Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Help a girl with burning hands !


Pierogi

Recommended Posts

I had friends over for a b/day dinner tonight, and the guest of honor requested my Italian stuffed peppers (a Lidia Bastianich recipe) that calls for cubanelle or Hungarian peppers. You know, the long, skinny, MILD guys. I've made this recipe numerous times before, and have always bought the peppers from the same place.

Well.......I guess they got a new produce guy, or maybe the climate change has messed with the capsaicin content of those Hungarian peppers. While I was pulling out the seeds and the pithy ribs, I noticed that my nose and eyes were a bit irritated, but I really didn't think much of it.

Long story short.......the hand/fingers I used to help scoop out the seeds and ribs are still, SIX HOURS later, burning. Clearly the peppers were mislabeled. Also clearly, if I had known these suckers would bust the top off the Scoville Scale, I'd have worn gloves (they were HOT even after cooking, never happened before.......).

My question is.......if I get into this predicament again, how do I neutralize the chili oils on my hands? I tried washing with soap a billion times (I mean, I did DISHES and they're still burning), lotion, cortisone cream, milk, rubbing a cut potato over the area, and finally rubbing alcohol. Nothing has been 100% effective.

Still burning after all these hours. What to do, what to do if ever I get unknowingly capsaicin-slimed again?? Thanks in advance,

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try scrubbing your hands with a freshly cut tomato. I don't use this to relieve burning hands, but to remove chili oils from my hands so I don't inadvertently incinerate another body part later. It's a new trick, can't remember where I heard about it (maybe here?), but it has seemed to work the last couple of times I've habaneroed.

Weird that the milk didn't stop the burning....was it any help at all?

mark

Edited by markemorse (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Site full of stories:

too many ideas?

I think I would try the steel bar - you know those things they sell to remove garlic from your hands? I don't own one, but a friend told me about this trick before anyone started marketing these. Except he said to run cold water over a steel knife and rinse your hands in the water. Works like a charm for me. Similar properties of oil in vegetables? I will try it next time I handle hot peppers barehanded (which I always do, but am very careful where they go after that.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its been many years now, but I recall putting myself in a similar situation, and found that chlorinated bleach did the trick. Obviously, the bleach will do more harm than the capsicum, but a quick rub of the hands (only), followed by plenty of water to follow, will strip all the oil out of the skin, then apply plenty of moisturizing cream.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Supposedly what helps is ordinary cooking oil or olive oil. I use a capsaicin cream for arthritis, and the directions indicate the user should keep some oil handy for removing the cream, in case it starts burning too much. I think the idea behind it all is that the capsaicin oil is soluble in oil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rubbing my hands with a stainless steel spoon and soap under running water seems to cut down on the heat. I personally have never experienced hand burning but have rubbed an eye, etc. - not pleasant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Supposedly what helps is ordinary cooking oil or olive oil.  I use a capsaicin cream for arthritis, and the directions indicate the user should keep some oil handy for removing the cream, in case it starts burning too much.  I think the idea behind it all is that the capsaicin oil is soluble in oil.

I was thinking along the lines of oil as well, since it's fat essentially. My thought is what works for a burning mouth might work for burning hands. Surprised that milk didn't work. Ice cream? :raz:

Edited by monavano (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks to all. Mercifully, the burning finally stopped after a couple of dousings with rubbing alcohol, followed by some hand lotion. I guess its the same principle as the bleach, to cut through the oily residue.

I think maybe I didn't leave the milk on long enough, that could have been why it wasn't effective. I was surprised as well that it didn't work. These are all, however, mentally filed away for future reference.

And jgm, I have really bad arthritis in my hands too, and damn-it-all, the bloody capsaicin oil didn't seem to help one iota ! I was sorta hoping it would :sad: , at least to get some positive out of it.

But my friends did love the dinner, so it was worth it.

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Supposedly it's the casein in milk that helps with the burn. I don't know if it helps release the capsaicin from the receptors, or if it breaks up the capsaicin, or what, but it's supposed to do more than just dissolve it. That means that the higher the casein content, the greater the effect, so thick yogurt will work well.

-- There are infinite variations on food restrictions. --

Crooked Kitchen - my food blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use yogurt with granulated sugar.

I always wear gloves because I handle some very hot peppers - habanero, scotch bonnet, etc., but sometimes I get a nick in the gloves and a few weeks back some of the stuff got through the gloves right at the base of my right index, middle and ring fingers, in the webbing. Extreme burning.

