Hot garlic dill pickles have become an obsession. I use the same tried-and-true recipe with minor variations at times. This small personal batch has been slightly perverted with the addition of the powdered cayenne being introduced directly to the jar and not in the vinegar solution. Also, I added ghost peppers, scorpion peppers, habanero, big hot chilies, and tabasco peppers to the jar in addition to the usual cayenne pepper flakes. I have said in the past that “you can’t really get them too hot..”, but in the case of this run, I may change that statement.
I carefully chose the nicest peppers out of my dried collection from the garden. Most of these are for cooking only. They are really too hot to eat alone. However, in the case of this fresh pack pickle batch, they will be working in a “hybrid” culinary culture. They won’t be eaten. They will be infused with the cucumbers along with the dill and garlic.
In a few days, I’ll cool these down in the fridge and try a few out. I’m excited to see if they are going to be as hot as I suspect they’ll be. Holy Hell Batman!!
It’s no secret that the level of hot pepper usage in North American cuisine has risen dramatically. Hot chilies have been around for centuries in South American and other tropical areas. However, there is more to the picture than meets the eye. Hot Peppers have noticeable health benefits along with their lively taste. The spicy element of hot peppers is due to a chemical in them called capsaicin.
Capsaicin is located in the placental area of peppers (the fleshy, pithy part that holds the seeds). The internal membranes contain some to a lesser degree. The seeds themselves do not produce any capsaicin. Most of it is in the pithy white portion of the interior of the pepper. Capsaicin does not actually “burn” tissues. It creates the same mental sensation via the nervous system as an actual burn, but no actual damage is done. The inflammation caused by exposure to capsaicin is believed to be the body’s reaction to nerve stimulation. This seems to be a natural reaction that is produced by the brain because the sensory excitement is translated by the brain as a physical burn or abrasion.
The Increased Demand for Spicier Foods in America
The Asian hot sauce Sriracha has recently taken on an more prominent role as America’s favorite hot condiment. Recently, Sriracha sales have grown noticeably every year without any major advertising by their distributor, Huy Fong Foods. Dining establishments have begun featuring Sriracha in many of their dishes, Lay’s, the potato chip manufacturer, have it as one of their top three new chip flavors. Subway has started offering Sriracha chicken and steak melts on their menu. Sriracha is just one component in the spicy foods movement that has gained popularity in the U.S. Chipotle, tobasco, habanero, and jalapeno are on the list of foods that have recently become more prominent in snack foods, as well as on restaurant menus. Doritos brand has 102 different varieties of corn chips. Out the 102 flavors, the majority of these have spicier flavors added. These include Doritos Fiery Habanero, and Chile Limon.
Restaurants and food trucks that feature Mexican or Asian foods now comprise a large number of newly opened restaurants. One thing in common with these cuisines is their tendency of cooking spicy dishes, which is now satisfying America’s growing desire for those hot dishes. Over half of consumers mentioned that spicy or hot foods are appealing, compared to less than half a short 4 years ago.
Health Benefits of Hot Peppers
Cayenne peppers, better known as the red hot chili pepper, are full of the antioxidant vitamins A and C.
Hot, spicy peppers can also work as a pain reliever for some people. The pain receptors within your mouth can get desensitized, nerve receptors in the body can also be desensitized. This is the theory behind using capsaicin and pepper extracts as pain relievers. When applied to the skin, topical capsaicin has been shown to ease symptoms of headaches, shingles, and osteoarthritis. Capsaicin is being studied as an effective treatment for sensory nerve fiber disorders, including pain associated with arthritis, psoriasis, and diabetic neuropathy. When animals injected with a substance that causes inflammatory arthritis were fed a diet that contained capsaicin, they had delayed onset of arthritis, and also significantly reduced extremity inflammation. Red chili peppers, such as cayenne, have been shown to reduce blood cholesterol, triglyceride levels, and platelet aggregation, while increasing the body’s ability to dissolve fibrin, a substance integral to the formation of blood clots. Cultures where hot pepper is used liberally have a much lower rate of heart attack, stroke and pulmonary embolism.
Spicing your meals with chili peppers may also protect the fats in your blood from damage by free radicals – a first step in the development of atherosclerosis. In a study involving 27 healthy subjects (14 women, 13 men), eating freshly chopped chili was found to increase the resistance of blood fats, such as cholesterol and triglycerides, to oxidation (free radical injury).
In cultures where people enjoy lots of food laced with spicy flavor, there is a lower incidence of heart attacks. Could capsaicin be the heart-helping ingredient? Researchers once thought that capsaicin would send blood pressure sky-high, but the opposite could be true. As mentioned above, capsaicin can be a shock to your system at first, but over time, you can get used to it. Evidence is preliminary, but there’s a possibility that capsaicin could be used as a treatment to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Eating meals with capsaicin-rich peppers may also help to regulate blood sugar levels and lower the risk of diabetes. And when you lower your diabetes risk, your blood pressure, and your cholesterol, you lower your overall heart health risks!
Generally speaking, the hotter the pepper, the higher the capsaicin content. So, spice your foods with hot peppers and gain the health benefits that folks in the tropical locales have enjoyed for a long time. Hot peppers can spice up salsas, salad dressings, soups, and vegetables. They also work as a balance to bitter foods like greens. To cool the hotness of those peppers, mix spicy peppers with more neutral tasting foods. These foods may include, yogurt, avocado, mango, papaya, or cilantro. Try a variety of peppers from the capsicum family: anaheim, bell, cayenne, jalapeno, pepperoncini, poblano, serrano, habanero, and tabasco. Chili peppers have a mistaken reputation for contributing to stomach ulcers. Not only do they not cause ulcers, they can help prevent them by killing bacteria you may have ingested, while stimulating the cells lining the stomach to secrete protective buffering juices.
Red Chili Peppers have significant amounts of the following vitamins and minerals:
Vitamin E – Excellent
Vitamin A – Very good
Fiber – Very good
Vitamin B6 – Very good
Vitamin K – Very good
Copper – Very good
Iron – Very good
Manganese – Good
Vitamin B3 – Good
Vitamin B2 – Good
Potassium – Good
Many people adhere to the Scoville organoleptic test to determine heat or capsaicin content; however, the test is flawed in that it is highly subjective. Currently, a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is used to measure the capsaicin content of the various hot chili peppers that exist. This laboratory procedure gives an exact measure of capsaicin, which is given in American Spice Trade Association pungency units but typically converted to and stated as Scoville Heat Units, as these are better known. These are not published publically and the American Spice Association charges for these published results. It is quite expensive to perform these tests.
Read more Chilli Misconceptions 5: Heat Level X
For most of us, we can get a relatively good concept of the heat (capsaicin) content of hot peppers by simply following the Scoville Unit list.
Scoville Units in some of the more common hot chili peppers: