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Selects: How Chili Peppers Work · Stuff You Should Know

0:00
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Chuck here, Happy Saturday. Do you want to
0:04
Speaker 1: know how Chili Peppers work? Because we did and we learned.
0:08
Speaker 1: This is from September. How Chili Peppers work. It's hot stuff.
0:20
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I
0:22
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Thurs,
0:32
Speaker 1: Charles W Chuck Bryant and Jerry and that makes this
0:36
Speaker 1: stuff you should know. That was so good to quote
0:40
Speaker 1: the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the band they apparently used
0:44
Speaker 1: them at Guantanamo Bay to torture prisoners. Really yeah, that
0:50
Speaker 1: surprises me. I know usually that's like I've heard of
0:54
Speaker 1: stories like that, but usually it's some kind of dark
0:56
Speaker 1: metal or something like super Darling vocal band. Of might
1:00
Speaker 1: say abrasive, some might. I think it's very soothing to
1:02
Speaker 1: hear death metal. Supposedly there's a study out there, the
1:05
Speaker 1: head of ridiculously small study population that found that it's
1:10
Speaker 1: calming has a calling influence metal music does paid for
1:13
Speaker 1: about the Metal Association of North America. The Skandinavia. Uh yeah,
1:18
Speaker 1: I'm kind of surprised they played the Chili Peppers since, uh,
1:21
Speaker 1: it's pretty easy on the ears. Isn't it Well one
1:24
Speaker 1: of the songs was California Cation. The other later stuff
1:28
Speaker 1: isn't as good. I could go a little crazy with
1:30
Speaker 1: that one. I'll talk what were you going to quote?
1:36
Speaker 1: I was gonna say give it away, give it away
1:38
Speaker 1: now or something like that, or fight like a brave.
1:41
Speaker 1: I haven't heard that one. That's early stuff. You could
1:44
Speaker 1: just say like under the Bridge downtown. Yeah, I ate
1:49
Speaker 1: a chili pepper. I actually read his biography. I guess
1:54
Speaker 1: it was an autobiography Anthony Keatis, because I was he
1:57
Speaker 1: writing about himself. Yeah. I was just going through a
2:00
Speaker 1: kick where I was reading music autobiographies of for just
2:04
Speaker 1: rock star stories. Didn't you recommend the best? Which one
2:09
Speaker 1: was it? Uh? There's one, um quintessential one. I can't
2:14
Speaker 1: remember what it's called, the Quintessential Crew. Yeah, just look
2:18
Speaker 1: at I mean it's that's not an autobiography, that's just
2:20
Speaker 1: a biography. Yeah, but that one's really good. The Slash
2:22
Speaker 1: one is good and the Keytest one is good. Man,
2:24
Speaker 1: he that guy. He had troubles, oh yeah, just bad
2:30
Speaker 1: drug troubles and woman troubles over and over and over.
2:35
Speaker 1: But he's good now. Good for him. Yeah, welcome back.
2:39
Speaker 1: To the fray, Anthony Keynes. That's what I say. So
2:43
Speaker 1: we're not talking about the red hot chili peppers. We're
2:45
Speaker 1: talking about red hot chili peppers, right, not the right
2:49
Speaker 1: We're talking about chili peppers. Depending on where you are
2:52
Speaker 1: in the world, c h I l I peppers or
2:55
Speaker 1: c h I L E peppers or just chili's. Yeah,
2:59
Speaker 1: you could say that. I think a lot of chefs
3:01
Speaker 1: just call them chilies. Well, yeah, because they're like, they
3:04
Speaker 1: don't waste words. No, they don't say peppers. It's a
3:08
Speaker 1: couple of extra syllables. Yeah, exactly, No, chef, give me
3:12
Speaker 1: some of those chilies. Uh. It is the bell pepper
3:16
Speaker 1: and the celery stalk and the onion is part of
3:21
Speaker 1: the trinity of I guess you would call it Nolans cooking. Sure,
3:28
Speaker 1: the bell pepper is a chili pepper. It's just um,
3:32
Speaker 1: a non hot chili pepper. But it's still the same thing. Um.
3:37
Speaker 1: And it turns out that we get that terminology chili.
3:40
Speaker 1: It actually was used by the Aztecs or the Triple
3:44
Speaker 1: Alliance and Mesoamerica, the Triple Indy's the Triple Alliance prior
3:49
Speaker 1: to the arrival of Columbus, and it was Columbus himself
3:53
Speaker 1: where we get the the misnomer chili pepper, because Columbus,
3:58
Speaker 1: he's a big dummy. Can that guy get anything right?
4:02
Speaker 1: So he comes across the chili pepper and decides that
4:05
Speaker 1: it must be a relative of the black pepper, with
4:07
Speaker 1: which he and the rest of Europe are already very familiar.
4:10
Speaker 1: So he calls it the chili pepper because he hears
4:12
Speaker 1: up in Meico they call it chili's, so what the
4:16
Speaker 1: Triple Alliance calls it. So that's where it came from.
4:19
Speaker 1: Chili peppers, but it has no relation whatsoever to the
4:22
Speaker 1: chili or the pepper. The black pepper um and it's
4:26
Speaker 1: been around. It's actually one of the oldest domesticated crops
4:30
Speaker 1: in the America's actually, yeah, it started out in South
4:33
Speaker 1: America about six thousand years ago. I saw nine thousand,
4:37
Speaker 1: let's stay between five and twelve. Uh. And they don't
4:42
Speaker 1: know whether it was Bolivia or Brazil. There's a heated
4:45
Speaker 1: debate in the pepper community on the country of origin.
