I’ve been using red chili peppers a lot more ever since I started making my own chili con carne from scratch. The “carne” part I got cheap with coupons. I picked up a bunch of bags of frozen meatballs for 50 cents per bag. Today I am going out armed with coupons to get 20 containers of Progresso beef stock for 55 cents per container. Total cost for me to make chili con carne dinner for 2 is about $3 but I aim to get that lower when I get some kidney bean coupons.
I’ve been into peppers for a long time, found little in this article I didn’t already know and they left out some too.
I can just about drink Tabasco, it’s great on onion rings too.
As someone already mentioned, they have a lot of vitamin C.
Cayenne peppers will knock out a cold, if you catch it soon as you start to sneeze. Eat all the peppers you can stand, if you’re not sweating it’s not enough. Cold will be gone the next morning.
I grow my own, and make my own for table use. Usually Tabasco and Habanero, sometimes a good Cayenne if I can find one. This year I got boatloads of Tabasco but only a few Habanero. The Habanero plants just didn’t want to grow for me...
Dried pepper - I Use an electric food dehydrator, once it’s dried I drop it in a blender and turn it on at high speed till it’s powder. A quart jar works well and fits the blade mount screws great.
Then make a paper funnel and pour it into a spice jar, put the shaker top on. Be warned, you’ll sneeze a dozen times, a medical face mask may help, never tried it.
Add it to your chili after it goes in the bowl instead of when you cook it and you can make non hot chili everyone can handle, even if they don’t like hot stuff. Some cheese on top and I’m a happy camper...
I have 1 lb 4 oz dried and powdered Tabasco right now from this year’s crop, two 12 oz jars full, and two quart size bags with all I can stuff in them dried. Already have hot sauce in the fridge...only got one jar of dried powdered Habanero. Tabasco dried seems to have more bite than Habanero, I absolutely love dried powdered Habanero for use the same way most people use black pepper. I haven’t touched black pepper since the late 70’s.
Hot sauce - Used Tabasco jar, remove the dropper lid. Fill with Tabasco or Habanero peppers, add a clove of garlic, fill with vinegar. Replace dropper lid. Let it sit for at least a month and you have some hot stuff, that’s what we used when I was a kid on greens and spinach. (I hate both)
Hot sauce 2 - Put some peppers in a blender jar or quart jar. Add a clove or 2 of garlic and 1/4 onion for about a pint. Chop just a little and add vinegar a little at a time until you have the consistency of picante sauce. Age at least a month in the fridge. Use a plastic lid, it will rust out a metal one. Test a small amount for heat before using. Make it with Tabasco and you have some serious hot sauce for things like Fajitas.
I like to make scrambled eggs with mushrooms, put it in a flour tortilla with cheese and sour cream, add some hot sauce. Good stuff...Add sausage or bacon if you like. Shrimp is not bad, but not my favorite way for shrimp. Chicken works well too, and just chicken, turkey or salmon is great done this way...in a tortilla with cheese and sour cream and hot sauce.
For hot sauces, drop the peppers in boiling water for 15 to 20 seconds, they will hold their color better.
Drink milk before eating raw peppers, it coats your mouth and the heat is easier to take. Still plenty hot.
A combination of 1000mg Vitamin C each night, plenty garlic and red pepper and you’ll very rarely get a cold. Add Ginger tea every night and the common cold will run away from you. I haven’t had a cold in 30 years. Flu every 3 or 4 years, common cold won’t touch me, if it starts, I hit the peppers hard, gone the next day.
Capsicum is also an antiseptic. If you can stand it, a little mixed with vinegar will kill germs in a light cut. Not recommended for serious cuts.
Just eating them will open your sinuses.
According to some of the herb books I’ve read, Cayenne also equalizes blood pressure, and is excellent for the circulation and digestive systems overall.
Cayenne, garlic and ginger are all considered tonics, which mean instead of beneficial for a specific ailment, they are good for you overall, to keep the system in good running condition. Regular use of all 3 is always recommended. And it’s near impossible to eat enough Cayenne to be harmful, never mind overdose...I dare you to try it...I dare ya...
If I remember correctly, cayenne is also helpful for diabetics. Haven’t read the books in a while...
I’m sure I’m forgetting something...
“3. Chili peppers release feel-good endorphins and dopamine, because your brain interprets the burn from hot peppers as pain, ....”
Skip all that.
I eat them as walk through grocery store.
The Veggie Manager says take a couple while you are here. Can’t believe you can eat them”
I luv anyting spicy
That’s a very good article. I can personally attest to the ‘euphoria’ produced by hot peppers; I first experienced it in Korean food; then when I ordered something with ‘Atomic’ in its name, at a little Mexican place, and later when I discovered Indian food.
(But even I ‘Fear the Reaper’ ;-)
There’s a wonderful little Indian restaurant in a strip mall near my home - it’s very crowded on weekdays at lunchtime; I think a lot of the Govt. folks go there, who work at the place where the Naval Ordnance Lab used to be (I think it’s FDA, now.)
One day when my husband and I were there for lunch, there was a very beautiful young woman sitting alone at the table next to us, wearing her Govt. ID. I’ve never seen anyone enjoying a meal so much - she seemed to sigh with every bite, experiencing almost orgasmic delight.
Peppers are proof that God loves us ;-)