Posted on 08/29/2021 8:55:48 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
One theory says the sensation distracts from other pains; another says we’re just showing off.
Humans like to eat a lot of strange things—decomposed shark, Namibian warthog rectum, British food—yet among the strangest is our taste for chili peppers: a fruit that, ecologically speaking, specifically evolved to repel us.
But whereas other berries have thorns to protect against seed-destroying predators, chilies have a defense mechanism in the form of the chemical compound capsaicin, the principal function of which is to cause pain for predators. The scientific term for this is “directed deterrence.”
a habanero pepper or order your food “Thai hot,” and your body essentially thinks it’s being attacked by a chemical weapon.
Some farmers in Africa, to keep elephants away from their crops, plant chilies along the borders of their fields, or mix chili powder with motor oil and smear it on fences, or burn bricks of chilies and dried elephant dung.
...Chili-flavored birdseed is also a thing, used to prevent squirrels from pilfering bird food
. Indeed, research shows a correlation, particularly among teenage males, between a preference for spicy foods and testosterone levels, as well as personality traits associated with the pursuit of money, sex and social status.
Such hypermasculine display and self-inflicted harm are hallmarks of adolescent coming-of-age rituals going way back. In Aztec times, young men were held over fires to mark their transition from youth to adulthood, symbolizing their transformation from “raw” youth to “cooked” adulthood.
But for the military too, spicy foods have become a staple of combat rations, especially for long deployments. Beginning in Iraq in 1990, the U.S. military started issuing miniature glass bottles of Tabasco sauce with meals
Then again, maybe the explanation is simpler. Perhaps we just can’t resist the temptation of forbidden fruit—or, in this case, forbidden berries.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Into the pickling jars they went...
I’ve never had hot Jewish food can you enlighten ?
I’m thinking Sammy Roumanian .....
Or Israeli food which is pretty much Arab food
Habanero is as hot as care to go. But since I lost my s3nse of smell, I’m missing out on the full spectrum of flavor.
—”sauce made with horseradish”
A brother-in-law grew horseradish and wore a GASMASK and rubber gloves. when grinding and working with it.
At a sushi place, I warned him about the NUCLEAR GRADE glow in the dark horseradish... He cut it back to a small glob... turned red, drank all the water on the table, and was suspiciously quiet the rest of the night.
I can answer by saying, “NOT ME!”
I can only go as far as a little bit hotter than green, Orange, or red or yellow peppers.
Agree. I get in the mood for hot and will eat hot. But not something that is so hot it ruins the meal. And eventually it comes back out. Lol.
Yep. Had a patch of horseradish on the family place. Decided to grind some fresh and put it in a high speed blender. Had to evacuate the kitchen and took a half hour to recover.
Subsequently ground it outdoors very slowly and made sure I was upwind.
It adds to the flavor of other things, similar to sauerkraut or red wine. Also, I like the flavor of red peppers and Jalapenos with the hot, but not without. It doesn’t make sense but there it is.
Bland boring food was the biggest drive behind ancient global exploration. Royal appetite for new flavors was very influential.
Masochism.
Let’s Ask The Expert! :)
Think of what ground black peppercorns, on every table and in nearly every meal, do for your food - they wake up your tastebuds. It’s hard to imagine something bland like macaroni & cheese without a ton of black pepper in it. Or soup - you don’t put a lot of pepper in canned soup to make it taste better?
So the same goes for hot chili peppers. Even the crazy hot ones have a taste - it’s like a lot of foods, you get used to the hot over time.
And like a lot of foods that are on the “why do people eat that?” list, chili peppers are very good for you as long as you don’t overdo it. Cayenne, which as most of us know is muy caliente, is given in capsule form for some types of gastric complaints. I worked for a GI doctor who did recommend it to some patients. (I think it’s recommended for some lung ailments as well, but I’m too lazy to look it up right now.)
So it’s not as much of a mystery as, say, why people eat whole pickled ducklings or whatever. Yeah, there is a macho component to saying you like stuff that’s so hot it burns a hole in the roof of your mouth. Be patient. Guys like that always get their comeuppance.
—”Reading all these posts about Afghanistan,”
I have to say that I posted this as a mechanism to avoid what is happening in the world around me.
Like an ostrich, it works until the world finds me.
I agree. I have occasionally purchased souses that were just heat, no real flavor. I don't mind hot but it has to have some interesting flavor too.
I am not saying it’s macho, but people that can’t tolerate spicy food are wusses. ;-)
That is quite presumptive of the wall street urinal. I would just as soon give myself a root canal.
“There’s a steakhouse in Indiana called St. Elmos that has a famous shrimp cocktail sauce made with horseradish. “
Horseradish is standard in shrimp cocktail sauce.
—”Flea, of course!”
I’m not at all familiar with that type of pepper.
Nothing in my garden or any seed catalog looks like that one?
But I have grown some multi-color peppers.
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