4:49
Speaker 1: But they do know that birds are the ones who
4:51
Speaker 1: dispersed them in. Birds can't feel heat in their mouth,
4:55
Speaker 1: so they carry them around and propagate the seeds, and
4:58
Speaker 1: uh then Columbus of cour brought them to Europe and
5:02
Speaker 1: that's how things spread. That's why you can use hot
5:04
Speaker 1: sauce or chili pepper spray or something like that on
5:06
Speaker 1: your bird seed to deter squirrels. Yeah, because the birds
5:10
Speaker 1: are fine. Yeah, but the squirrels squirrels around going And
5:16
Speaker 1: it says here the birds can't digest pepper seeds. But
5:19
Speaker 1: nobody can really digest pepper seeds. If I can't whole,
5:23
Speaker 1: I totally can't know you can't. I will show you
5:25
Speaker 1: right now. I think you can show me your stool.
5:30
Speaker 1: Uh No, we can't digest them either, because we don't
5:33
Speaker 1: digest seeds that aren't chewed because they're covered in cellulose
5:37
Speaker 1: and it just goes straight through to our poop. Exactly
5:39
Speaker 1: same with corn. Yeah, because that is a seed. It is.
5:43
Speaker 1: I'm glad you finally said that. Somebody needed to say it.
5:48
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the trendy facts. Don't you
5:50
Speaker 1: think that corn is a seed? Yeah? Yeah, probably. It
5:54
Speaker 1: seems like I saw that all over the internet. It's
5:56
Speaker 1: pretty hot right now. Corn and poop, it's a hot topic.
5:59
Speaker 1: So um, I did it don't be dumb on that.
6:02
Speaker 1: On hot topics van corn and you pop. Yeah. See
6:09
Speaker 1: so um Columbus brings the stuff back and it spreads
6:14
Speaker 1: like crazy like syphilis. Yeah, because think about this, Um,
6:18
Speaker 1: chili peppers, we're we are native to the America's and
6:23
Speaker 1: we're unknown outside of the America's until about five hundred
6:28
Speaker 1: or so years ago. Now they're grown in just about
6:31
Speaker 1: every country in the world. Um, there's all different types
6:34
Speaker 1: of varieties. Um. But it turns out that there's twenty
6:39
Speaker 1: five wild species and five domesticated species. And one of
6:45
Speaker 1: the um noteworthy things about chili peppers is most of
6:49
Speaker 1: the time, when humans domesticated a wild crop, they would
6:54
Speaker 1: stop using the wild version of it because it was
6:57
Speaker 1: just so far inferior to the domestic hated versions. Not
7:01
Speaker 1: so with with um chilies. Wild chilies are just as prized,
7:05
Speaker 1: if not more prized, than the domesticated ones. They're delicious.
7:09
Speaker 1: So there's five species, chuck. And by the way, chili
7:12
Speaker 1: peppers blowing to the night shade family with potatoes, tomatoes,
7:16
Speaker 1: goaji berries, eggplants in night shade and um, the five
7:21
Speaker 1: species are fun to say. Yeah, I wasn't even gonna
7:26
Speaker 1: do it, but I encourage you too, Okay, Uh kept
7:29
Speaker 1: cicum and you um kept ciccum chins kept siccumb fruitescents
7:37
Speaker 1: kept scumb, but cadam and kept siccum. Pubescence does have
7:42
Speaker 1: little hairs on him. I saw that one coming. So
7:48
Speaker 1: those are the five families. H Peppers are generally hot,
7:53
Speaker 1: although we'll get into all that with the varieties. Like
7:55
Speaker 1: you said the bells, everyone knows bells aren't very hot, right,
7:58
Speaker 1: but um, what you're talking about with heat is what's
8:00
Speaker 1: called their pungency. And the heat actually uh comes from
8:05
Speaker 1: alkaloids present in the peppers called cap sasan yes, which
8:09
Speaker 1: we talked about in December pepper pepper Spray episode, because
8:15
Speaker 1: that's the cap that's what they're using in pepper spray.
8:17
Speaker 1: If you didn't listen to it, go check it out.
8:19
Speaker 1: It's a good one. But yeah, that's kind of funny
8:22
Speaker 1: to think about defense. Self defense tool is really just
8:27
Speaker 1: uh canned hot pepper. Yeah, because that stuff can be
8:31
Speaker 1: It works. Yeah, it really does work. Um. And with
8:35
Speaker 1: with the the pungency of a pepper, most people think
8:38
Speaker 1: that it's found in the seeds. That's actually a myth.
8:42
Speaker 1: Well it is found in the seeds. It's not housed
8:44
Speaker 1: in the seeds, right, So the seeds are attached to
8:46
Speaker 1: the pepper itself through something called the placenta. It's a membrane,
8:50
Speaker 1: that white stuff that's inside of a pepper, right, and
8:54
Speaker 1: that's where the cap sasan um is stored. Yeah. Um,
9:00
Speaker 1: And since the seeds are attached to the membrane, a
9:03
Speaker 1: lot of that stuff makes it way its way to
9:05
Speaker 1: the seeds. But if you really want the high heat,
9:09
Speaker 1: you eat the membrane. If you want want the high heat,
9:12
Speaker 1: just eat the whole thing. I D seed and D
9:14
Speaker 1: membrane mine. But uh, if you're looking for heat, then
9:18
Speaker 1: just don't even sweat it. Literally, don't sweat it. That's yeah.
9:22
Speaker 1: That's like the second at least pun that you've made.
9:25
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, well was the first one? Something was
9:28
Speaker 1: they were both accidental hot. I can't remember what it was. Well,
9:32
Speaker 1: those are just words. No, it was perfect, It was
9:35
Speaker 1: really great. Uh. So the pain is actually not coming
9:39
Speaker 1: from your taste buds because they don't feel pain. It's
9:42
Speaker 1: coming from pain receptors in your mouth, and it sends
9:47
Speaker 1: a message to your to your brain saying this is
9:50
Speaker 1: super hot. I wouldn't eat that much unless you like it. Right.