After removing the gloves, I plopped a scoop of yogurt (I happened to have a container of Trader Joe's Greek-type, whole milk yogurt on hand) into my right palm and added a heaping tablespoon of granulated sugar and massaged that into the burning area, leaving it slathered on the area, with a couple of paper towels wrapped around the hand, for about half an hour. It reduced the burning by 90% - I rinsed that application off and washed my hands with soap and applied a thin layer of plain yogurt, put on new gloves (doubled) and continued with my task.

My Mexican neighbors tell people who get a bite of something too hot while in a restaurant to open a sugar packet right into the mouth and do NOT drink a lot of water. Hold the sugar in the mouth until it dissolves, a second packet may be needed but it will help quicker than anything else.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Mexican neighbors tell people who get a bite of something too hot while in a restaurant to open a sugar packet right into the mouth and do NOT drink a lot of water.  Hold the sugar in the mouth until it dissolves, a second packet may be needed but it will help quicker than anything else.

Yes! My brother once dated a woman from Mexico who told us the same thing. Forget the milk. Sugar works. I think it works by leeching out the burning oils in your mouth.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Again, thanks to everyone. I think I will subscribe to the "all gloves, all the time" theory for handling any peppers but the most innocuous bells. All remedies are mentally catalogued, however, for future need.

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Site full of stories:

too many ideas?

I think I would try the steel bar - you know those things they sell to remove garlic from your hands? I don't own one, but a friend told me about this trick before anyone started marketing these. Except he said to run cold water over a steel knife and rinse your hands in the water. Works like a charm for me. Similar properties of oil in vegetables? I will try it next time I handle hot peppers barehanded (which I always do, but am very careful where they go after that.)

I clicked that link and thought to myself, hey, this sounds familiar. Then I realized I had actually posted in that thread on GardenWeb a couple years ago.

When I get it on my hands, I try so many different methods that it is hard to tell what works. Mostly, I just end up enuring it. Now, it's gotten to the point that it is almost enjoyable :blink: . As long as I avoid touching my eyes, I'm okay. If I do though, I end up dancing around the apartment for a while while my wife laughs at me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Butter works to ease the burning. Let it sit and melt in thoroughly.

Milk might work for the carbs (below) and fat reasons both. Never heard that casein had anything to do with it.

In the mouth - carbs. Sugar, bread, rice, coca cola - whatever.

There's a reason most hot food comes with nice bland carbs on the side.

"You dont know everything in the world! You just know how to read!" -an ah-hah! moment for 6-yr old Miss O.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Butter works to ease the burning. Let it sit and melt in thoroughly.

Milk might work for the carbs (below) and fat reasons both. Never heard that casein had anything to do with it.

In the mouth - carbs. Sugar, bread, rice, coca cola - whatever.

There's a reason most hot food comes with nice bland carbs on the side.

Scientific explanation Here!

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool - gargle with milk.  :laugh:

I'm thinking yogurt would be more socially acceptable. Raita, anyone?

I have one friend who swears that the only way she will eat the extremely hot Indian food prepared by her husband, is if she can have a lassi (mango, or other flavor, sweet and/or salty) with it. He is Punjabi but was born and raised here and the food prepared at home was not that extreme (no searing hot chiles) but then he went to college in Texas and "discovered" Tex-Mex food, the spicier the better. My friend and he met and married while she was still in college and they lived with one of his aunts who taught him to cook non-vegetarian Indian foods. (My friend has never been interested in any type of cooking....)

She has told me that when she gets home from work and finds her husband is preparing one of his "spcialties" - which this Texas gal says (in her broad Texas drawl) are "hot enough to raise a blood blister on a rawhide boot," she immediately starts preparing a lassi - she says they always have mango on hand, either fresh fruit or frozen as well as canned pulp. She also makes them with cucumber or with melon, but says the mango is best to counteract the burning in the mouth and throat as well as the stomach and etc. She also adds tumeric and other spices.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had this problem a number of years ago when cleaning a case (yes, an entire case) of anaheim chilies. These are very mild, but the constant rubbing of the cut edges along my fingers caused them to burn and even blister! My whole hands turned bright red too.

I tried the yogurt, cream milk, soap and water soak to no avail. I was in a lot of pain so I called poison control. They said they get calls about this most often from states in the southwest, not often from NY.

The fellow on the other end of the line explained that capsaisin is a concentrated base, or alkaline, and that the burning is similar to a burn from lye, though obviously, not as bad. He suggested soaking my hands in ordinary vinegar as the acid in the vinegar neutralizes the base.

I did that and the pain was gone instantaneously!!

I still love chilies of any sort and now when I get the burn anywhere I go striaght to the bottle of white vinegar. I dilute 4:1 it if using it near my eyes and it still works.

The use of milk products is popular and works in the mouth due to the lactic acid in milk, but the skin does not absorb it as quickly, I guess, so yogurt does not work as well for chili burns on the skin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...