweet, salty, and spicy teriyaki sauce. It's enough that you get the "hit" of spicy but it's consumed by many other flavors. e: I also found that just having a food that they would like on its own was immensely helpful, since you're only introducing a slight variation. Like smoked pork was already a winner, so adding a bit of teriyaki sauce to it was an easy introduction. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jun 20, 2020 |
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Jun 20, 2020 20:57
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Food safety question: I've always heard that, if you're going to thaw chicken in the sink under running water, you want to use cold rather than warm water because warm water will encourage bacterial growth. But I'm going to immediately cook the chicken to 165 internal (since the only reason I'm thawing in the sink in the first place is because I want to cook it right now), so does it really matter? Is there something I'm not seeing? I understand that thawing with warm or hot water might start to prematurely cook the chicken, but that's a taste issue rather than a safety issue, right?
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Jun 20, 2020 22:43
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Scientastic posted:I found that a childhood and youth of toxic mascilinity helped; when I was younger, you basically weren't MANLY unless you could eat spicy food, so I ate food I didn't like for many years in an effort to fit in and become on of the guys. I actually started trying spicy foods as a little boy because I saw my grandpa putting red pepper flakes on his pizza at a restaurant and I wanted to be like him. I know there can be a ludicrous machismo associated with spicy food, but I'd like to think that's pretty low on the "toxic" scale.  (It's also hilarious to watch cocky dude-bros get shown up by women who can handle far spicier food.)I did sensory research in graduate school, so I'm going to shamelessly take this moment to dump some science.  :The sensation of "spicy" in most cases comes from capsaicin, which is a waxy, hydrophobic compound found in chili peppers. Capsaicin doesn't actually interact directly with your gustatory receptors, and the sensation and perception of "spicy" is completely separate, neurologically, from "taste" though it does contribute to "flavor". The receptors that detect capsaicin are a subset of the nociceptor neurons that are activated by heat. Nociceptors are a broad class of sensory neurons for "painful" stimuli. (I put "painful" in quotes because pain's a cognitive process that requires a negative interpretation of a stimulus, so you can have nociceptor activation and interpret it pleasurably, which is why people seek out spicy foods.) You've basically got three options for building up your tolerance to capsaicin:
Your taste buds are continuously shed and regrown on a fairly rapid cycle (think weeks), and while you do slowly lose them as you age, generally they're designed to briefly survive a harsh environment (i.e. whatever you've crammed into your mouth), die, and get replaced. The nociceptors for capsaicin have comparatively limited regrowth ability. If you abstain from spicy foods for a while, you'll become more sensitive to them, but generally speaking whatever tolerance you build up either lasts for a long time or is permanent because you've actually killed off or seriously damaged those neurons and they can't send the signals they used to. The easiest non-spicy-food way to accomplish this is hot coffee. Caffeine exposure makes a lot of neurons more sensitive to injury (including ones in your ears, so wear your ear-pro, people) and the thermal exposure from a hot liquid does the damage that those noiceptors are there to warn you about. You can build up your spice tolerance over time with increasingly higher concentrations of capsaicin, but I'm personally a fan of the "rip the bandage off" approach. During grad school some of my roommates and I decided we were going to up our spice tolerance for a spicy food challenge a local-ish restaurant had advertised online. Spoiler: They went out of business before we got there - possibly before we started - and we were left with permanently altered pallets and nowhere to apply them. After learning that there was a bitter flavor unique to habaneros that none of us liked, I started cooking with ghost peppers. One of our roommates (who was *not* aware we were doing this) decided to try some soup I'd left on the stove, and despite being warned that it was spicy, took a plunge he was not prepared for. I got an angry phone call the next day when he was at a diner because he'd put Tabasco on his eggs and "it just tastes like vinegar". A single exposure to a significantly higher than previously experienced concentration of capsaicin had killed off enough of those nociceptors to significantly reduce sensitivity. The bit you have to be wary of is the experience being viewed as aversive instead of pleasurable. It's an interesting tightrope to walk. Most people are aware that water isn't particularly helpful for spicy foods, but if you're looking for something more effective than milk for getting the "burn" out of your mouth, your best bets are liquor or an alcohol based mouthwash. If, however, you push your tolerance hard enough and resist the urge to purge the capsaicin from your receptors, you can be rewarded with a flood of endogenous opioids and canabannoids that are analogous to the 'runner's high'. It's basically your body's way of saying, "Well, I give up. Let's make sure you can potentially do other things while whatever's going on continues to injure you." This is highly underrated and, while more fleeting than actual cannabis consumption, does actually get you kinda hosed up, which is nice.