9:54
Speaker 1: It's the same pain receptors that UM tell you that, say,
9:59
Speaker 1: the sip of coffee you just took is too hot,
10:02
Speaker 1: or like something is thermally too hot. It's triggered by
10:06
Speaker 1: CAP sason. It's the t r p v one receptor
10:10
Speaker 1: and that triggers the release of a neurotransmitter called substance
10:13
Speaker 1: P and that's cap sason can also block. What's crazy
10:18
Speaker 1: is yes, so the it's what when we'll talk about
10:22
Speaker 1: it a little more later. But cap sason is used
10:25
Speaker 1: as a topical pain reliever, right like Shaquille O'Neal knows
10:30
Speaker 1: that he is he uh I think yeah? Um, so
10:36
Speaker 1: cap sasan If you rub it on the skin, it
10:39
Speaker 1: goes to those trp v one receptors and basically overloads
10:44
Speaker 1: them so thoroughly that they're no longer able to transmit
10:47
Speaker 1: the sensation of pain in that area. So it's a
10:50
Speaker 1: local anesthetic. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, uh, And lots
10:54
Speaker 1: of other health benefits we'll talk about. Peppers are great
10:56
Speaker 1: for you. Peppers are super Uh. They do not cause
11:00
Speaker 1: ulcers that is a myth um and in fact, they
11:03
Speaker 1: protect the stomach lining or can and they can also
11:07
Speaker 1: thin the blood, so you need to watch out for
11:09
Speaker 1: that if you are on an anticoagulant. Yeah. I don't
11:13
Speaker 1: know if they say that on the prescription or not.
11:15
Speaker 1: But the pepper prescription no prescribed. It's in Alabania today.
11:24
Speaker 1: Uh No, the anticoagulant prescription. Of course it might. But
11:28
Speaker 1: if you are in a contest or just at dinner
11:32
Speaker 1: and your mouth becomes inflamed, um, don't well, you can
11:36
Speaker 1: drink water. I think it provides a temporary respite. I
11:40
Speaker 1: don't know if it even does that. It does for me.
11:43
Speaker 1: It basically smooths the stuff around and throughout your mouth. Yea,
11:48
Speaker 1: which is not good. What you want is something fatty
11:52
Speaker 1: like milk, Yeah, because cap sasan dissolves in the presence
11:56
Speaker 1: of fats or like um, if you eat a lot
11:59
Speaker 1: of Mexican food or Indian food, Um, that that sour
12:02
Speaker 1: cream and that yogurt is a nice way to smooth
12:04
Speaker 1: that out. That's what it's there for. Baby. Well, that
12:07
Speaker 1: in taste and in flavor and texture and everything else. Yeah,
12:12
Speaker 1: I guess. So. Yeah, it's not like they're, like you said,
12:15
Speaker 1: some sour cream because this is too hot, but it
12:18
Speaker 1: definitely helps. I read an article actually with a guy
12:21
Speaker 1: who was in a contest and he was a hot
12:25
Speaker 1: pepper guy and he described I think he ate like
12:29
Speaker 1: three ghost peppers just in twenty seconds, and he was
12:34
Speaker 1: fine at first. Then it got hot like in it
12:38
Speaker 1: not in his mouth but in his throat, and then um,
12:42
Speaker 1: he just kept going through waves like he said it
12:44
Speaker 1: would go away, and I thought it was good, and
12:46
Speaker 1: he was like an hour later, it felt like a
12:48
Speaker 1: red hot burning nickel on my stern um and it
12:51
Speaker 1: was just moving its way down, I guess. And then
12:54
Speaker 1: he said he felt jubilation, like exhilaration, which we'll talk
12:57
Speaker 1: about this one of the effects of peppers that can
13:00
Speaker 1: you know, pick up your mood. But he said he
13:02
Speaker 1: was just like I felt like he was on cocaine. Weird. Yeah,
13:07
Speaker 1: because they trigger a release of endorphins exactly, so you
13:11
Speaker 1: can get a runners high or some sort of high
13:13
Speaker 1: off of eating peppers, which is why some people eat peppers.
13:17
Speaker 1: They really makes them feel great. Yeah, I guess this
13:19
Speaker 1: guy wasn't a runner. He must have just done some
13:21
Speaker 1: cocaine before his line, right, that was his go too.
13:25
Speaker 1: And um, so you said that birds are immune to
13:28
Speaker 1: the effects of peppers, and they also spread the seed
13:32
Speaker 1: by pooping it out right. Um, mammals are not immune
13:36
Speaker 1: to the effects of it, including humans. And apparently humans
13:38
Speaker 1: are the only mammals that purposefully eat peppers. And it's
13:41
Speaker 1: been called a form of benign masochism. Oh yeah, interesting,
13:47
Speaker 1: but it makes sense if um. And the reason why
13:49
Speaker 1: they think peppers have that kind of burning thing is
13:52
Speaker 1: is to protect itself, to ward off mammals from eating it. Um.
13:57
Speaker 1: But the the idea that we can and get some
14:00
Speaker 1: sort of rush from it, it's kind of counterintuitive if
14:04
Speaker 1: you think about it as far as evolution goes from
14:06
Speaker 1: the pepper standpoint. Sure, yeah, because that encourages people to
14:10
Speaker 1: keep eating you. Yeah, that's a good point. All right, Well,
14:14
Speaker 1: let's take a break here and we'll come back and
14:15
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about how the heat is measured
14:19
Speaker 1: in a hot pepper. You know, stop you all right?
14:39
Speaker 1: I guess we need to talk about Wilbur Scoville, Mr
14:43
Speaker 1: Scoville doctor. He's a pharmacist. Yeah, but I wondered if
14:46
Speaker 1: he was a doctor. I think he got an honorary doctorate.
14:49
Speaker 1: He deserved one. You count those? Uh? Sure? All right,
14:54
Speaker 1: probably depends on where it's from what it's for, but
14:56
Speaker 1: sure I would, of course I want to be like
15:00
Speaker 1: you can call me doctor Mr Clark, Dr Mr. Uh.
