Toning down the heat in chilies

[Tepee]

Leave it for a day or 2....the heat will tame down.

Or take your meal with warm milk...so that the capsaicin is carried off in the fat molecules.

Edited November 3, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[CanadianBakin']

A little sour cream on top will help to cut the heat.

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I second the sour cream. It makes a huge difference.

[Taboni]

I like my chili much hotter than my wife does, so I usually add a touch of sugar to hers. It never really imparts a sweet taste, it just tames the heat a touch.

[Smithy]

A little sour cream on top will help to cut the heat.

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I second the sour cream. It makes a huge difference.

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Make that three of us. My husband thinks he doesn't like "hot" peppers, but he adds so much "mild" chili powder that it's too hot for me, the inveterate cayenne user. Sour cream is my salvation.

[Megan Blocker]

Lots and lots of sour cream?

Milk on the side?

You could freeze it in smaller Ziploc bags and use it to season new batches as you make them...rather than making one huge batch now.

[nessa]

Add cheese!

[Kouign Aman]

Carbs (sugar, starches) help tame the fire.

Serve on rice, or with cornbread.

Add sugar.

Sour cream and cheese just taste sooooo good on chili, add those too!

[KatieLoeb]

A little maple syrup is in my chile recipe. It doesn't exactly cut the heat, but slows down the attack a bit. It's a trick I learned from Chef Robert Delgrande of Cafe Annie. He's a real chile expert.

The sour cream suggestion and serving it on rice will dull the heat more than something sweet.

[FistFullaRoux]

Add beans. if you already have them in there, add more.

Or, strain off some of the liquid (save it if you want). Then add more of the liquid ingredients, unseasoned, to the pot and let it simmer for a bit. See if that balances it out. You may have to reseason for salt and other flavorings. This saves the batch and gives you a similar amount that you would have otherwise, so you don't end up with 20 gallons of the stuff.

[FistFullaRoux]

Leave it for a day or 2....the heat will tame down.

Or take your meal with warm milk...so that the capsaicin is carried off in the fat molecules.

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The milk does work temporarily. Problem is, it just delays the burn, if you know what I mean. The oils that cause the burn are just sent farther down the system and do the damage elsewhere.

[Carolyn Tillie]

A great use for left-over wine corks! Seriously -- bring the chili back to heat on the stove and dump in a handful of corks for an hour or two. Corks and potatoes will absorb *some* of the spicyness. I've done this often and can attest to effectiveness!

Then add the sour cream...

[GTO]

Am I right in thinking that spicy food doesn't feel quite so spicy if not eaten when piping hot?

I've found this to be the case when eating chili, just let it cool slightly and the spiciness seems to settle down.

[godito]

I like pretty much every idea I've read here, but I would just make some more, without the spicy mix, and add it to your hot chilli until the flavor is as expected. If in needs more spices, add cumin, a little garlic salt (or onion salt), and yes, do add some sugar. It helps.

[Mallet]

Other than sour cream, you could also try plain yoghurt for something different

[The Hersch]

Other than sour cream, you could also try plain yoghurt for something different

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Or boysenberry yoghurt for something even more different. Sorry, I'll go now.

[Restorer]

The reason the heat level of chili seems to mellow out after it sits for a day is because the capsaicin is being more evenly distributed in the solid components. Right after you cook chili, a lot of the capsaicin is still floating around in the liquid - a lot like if you salt beans after they're cooked and don't give them time to absorb the salt. The higher concentration of capsaicin in the liquid coats your mouth more thoroughly with heat. After it's redistributed to the inside of the beans and meat, the concentration of capsaicin that comes into contact with your tongue is lower, and less sticks to your taste buds.

This leads me to think that any additional ingredient that can sit in the chili for a long time (at least overnight) and absorb it's share of capsaicin, then be removed later, can help to diminish the heat. It's the same principle as the rice-fix for oversalting.

Temperature is also a factor. I've noticed that if I have something really tasty, but too spicy for me, I'll continue eating until it just hurts too much to bear - but this threshold is much farther along if whatever I'm eating isn't piping hot.

Then again, cheese and sour cream are always welcome additions to my chili.

[scrat68]

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. I did try the stuff with sour cream but it was still too spicy.

Today, I added a chunked up potato, sugar and a can of pineapple (pureed in blender). Tighe found something on the web about the acid and sweetness of the pineapple helping to counteract the spice.

It is definitely milder but I think I will wait another day or two to see if it mellows out a bit more. Beyond that, I loved the idea to freeze small portions to season my next batches!

[Toliver]

There was another discussion around here where posters said freezing something tones the heat down quite a bit. I thought that was a load of hooey until I froze a spicy hot dip and discovered that upon thawing it wasn't nearly as spicy hot as it was before it went into the freezer.

Would love an SSB to explain this phenomenon...

[miladyinsanity]

That's odd. Don't you add sugar to emphasize the heat, rather than to balance it?