How to Tame Runaway Spice Heat

[Smithy]

A couple of nights ago I made a batch of Pueblo Green Chile Stew, a recipe from Jane Butel's Southwestern Kitchen.  This recipe uses chunks of pork, green chiles, chopped onions, garlic and tomatoes; and the stew is delicious. I posted more about it here. The trouble is, it was too darned hot. I don't know whether it's the variety of peppers I used or the fact that I only had Ro-Tel tomatoes (with jalapeno) on hand, or a bit of both. So far we've tried sour cream - which always helps tone down spicy heat, but which my DH doesn't like. We have leftovers, so last night I tried adding potatoes along with some more water and tomato paste. It helped slightly, but not enough. We're considering cooking some pasta into the remainder, or possibly rice. In either case there will be more water used, and that should help...but I bet there's a better way.

 

What are some good ways to tame down spicy heat, once you've overdone it?

[KennethT]

To me, the only thing that helps with too much chili heat is sugar.  It may be a problem adding sugar since that will change the flavor of your dish, but I always like a nice refreshing lime-aid...  taking a sip once in a while helps cool the burn.

[Anna N]

Serve it with a mango lassi on the side.  

[kayb]

Maybe add some more tomatoes and some more pork, and/or serve it over rice?

[robirdstx]

Maybe add some Salsa Verde and/or Chocolate.

[rotuts]

@Anna N  is correct

 

Lassi works well  

 

beverage of choice in many Indian restaurants

 

Ive never had it with Mango

 

but this is after the fact.

 

but is does work.

[Anna N]

19 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Anna N  is correct

 

Lassi works well  

 

beverage of choice in many Indian restaurants

 

Ive never had it with Mango

 

but this is after the fact.

 

but is does work.

Yes and you will notice many raitas are rich in yogourt. They can’t all be wrong. Click.

[Orbit]

3 hours ago, Smithy said:

A couple of nights ago I made a batch of Pueblo Green Chile Stew, a recipe from Jane Butel's Southwestern Kitchen.  This recipe uses chunks of pork, green chiles, chopped onions, garlic and tomatoes; and the stew is delicious. I posted more about it here. The trouble is, it was too darned hot. I don't know whether it's the variety of peppers I used or the fact that I only had Ro-Tel tomatoes (with jalapeno) on hand, or a bit of both. So far we've tried sour cream - which always helps tone down spicy heat, but which my DH doesn't like. We have leftovers, so last night I tried adding potatoes along with some more water and tomato paste. It helped slightly, but not enough. We're considering cooking some pasta into the remainder, or possibly rice. In either case there will be more water used, and that should help...but I bet there's a better way.

 

What are some good ways to tame down spicy heat, once you've overdone it?

 

Adding heavy cream will tame the heat

[catdaddy]

My dad always used to tell us to not stop eating till it was gone. Can't burn if you're still in the act of eating. It will still be hot after though.....

[Bernie]

I seem to remember cumin  takes the heat out.

If you do a search on the net you get lots & lots of tips but they seem to be all copied from the same source. Some don't even change the words, just the layout. That's the trouble with the web these days, every 10year old with google can become an instant expert and put it on a website, whether its fact or fiction or just opinion.

Some say pineapple, acid (vinegar lemon juice, lime juice) and surprisingly peanut butter.

I vaguely remember there is something in peanuts that changes the capsaicin (the hot chemical) rather than just providing oil to coat your taste buds.

All the things like cream, yogurt, rice, potato, oil affect it in the mouth, not the actual heat.

Surprisingly, cumin will actually damp down the heat. There are a couple of other herbs/spices that do the same (oregano?)

[lemniscate]

I've been told adding peanut butter works, but I've never had the opportunity to try it.

[liuzhou]

Any milk product helps, but especially yoghurt either plain or as raita or lassi. My preference is for thick Greek yoghurt.

[scubadoo97]

Based on all these remedies fat appears to be the common ingredient to taming the heat of spice

[rotuts]

possibly

 

but  non-fat yogurt works fine

 

as Lassi

 

salty or sweet,

[FeChef]

Freeze it, and train your heat tolerance, then thaw and enjoy. 

 

Seriously, aside from doubling all the ingredients, or diluting with rice, your just going to change the flavor profile which defeats the purpose in my opinion.

[Smithy]

I should probably follow up with what we tried, given available materials: mixing par-cooked potatoes into it and finishing the cooking; cooking rice in the dish (with additional water, and additional tomato paste). Neither helped, and in fact succeeded in diluting the flavor without diluting the heat as FeChef suspects immediately above. It has been pointed out to me since this episode that cooking the rice (or noodles, or potatoes) separately and putting the stew OVER it, as kayb had suggested, might have had different results because of having two distinctly different flavors in each bite.

 

We did not have yogurt available, and couldn't make a cooling drink such as lassi to tame it by accompaniment. Sour cream in the dish helped, but not enough. 

 

In the end, we fished out the pork chunks -- which were still delicious, although hot -- and put them on tortillas with chunks of avocado and a touch of sour cream. Perfection! The avocado turned out to be a nice accompaniment that cooled the spice-heat; the pork still tasted great; the flavor was not diluted.

 

 

Thanks for the tips, folks. If I ever overdo it again I'll have some better ideas of what to try. The best option, of course, will be not to overdo the spice-heat.  

[FeChef]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

I should probably follow up with what we tried, given available materials: mixing par-cooked potatoes into it and finishing the cooking; cooking rice in the dish (with additional water, and additional tomato paste). Neither helped, and in fact succeeded in diluting the flavor without diluting the heat as FeChef suspects immediately above. It has been pointed out to me since this episode that cooking the rice (or noodles, or potatoes) separately and putting the stew OVER it, as kayb had suggested, might have had different results because of having two distinctly different flavors in each bite.

 

We did not have yogurt available, and couldn't make a cooling drink such as lassi to tame it by accompaniment. Sour cream in the dish helped, but not enough. 

 

In the end, we fished out the pork chunks -- which were still delicious, although hot -- and put them on tortillas with chunks of avocado and a touch of sour cream. Perfection! The avocado turned out to be a nice accompaniment that cooled the spice-heat; the pork still tasted great; the flavor was not diluted.

 

 

Thanks for the tips, folks. If I ever overdo it again I'll have some better ideas of what to try. The best option, of course, will be not to overdo the spice-heat.  

Looks delicious. You could also have filled with rice, put into a casserole dish, covered with enchilada sauce and cheese, and made some killer enchiladas, although i would recommend using mild enchilas sauce 😝

Edited February 17, 2020 by FeChef (log)

[chileheadmike]

I have read that adding carrots will help tame the heat, although I've never tried it.

 

Peanut butter works instantly when you've bitten into more than you can handle. Worked wonders for my daughter when she was building up a tolerance. Kind of a funny story, we used to make our own hot sauce every year from chiles in my garden. Usually, cayenne, thai dragons, ripe jalapenos, chipotles and whatever else was in there. We made a batch and let it sit in the fridge for about a week and then took it out to try it. Her boyfriend was over at the time. She commented on how it wasn't as hot as the previous year, but she thought it had a smokier flavor from that year's batch of chipotles. BF wanted in on the tasting and my daughter tried to warn him off but he had seen both of use try multiple tastes seeming unaffected. He tried some on a chip and his eyes bugged out and he started jumping up and down heading for the faucet. I was too busy laughing at him while my daughter got the peanut butter.