15:05
Speaker 1: He was a pharmacist, like you said, who developed, um,
15:08
Speaker 1: something called the Scoville organ elliptic test in nineteen twelve,
15:14
Speaker 1: and uh, what is this a hilarious name for what
15:18
Speaker 1: it is. It is kind of weird, isn't it. You
15:20
Speaker 1: should just call it the chili test or something. It
15:22
Speaker 1: just made me laugh like a goon a. Well, previous
15:26
Speaker 1: to this test, um, the only test was basically just
15:29
Speaker 1: to have people eat them and ask them how hot.
15:32
Speaker 1: It's pretty hot? Okay, that's a pretty hot pepper. Give
15:35
Speaker 1: me some milk fat, right, technically pork fat whatever. You
15:40
Speaker 1: just need a slab a fat and get rid of
15:42
Speaker 1: it real quick. Yeah. They said chocolate too will help you. Well,
15:45
Speaker 1: it's a fatty yeah, full of lipids. I think that's
15:48
Speaker 1: people just like the chocolate with their hot stuff. Uh So,
15:54
Speaker 1: Scofield says, there's got to be a better way, and
15:56
Speaker 1: he says, why don't we devise a test where we
15:59
Speaker 1: have people peppers and ask them out hot It is?
16:01
Speaker 1: Pretty much? But let's do it in a little bit
16:03
Speaker 1: different way. Let's keep feeding them peppers that are more
16:06
Speaker 1: diluted until they can't feel heat any longer, and just
16:11
Speaker 1: make it a little more organized and formal. So the Scoville,
16:15
Speaker 1: the Scoville heat unit is what it comes up with, right,
16:18
Speaker 1: So for example, of bell pepper has a zero, not hot,
16:22
Speaker 1: but say Hobban euro some types of hobby euro peppers
16:25
Speaker 1: can get up to like five hundred thousand UM. I
16:28
Speaker 1: think the red something, Oh, what is it? I'm sorry,
16:32
Speaker 1: the red Savennia haban euro pepper got up to five
16:35
Speaker 1: D seventy thousand Scoville heat units. It's very hot. And
16:39
Speaker 1: what that means is that it would take five hundred
16:41
Speaker 1: and seventy thousand cups of water to dilute one cup
16:46
Speaker 1: of extract from the red Savinia habban euro and one
16:49
Speaker 1: shot of milk fat right before before anybody could say
16:53
Speaker 1: I detect no heat whatsoever. So that's what. Yeah, it's
16:57
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of war. And it's not like he
16:59
Speaker 1: was pouring a whole cup of this stuff into five
17:02
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy thousand cups of water. It's math. I
17:04
Speaker 1: think he just used fractions. Yeah, probably, so yeah, you
17:08
Speaker 1: know a minute to come to that conclusion. I was like,
17:10
Speaker 1: what kind of vat did this guy have in his yard?
17:13
Speaker 1: A big one? Uh? So that was the the old
17:16
Speaker 1: test um. And even though they no longer use that,
17:20
Speaker 1: they still use that s h U. Scoville heat unit
17:23
Speaker 1: as the unit of a measure, which I think is
17:25
Speaker 1: a nice little tip of the cap. It is because
17:27
Speaker 1: it could have changed it. Wilbert Scoville's ghost is like,
17:30
Speaker 1: I approve. Uh Now, what they do is use liquid chromatography.
17:37
Speaker 1: Uh and they've been doing that since about the seventies.
17:40
Speaker 1: And that's not specific to testing peppers. It's basically just
17:45
Speaker 1: separating and analyzing compounds of any mixture, right, but you
17:49
Speaker 1: can target the specific type of compound and in this case,
17:51
Speaker 1: you're looking for the alkaloid capsation. Yes, and you determine
17:55
Speaker 1: how many parts per million is present in a given pepper,
17:58
Speaker 1: and it takes the subjectivity out. Yeah, and it's literally
18:01
Speaker 1: just measuring the level capsation level in any pepper. But
18:04
Speaker 1: what's neat is they figured out Scoville is clearly onto
18:07
Speaker 1: something because they figured out that if you take this
18:10
Speaker 1: high performance liquid chromatography measurement and multiply the number it
18:15
Speaker 1: spits out by sixteen, you will come to the Scoville
18:18
Speaker 1: unit by a factor of sixteen. Bad, But that's neat
18:24
Speaker 1: that you can it's not like sixteen seven or something
18:28
Speaker 1: like that, or or multiply it by the fact that
18:31
Speaker 1: you can multiply it by a standard number and come
18:34
Speaker 1: to the Scoville heat unit each time means he was
18:36
Speaker 1: doing something right. Something there's something there Scoville way to go.
18:42
Speaker 1: That sounds like one of the real men of genius
18:45
Speaker 1: commercials or something, right, I guess. Or else should we
18:50
Speaker 1: get to some of the types of peppers? Now, are
18:51
Speaker 1: we there? Yeah? Yeah, I think so, because if you're
18:56
Speaker 1: a scientist, there's two ways to classify a pepper by
18:59
Speaker 1: its heat using the Skillville heat unit index, and by
19:03
Speaker 1: its shape. Yes, and then color. Well, apparently scientists don't
19:09
Speaker 1: classify them by color. I'm talking about you and me, buddy.
19:11
Speaker 1: Hotheads were in the kitchen, okay, and we're and we're
19:15
Speaker 1: looking at peppers, and we're like, look at that red one.
19:18
Speaker 1: Look at that green wrinkly one. All right, that one's
19:20
Speaker 1: shape funny. That's a funny shape. That's how we classify
19:25
Speaker 1: red funny shaped one. It's really hot. Wrinkly or smooth
19:28
Speaker 1: is another thing you might notice. But you're right, as
19:31
Speaker 1: far as science is concerned, its heat and shape, and
19:33
Speaker 1: then the shapes go from shape A to shape I right.
