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 ...
Yeah, the Queen is not a good cook.
Bingo. It’s all about bragging rights between drunk men.
There is no reason to heat your food up so much you can’t taste the food itself.
I'll never forget the time I ate a habanero pepper thinking it was one of those!
Yep. Spice does a lot to cover up rotten meat but it’s still rotten.
Must not be their secret ingredient then -
https://www.amazon.com/ST-ELMOS-Cocktail-Sauce-Fluid/dp/B0749X515X
Hot is an acquired taste but it will grow on you if you give it half a chance. Also your pain threshold goes up dramatically the more hot food you eat.
I love everything that is hit and spicy
I will stand there crying 😢 and 😓
OMG
Immuh make some salsa and guacamole
—”Habanero is as hot as care to go. “
For me, habaneros impart a flavor beyond the heat that covers the flavor of the food.
I’m not a fire eater but enjoy a bit of heat, and more so as I get older. Guessing my sense of taste is going south?
I can’t stand “hot” spices. It does smell like chemicals to me (like some sort of weapon). When I have bit into something hot it caused me to have a gag reflex. Just the smell stings my nose and makes me sneeze. I do not like food particularly bland - white bread seems blah to me - but I don’t understand smothering food in spices.
I’ve always loved it going in. At my age, it’s the coming out part that is no longer tolerable.
I like reasonably hot peppers, pepper sauces, horseradish. They make some foods more interesting. I don’t get the attraction of the ones that make people cough, gag, tear up, sweat, turn red in the face, and have to chug beer or milk to put out the fire. I will take those peppers’ defense mechanism seriously and leave them alone.
—”I experience an endorphins rush from eating the crazy hot ones “
Not to start a disagreement, but I will continue to get my endorphins by doing intervals on my bike.
And an added plus, some days it feels extra good when I finish.
I really enjoy some Carolina Reaper or Ghost Pepper cheese. You can slice up just a tiny tiny bit and get a mouthful of flavor. Instead of sitting there eating half a block of mild cheese, I can have a quarter or half of a little slice and be happy.
—”I can answer by saying, “NOT ME!”
Each year I seem to crave a bit more spice?
The same with cheese, more flavor.
I’ve always thought it was the hunter instinct. We like our food to fight back.
I clean out jalapeños and soak overnight in salty water. Wash and then stuff with soft cream cheese, then plug with half a garlic stuffed olive, then wrap with half a slice of bacon. Into the oven at 375 for half an hour.
Yum!
A few spicy stories...
Some things need a little heat. I like a good amount of Cayenne in my chili. Some people think it’s way too hot but then there are people like Larry.
I like a little, a very little hot-pepper oil with some Chinese dishes. A half teaspoon mixed into a whole dish.
Larry picked up a shrimp chip and dunked it into the hot-pepper oil likes it was chip dip. Larry didn’t bat an eyelash and proceeded the process several times. My friend and I just stareed in amazement.
One of my favorite dishes at a Chines restraint now long gone was orange beef. They included dried & candied orange peel. I got takeout at another Chinese place and chewed the orange peel. WARRRRG! ‘Twas not orange peel, it was a whole Cayenne pepper pod ! Took a couple of bottles of beer and a few minutes to calm down the fire in my mouth to continue eating, carefully picking out anything that looked like a pepper pod.
I like wasabi with my sushi but it can up and bite you bad if you’re not careful. On the other hand, the right amount on a fatty cut of fish & there is almost no heat at all.
As far as killing bacteria, I bought some uncooked Cevapcici from my butcher. I found it three weeks later in the back of my fridge. I asked him if he thought it would still be edible after all that time and he said “go ahead, it’s full of garlic”. Figuring my butcher didn’t want to loose a customer by killing him by his bad advice causing my food poisoning I cooked it up, and, if anything, I thought it tasted better than usual as the garlic flavor was much more pronounced.
At one time I had a vegetable garden and grew Cayenne peppers. I would leave them out in the garage over the winter to dry. One year I found a few remnants of the plants - a rodent got in and ate ALL the pepper pods. I did not find a corpse or even ashes left over from the critter’s self-immolation. It must have been real hungry but I’ll bet it stayed real warm for the rest of the winter.
Reading this as I eat Carolina Reaper salsa on tamales.
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