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Jun 20, 2020 23:00
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poeticoddity posted:If, however, you push your tolerance hard enough and resist the urge to purge the capsaicin from your receptors, you can be rewarded with a flood of endogenous opioids and canabannoids that are analogous to the 'runner's high'. It's basically your body's way of saying, "Well, I give up. Let's make sure you can potentially do other things while whatever's going on continues to injure you." I got really into making hot sauces right after I quit drinking and smoking, maybe I subconsciously blundered into this?
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Jun 20, 2020 23:31
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Lamb prices seemed to have not risen, or at least I haven’t noticed them rising (lamb is always expensive lol). Is lamb processed at different, smaller plants not filled with plague? How much have beef/chicken prices risen in your area? I’m in Los Angeles, and after zigzagging a lot it seems they’ve settled at a 33% rise
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Jun 20, 2020 23:56
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I'm in NYC. More expensive beef cuts haven't risen at all (like a T-bone or ribeye are still both $16-17/lb), but less expensive cuts have risen (like a nasty gristly chuck is now $8/lb).
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Jun 20, 2020 23:59
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How Wonderful! posted:I got really into making hot sauces right after I quit drinking and smoking, maybe I subconsciously blundered into this? A lot of people experience drastic changes to their taste preferences shortly after they quit smoking. Nicotine and all of the highly reactive byproducts of tobacco combustion do a solid job of wrecking your olfactory and gustatory receptors, which take a few weeks to months to recover completely. The regrowth of these receptors, coupled with the elimination of nicotine's appetite suppression, is part of why many people end up gaining weight after they quit smoking. It turns out when you start to be able to taste and smell things again, food is generally more appealing.
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Jun 21, 2020 00:14
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poeticoddity posted:A lot of people experience drastic changes to their taste preferences shortly after they quit smoking. Oh wow, that all makes sense. I did gain a bunch of weight afterwards but it gave me a kick in the rear end to get back into regular exercise so I guess it was win/win/win.
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Jun 21, 2020 00:47
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Resting Lich Face posted:All you need to do to convert someone to the spicy side is introduce them to bulgogi. Is bulgogi considered spicy? I don't think I've ever associated those two words. Anne Whateley posted:I'm in NYC. More expensive beef cuts haven't risen at all (like a T-bone or ribeye are still both $16-17/lb), but less expensive cuts have risen (like a nasty gristly chuck is now $8/lb). I have been pretty much exclusively shopping what is on clearance in NYC for the last 6 weeks. Hell, even ground beef is like $7-8/# right now.
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Jun 21, 2020 00:49
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Steve Yun posted:How much have beef/chicken prices risen in your area? I’m in Los Angeles, and after zigzagging a lot it seems they’ve settled at a 33% rise I'm in Texas. Pre-COVID, I was getting 90/10 ground beef for $3.30/pound. Right now 80/20 is selling for $5.10 at my local superstore. You can find frozen patties for around $3/pound, but it's a crapshoot what they'll actually have in stock.
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Jun 21, 2020 00:57
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Nephzinho posted:Is bulgogi considered spicy? I don't think I've ever associated those two words. Bulgogi does not contain anything spicy, no. It's generally quite sweet. Something like jeyuk bokkeum or dalkgalbi would be a better choice for straightforward spicy Korean.
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Jun 21, 2020 00:58
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Grand Fromage posted:Bulgogi does not contain anything spicy, no. It's generally quite sweet. Something like jeyuk bokkeum or dalkgalbi would be a better choice for straightforward spicy Korean. Yeah idk why you would use it as an introduction to spiciness. I've been making sichuan at home and have gone way off the deep end on spice.
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Jun 21, 2020 01:00
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Nephzinho posted:I have been pretty much exclusively shopping what is on clearance in NYC for the last 6 weeks. Hell, even ground beef is like $7-8/# right now.
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Jun 21, 2020 01:01
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Nephzinho posted:Yeah idk why you would use it as an introduction to spiciness. I've been making sichuan at home and have gone way off the deep end on spice. If you really want to go off the deep end, start learning Guizhou or Hunan food. Sichuan food mostly isn't very hot, despite the quantity of chilies used--they're mild. Chongqing Sichuan is generally hotter than where I lived in Chengdu though.