19:37
Speaker 1: And my favorite descriptor is the lantern shape. I think
19:41
Speaker 1: that's great. Yeah, that's the hot man euro. Yeah, very
19:44
Speaker 1: thin skinned, uh and very hot? Yeah? Can you can
19:48
Speaker 1: you eat peppers? Which I didn't even ask this? I
19:53
Speaker 1: eat a lot of peppers. Um, My heat tolerance isn't great.
19:59
Speaker 1: I do like the heat, but I'm a bit of
20:01
Speaker 1: a whimp. So like, what what kind of pepper do
20:03
Speaker 1: you normally? Can you eat? Like a Scotch bonnet? Well,
20:07
Speaker 1: I mean I cook a lot with just bells. Of
20:08
Speaker 1: course that doesn't care. Sure they do, okay, because they're peppers,
20:12
Speaker 1: all right, Um so I cook a lot with those,
20:14
Speaker 1: But um, I cook a lot with poblanos, anaheims, Chipotle's
20:19
Speaker 1: lapenos serranos and Chipotle is it you just threw me off.
20:24
Speaker 1: It's chapolte Chipotle. Chipotle is a smoked tabn euro right, Yeah,
20:29
Speaker 1: and Ancho is a dried serrano. Ancho is dried poblano
20:35
Speaker 1: ancho powder. Yeah, that's from Pueblo, Mexico. Uh, Poblanos are
20:40
Speaker 1: great if you want to make a good chile reno
20:43
Speaker 1: because they're about the right size and they're really just hardy, thick,
20:47
Speaker 1: waxy they hold up. Well. Yeah, you mean I are
20:50
Speaker 1: aficionados of those things of the poblana, know of the chileno.
20:54
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, find a good one of those. Yeah, you know,
20:57
Speaker 1: it's funny. In uh college, you know, I worked at
21:00
Speaker 1: Callie Girl, which I don't think is even a thing anymore.
21:05
Speaker 1: I know the one in Atlanta Highway Clothes, which was
21:07
Speaker 1: very it was an institution. Uh. And their chill arena
21:11
Speaker 1: like a lot of the when you go to some
21:14
Speaker 1: you know, kind of the cheaper Mexican places that have
21:16
Speaker 1: like the mini with eight combination dinners, a lot of
21:19
Speaker 1: times you will find a chill rena which is a
21:21
Speaker 1: ball of beef wrapped in cheese sitting on top of
21:25
Speaker 1: a one inch square green bell pepper. I've not seen
21:29
Speaker 1: that one. Yeah, that was what our chill rena was.
21:31
Speaker 1: Its basically just meat and cheese. Man, But you want
21:34
Speaker 1: the real thing, which is stuffed in a real pepper,
21:37
Speaker 1: and a lot of people use breading unnecessary. I can
21:42
Speaker 1: have it both ways. It's well, it's supposed to have
21:44
Speaker 1: some sort of fried wrapper around it, and the breading
21:48
Speaker 1: is usually too much. The better way to do it
21:50
Speaker 1: is like a thin omelet, almost like a crepe around it.
21:54
Speaker 1: Everyone's yeah, good stuff, all right, Well let's back up then, Okay,
22:01
Speaker 1: back to the bells, which you don't consider peppers evidently, Well,
22:04
Speaker 1: I mean, as far as you're talking heat, no heat,
22:07
Speaker 1: but they're great to grill and and I can't say anything.
22:10
Speaker 1: I can't really go beyond a hall of pen you, oh,
22:13
Speaker 1: you can't stand the heat. No, So I'm frequently getting
22:16
Speaker 1: out of the kitchen. But I actually made a New
22:20
Speaker 1: Year's resolution to eat more hot stuff because I realize,
22:24
Speaker 1: like I'm such a total worst when it comes to this,
22:27
Speaker 1: Like you can build up a tolerance, and I have.
22:29
Speaker 1: I've gotten much better at like eating spicy stuff. But yeah,
22:32
Speaker 1: if I like habanero is way too hot for me,
22:36
Speaker 1: it depends on what kind of spice it is. To
22:38
Speaker 1: a lot of times, I'm more tolerant of some than others.
22:40
Speaker 1: But I've learned that once you get past that very unpleasant,
22:44
Speaker 1: painful sensation, there's like a whole new world of tastes
22:48
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah you know, yeah, good point. Uh. So
22:52
Speaker 1: the bells are the little squatty squatty dudes. Um they
22:56
Speaker 1: can be. Uh. I don't know if a lot of
22:58
Speaker 1: people know this. All the different collars of the bell.
23:00
Speaker 1: Pepper is the same pepper, the red bell, the green bell,
23:04
Speaker 1: the yellow bell, the orange bell. It's all the same,
23:07
Speaker 1: but they taste differently. Yes, because there it's how long
23:10
Speaker 1: they're ripened. So what the green one is ripen or
23:14
Speaker 1: harvested first? Wait a minute, Wait a minute, it's all
23:16
Speaker 1: the same pepper. Read an that's why you'll get a
23:18
Speaker 1: red pepper that still has a little green buddy, like
23:21
Speaker 1: a little patch of green. Wait a minute, hold on,
23:26
Speaker 1: So you didn't know this? No? Wow, all right, well
23:29
Speaker 1: that didn't happen much for real. Yeah, well that's great man,
23:33
Speaker 1: thank you for teaching us. So the green peppers is
23:36
Speaker 1: picked first. That's why they're less expensive to um, and
23:40
Speaker 1: they are a little bitter and they are not nearly
23:44
Speaker 1: as sweet. Then you have yellow than orange than red
23:48
Speaker 1: as they ripen, and that's why the red is most expensive.
23:51
Speaker 1: And it's because it's the most mature delicious. It is delicious,
23:56
Speaker 1: and they are sweet and kind of fruity um, but
24:00
Speaker 1: smoked one. We're not smoked on um roasted yes. Oh,
24:04
Speaker 1: I do it all the time. And then you just
24:06
Speaker 1: peel the skin off. Yeah, what I do. This article
24:09
Speaker 1: says to do it in the oven. I either put
24:11
Speaker 1: it on the grill I do with fire, yeah, or
24:14
Speaker 1: just on the stove. I'll just put it on the
24:17
Speaker 1: gas stove. That's a conviction. You just put like an
24:22
Speaker 1: old piece note paper on its pepper over there. Yeah,
24:27
Speaker 1: I'll just throw the red pepper on the fire until
24:30
Speaker 1: it's all black, and then I throw it in a
24:32
Speaker 1: paper bag. I don't do paper because I don't usually plastic. Yeah,
24:36
Speaker 1: I'll just put it in like a grocery store bag.
24:39
Speaker 1: That seems carcinogenic. Uh no, I don't think so we'll
24:44
Speaker 1: find out. Yeah, check back with me in twenty years. Well,
24:48
Speaker 1: because you then you run into the sink and wash
24:50
Speaker 1: all that char off of it. So I don't think
24:52
Speaker 1: it's coming to contact what you're eating with the plastic, right,
24:56
Speaker 1: So you use the sink huh yeah, just because it's
24:59
Speaker 1: really hot to the touch. Still. Well that that's the
25:01
Speaker 1: other thing that I noticed in this article. It says
25:03
Speaker 1: leave it for like fifteen minutes, which seems smart. I
25:06
Speaker 1: don't ever have time for that, So I just put
25:08
Speaker 1: it under the cold water, get all the seeds in
25:11
Speaker 1: the membrane and the skin off you, and then slice
25:14
Speaker 1: it up and throw it in a salad. It is delicious,
25:17
Speaker 1: very delicious. Uh. But the okay, the red pepper has
25:22
Speaker 1: more because it's matured longer, has eleven times more beta
25:26
Speaker 1: carotene than green and one and a half times more
25:29
Speaker 1: vitamin C, so they're healthier. That's what you're pain for
25:31
Speaker 1: the beta carotene. That's right, big money in bata. Uh.
25:38
Speaker 1: And then you can also have chocolate, purple and even
25:41
Speaker 1: white bell peppers. And this is now you're just lying now.
25:47
Speaker 1: I think those are just different varieties. Though I don't
25:49
Speaker 1: think those are like how mature they are, Like the
25:51
Speaker 1: white ones are grown in the dark or something like that.
25:55
Speaker 1: I don't know. I have no idea. Um, the pimento
26:00
Speaker 1: paprika are both where you they come from? Red bells thought,
26:04
Speaker 1: and paprika is well, then how is how is that?
26:07
Speaker 1: How does that have? Any kind of paprika has a
26:10
Speaker 1: little bit of heat to it, doesn't it? Uh? No, No,
26:14
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of cayenne pepper. Yeah, cayenne is made from
26:16
Speaker 1: hot red chilies, and paprika is just smoked unless it's
26:21
Speaker 1: Hungarian paprika, and that's sweeter and that's not smoked. So
26:25
Speaker 1: if you see a recipe that says paprika, you should
26:28
Speaker 1: probably know whether it's smoked or Hungarian. And if not,
26:32
Speaker 1: I would probably just go with Hungarian. Oh you think, well,
26:35
Speaker 1: unless you just know you want a smoky flavor. This
26:40
Speaker 1: has been quite a roller. Banana peppers very mild, pepper
26:46
Speaker 1: chini's very mild. You get those on your subway sandwich?
26:53
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, or like as a side on a Papa
26:56
Speaker 1: John's pizza. Oh yeah, something like that. That's right, I
26:59
Speaker 1: knew I've seen that. And then of course the best
27:01
Speaker 1: one of all, the Paublano pepper, right uh. And then
27:04
Speaker 1: the pimento, which we just mentioned, and that is a
27:06
Speaker 1: variety of the red bell I think, and that's what
27:09
Speaker 1: they put in olives and cheese. What about the hot guys,
27:14
Speaker 1: seattlen't mess with them that much. But yeah, like we said,
27:18
Speaker 1: there's lapeno serrano, havaniro, Chippotle, So it is chipotle? Yeah,
27:26
Speaker 1: what do you think it was? We were saying chipolte?
27:29
Speaker 1: Are were you saying Chipotle. I was saying Chipotlewa said that,
27:32
Speaker 1: and then Anaheim Anaheim, Yeah. I think some people transpose
27:37
Speaker 1: the L and say chapolte. Yeah, they definitely do. I
27:40
Speaker 1: got confused. I know how to say it right, but
27:42
Speaker 1: earlier I was like, wait, they didn't sound right. Yeah. Uh.
27:47
Speaker 1: And then of course you have the delicious Tai chilies
27:50
Speaker 1: or bird's eye chilies, and those are really good and
27:53
Speaker 1: super hot, and they are small and thin but pack
27:58
Speaker 1: of punch. So normally the rule of thought them is, uh,
28:01
Speaker 1: thin long ones that are red are going to be
28:06
Speaker 1: your hottest, right, But there's exceptions to those rules, which
28:12
Speaker 1: is the Scotch bonnet. Scotch bonnet is like it's like even,
28:16
Speaker 1: it's like more pumpkin shaped. It's like hobbin narrow, but
28:20
Speaker 1: it's even. It's less land or shaped and more pumpkin shaped.
28:22
Speaker 1: And I think it's like a yellow yellow orange, and
28:24
Speaker 1: it's very hot, very frequently found in like Jamaican cuisine.
28:30
Speaker 1: The Scotch bonnet. Uh, if you dry the pepper out
28:35
Speaker 1: and you have like the encho pepper, the chipotle dried
28:38
Speaker 1: stuff that we're talking about, it's gonna be hotter. Get
28:41
Speaker 1: that in mind. Some people who like peppers will just
28:43
Speaker 1: put them in a food dehydrator and eat them like that. Yeah,
28:47
Speaker 1: or just let them just dry out in you're in
28:48
Speaker 1: the sun, if you're slack, if you're a hippie, chuck.