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Jun 21, 2020 01:03
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Bibimbap can be spicy depending on how spicy the gochujang you use to make the sauce is and how much sauce you eat. Also teriyaki shouldn’t be spicy as it’s just made from soy, mirin and sugar.
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Jun 21, 2020 01:11
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bulgogi never has spice tho what its good for is to get turbo midwest american or something like that peeps to eat something, anything asian. kinda like american chinese food really
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Jun 21, 2020 01:17
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Helith posted:Also teriyaki shouldn’t be spicy as it’s just made from soy, mirin and sugar. Thanks, I thought I was crazy reading that.
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Jun 21, 2020 01:31
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I think I said the wrong thing. I don't know korean food that well except that it's hella good.
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Jun 21, 2020 04:05
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Grand Fromage posted:Bulgogi does not contain anything spicy, no. It's generally quite sweet. Something like jeyuk bokkeum or dalkgalbi would be a better choice for straightforward spicy Korean.
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Jun 21, 2020 04:14
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Anything with gochujang can be spicy. I mix Gochujang and mayonnaise and it’s great on a spoon or perhaps a palm
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Jun 21, 2020 05:59
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PRADA SLUT posted:Anything with gochujang can be spicy. I mix Gochujang and mayonnaise and it’s great on a spoon or perhaps a palm I mean, yeah, you can put chilies in anything. But if you order bulgogi expecting spicy food, you'll be disappointed. It does not contain gochujang or anything else chili-related.
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Jun 21, 2020 06:28
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tapatio is the perfect hot sauce in both flavor and heat, and me and the dead-eyed guy on the label will fight anyone who disagrees
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Jun 21, 2020 06:36
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I have a room mate or two now, so instead of being a smelly cooker of food, I have a butane grill and a wok. So i get to stir fry stinky ginger tumeric garlic onion fish outside! I recommend this, because cooking fish indoors makes people upset.
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Jun 21, 2020 07:13
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Kashmiri Chili powder is my favorite heat spice, I love the rich red color
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Jun 21, 2020 07:15
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Chard posted:tapatio is the perfect hot sauce in both flavor and heat, and me and the dead-eyed guy on the label will fight anyone who disagrees You know, I never really took a close look at the guy.  But man. You could add a blood smear to that face and I'm sure it'd be some top creepypaste material.
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Jun 21, 2020 09:06
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excellent bird guy posted:I have a room mate or two now, so instead of being a smelly cooker of food, I have a butane grill and a wok. So i get to stir fry stinky ginger tumeric garlic onion fish outside! I recommend this, because cooking fish indoors makes people upset. Just make enough to share and they'll come to love you stinking up the apartment with fish. Chard posted:tapatio is the perfect hot sauce in both flavor and heat, and me and the dead-eyed guy on the label will fight anyone who disagrees Either this or Cholula. Resting Lich Face fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Jun 21, 2020 |
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Jun 21, 2020 19:22
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excellent bird guy posted:Kashmiri Chili powder is my favorite heat spice, I love the rich red color I was super excited to try Kashmiri chilis, but Aleppo is way more appealing to me. So bright and fruity.
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Jun 21, 2020 20:19
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its valentina cuz they also optimize on price
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Jun 22, 2020 16:15
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The black label extra hot Valentina is an all-time great hot sauce.
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Jun 22, 2020 19:46
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Cholula's my favorite "I want every inch of this food to be red and wet" sauce.
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Jun 22, 2020 19:59
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How Wonderful! posted:Cholula's my favorite "I want every inch of this food to be red and wet" sauce. The garlic version of Cholula is my favorite salad dressing. I wish that stuff was available in bigger bottles locally. I ordered a half gallon on Amazon and it was busted during shipping, and that's apparently a common issue because they refuse to package it well at all.
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Jun 22, 2020 20:01
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Take a bunch of habaneros, chop fine, cover with brine, ferment for a couple weeks, hit the mash with a stick bender until smooth, strain purée through fine mesh strainer, take the resulting liquid and add about half as much apple cider vinegar. That's my favourite (liquid/vinegar) hot sauce.
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Jun 22, 2020 20:36
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