28:54
Speaker 1: We also said that. So if you're a scientist, you
28:57
Speaker 1: say this pepper is shape a and as a Scoville
29:01
Speaker 1: rating of five trillion, right, Um, then you've just described
29:05
Speaker 1: a pepper to another scientist. They know what you're talking about.
29:09
Speaker 1: But there's a something called the Chili Pepper Institute. It's
29:11
Speaker 1: an institute that's associated with the University of New Mexico.
29:15
Speaker 1: And New Mexico, by the way, is the the foremost
29:19
Speaker 1: domestic producer of chili peppers in the United States, thanks
29:22
Speaker 1: to a man named Fabian Garcia, who was a pioneer
29:26
Speaker 1: in cultivating peppers here in the United States. He released
29:31
Speaker 1: his first variety, the New Mexico number nine. I thought
29:34
Speaker 1: you're gonna say, his first album Mambo number five. Yeah. Um,
29:40
Speaker 1: But he's like known as the father of chili peppers
29:43
Speaker 1: in the US, Yeah, the North American chili and in
29:45
Speaker 1: India they are. Um, they're the world's largest producer of
29:49
Speaker 1: chili's by far. Yeah. Um. But there's so there's another
29:53
Speaker 1: way to describe them beyond shape, color, and heat. And
29:56
Speaker 1: the Chili Pepper Institute came up with this. It's for
29:59
Speaker 1: the heat profile. And basically there's five components to the
30:03
Speaker 1: heat profile. Um, there's the heat, the Scoville heat unit
30:08
Speaker 1: to it. Yeah. Um. Then there's how fast it hits.
30:13
Speaker 1: Like you were saying that guy who ate some ghost chilies,
30:16
Speaker 1: um that they were kinda like it took a minute
30:19
Speaker 1: to come on. There's some peppers that hit like immediately.
30:23
Speaker 1: So that would be the second descriptor the second component. Um.
30:26
Speaker 1: The third would be whether it lingers or dissipates quickly
30:30
Speaker 1: or how fast it dissipates. Eventually it's going to dissipate
30:33
Speaker 1: you hope, yeah, and then come and burn the next
30:37
Speaker 1: day coming out the other end, yeah, you know yeah uh.
30:42
Speaker 1: And then the fourth one is, um, where it's sensed,
30:45
Speaker 1: like is it in the throat? Is it on your tongue?
30:47
Speaker 1: Is it in the roof of your mouth? Where does
30:49
Speaker 1: it attack? Basically? And then the last one is whether
30:52
Speaker 1: it's flat or sharp? So flat is say, um, I
30:56
Speaker 1: saw and I think that that New Yorker article, or
30:59
Speaker 1: may be the Smithsonian one that sent you. UM flat
31:03
Speaker 1: is where it's like your whole tongue is just coated
31:05
Speaker 1: in the sensation of heat, whereas UM sharp is where
31:10
Speaker 1: it feels like little hot needles in your mouth or
31:13
Speaker 1: something like that. And the preference in America is for
31:15
Speaker 1: a flat sensation, whereas Asian countries tend to prefer the
31:20
Speaker 1: sharp sensation, like the tai chillies. Yes, interesting sharp, that's right. Uh.
31:26
Speaker 1: Do you like hot Asian food? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Um,
31:30
Speaker 1: I like curries and stuff like that. Nothing too hot though.
31:34
Speaker 1: I mean like, I'm still a pretty big wus and
31:38
Speaker 1: I'm also like comfortable enough with myself that I don't
31:41
Speaker 1: feel the need to show off or accepted dare of
31:44
Speaker 1: course not no, So yeah, I don't need that hottest stuff,
31:48
Speaker 1: but I will sometimes. If you're still accepting food related
31:52
Speaker 1: dares in your late thirties or forties, then you don't
31:55
Speaker 1: know you should seek some help. Did you read about
31:58
Speaker 1: that guy, Ted bust Or Besser. Oh, he was in
32:02
Speaker 1: the New Yorker article. He that's exactly what he does. He's,
32:06
Speaker 1: you know, thirties, He's on YouTube help and he accepts
32:10
Speaker 1: um challenges. Food challenges, so people will send him like
32:13
Speaker 1: the most disgusting thing they can find, and then he
32:15
Speaker 1: eats it on on air. But one of the things
32:18
Speaker 1: that he eats are like really hot peppers. Has become
32:21
Speaker 1: kind of like a a de facto pepper judge because
32:26
Speaker 1: there is this whole community out there. Well, we'll talk
32:29
Speaker 1: about that after we take a break. How about that,
32:32
Speaker 1: you know, stop you so, Chuck. We kind of teased
32:49
Speaker 1: that there's a there's a community of chili pepper ficionados
32:53
Speaker 1: out there, tough, tough guys and women. Yes, yeah, I
32:57
Speaker 1: meant that in the non gender specific Yeah. And they
33:01
Speaker 1: range from um, just people who like to eat them,
33:05
Speaker 1: to people who make their own hot sauce to people
33:07
Speaker 1: who are competing by growing cultivators. Yeah, the hottest peppers
33:12
Speaker 1: on the planet literally, and they it gets pretty dicey.
33:15
Speaker 1: They get um, very competitive and very snippy. From what
33:19
Speaker 1: I read. Yeah, there's about you know, um, the legitimacy
33:24
Speaker 1: of the heat that they claim. Yeah. So there's again
33:28
Speaker 1: a really great New Yorker article called the fire Eaters
33:31
Speaker 1: from I think a year or two back, and it
33:33
Speaker 1: gives a really great outsider's view of this community. And
33:38
Speaker 1: it is very snippy. One of the problems is there's
33:42
Speaker 1: no official central body that says this is the hottest
33:46
Speaker 1: pepper on the planet. Well, Guinness does, Guinness doesn't. A
33:50
Speaker 1: lot of people defer to Guinness, but some other people are,
33:52
Speaker 1: like Guinness says, no, they're they're just they're dilettants. What
33:55
Speaker 1: we need is a governing body that's dedicated only to
34:00
Speaker 1: chili peppers, well not Guinness, right, yeah. And one reason
34:04
Speaker 1: why is because it changes, like people are cultivating these things.
34:07
Speaker 1: There could be a new hot, hottest pepper every three months,
34:12
Speaker 1: and Guinness isn't gonna stay on top of that, right,
34:15
Speaker 1: So there it's kind of like, why are you being
34:16
Speaker 1: talking to those guys. So some people do differ to
34:18
Speaker 1: Guinness because it is the closest thing that they have
34:21
Speaker 1: to um a judgment saying this is the world's hottest
34:25
Speaker 1: people just like we're saying that. But um, there's no
34:30
Speaker 1: organizing central body that that is dedicated to judging which
34:34
Speaker 1: is the hottest chili pepper, and there should be there.
34:37
Speaker 1: According to these people, they could use it, of course
34:39
Speaker 1: they think the government should supply it, but they can't
34:42
Speaker 1: even decide on whether that the hottest pepper in the
34:45
Speaker 1: world should be it's peak or what averages it's mean,
34:50
Speaker 1: So right now, um Guinness goes by the mean, and
34:54
Speaker 1: as it stands in the world, the hottest chili pepper
34:58
Speaker 1: as of August two th is called the Carolina Reaper. Yeah,
35:03
Speaker 1: the HP twenty two b in h seven out of
35:06
Speaker 1: rock Kill, South Carolina, and the Carolina Reaper has an
35:10
Speaker 1: average an average. Remember that UM red Savenia Habaniro had
35:15
Speaker 1: five hundred and seventy thousand Scoville heat units. Yes, this
35:19
Speaker 1: one averages one million, five hundred and sixty nine thousand,
35:24
Speaker 1: three hundred Scoville heat units. That's right, and a peak
35:27
Speaker 1: of over two point two million. YEA and hats off
35:30
Speaker 1: to Ed Curry of pucker Butt Pepper Company and uh
35:33
Speaker 1: Fort Mill. He's He's a very controversial pepper grower. He is.
35:37
Speaker 1: He blended. The original cross breed was between a ghost pepper,
35:40
Speaker 1: which was the previous hottest pepper introduced to the North
35:46
Speaker 1: America in two thousand, uh the infamous ghost pepper, and
35:49
Speaker 1: then he uh crossbreeded that with bread that with a
35:53
Speaker 1: red Habaniro. So the the boot Jilokia is the ghost pepper.
35:58
Speaker 1: It's from India and from two thousand seven it was
36:01
Speaker 1: the reigning champ and from before that was that Red
36:05
Speaker 1: Savinia from two thousand and seven. Again, that's as far
36:09
Speaker 1: as Guinness is concerned. Um, but there are peppers out there.
36:12
Speaker 1: There's the um so, what's the scorpion one? The Trinidad
36:17
Speaker 1: scorpion Butch t Yeah, so that was actually grown by
36:20
Speaker 1: some guys in Australia who crossed a Trinidad scorpion which
36:26
Speaker 1: is already very hot with a pepper that was grown
36:28
Speaker 1: by a guy named Butch Taylor in I think Mississippi.
36:33
Speaker 1: He's right outside of that big on this, as it
36:35
Speaker 1: turns out, yeah, big time. Um. I think the thing
36:39
Speaker 1: is like, if there's people who listen to like Front
36:41
Speaker 1: too four two and go boar hunting, if there's a
36:44
Speaker 1: larger population of them and that country, that that country
36:47
Speaker 1: is going to be more likely to be into eating
36:50
Speaker 1: hot peppers. What's Front two four two? They're like an
36:53
Speaker 1: industrial band? What does that mean about me? Because I've
36:57
Speaker 1: never even heard of it. You don't need hot hot pepper? Okay? Uh.
37:01
Speaker 1: There are some who claim, in fact grow in southern California.
37:07
Speaker 1: Says I've had I had a pepper once that was
37:10
Speaker 1: over three million. But I don't even publish that stuff,
37:13
Speaker 1: he says, because it's a fluke. Right, So so that's
37:15
Speaker 1: the that's the question, like, should that one be considered
37:18
Speaker 1: the world's hottest pepper or should that plant have to
37:22
Speaker 1: that species consistently have to put out something at three million? Yeah,
37:27
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. Well, that's another question entirely. You know,
37:31
Speaker 1: can't we just I know they get specific about it
37:33
Speaker 1: and they want to do, but it seems like we
37:35
Speaker 1: can just say all of these are very hot, very
37:38
Speaker 1: very hot. You're welcome. Yeah, I don't know. It's scary stuff.
37:44
Speaker 1: If you ask me, it is, Um Christopher Guests should
37:47
Speaker 1: do a mockumentary about pepper hotheads. It's right for it,
37:51
Speaker 1: all right. So let's say you want to pick out
37:54
Speaker 1: a pepper at a grocery store, look for firm skin
38:00
Speaker 1: for super bright colors, which I don't know. I'm pretty
38:04
Speaker 1: down on produce and big box grocery stores. But if
38:08
Speaker 1: you go to a farmer's market, and especially like a
38:11
Speaker 1: local farmer's market, you're gonna see weird shaped, super super
38:17
Speaker 1: bright colored peppers. Yeah, weird shaped is right. Remember, Yeah,
38:21
Speaker 1: we've talked about this before. Grocery stores won't sell ones
38:25
Speaker 1: that are perfectly awesome and maybe even better tasting because
38:28
Speaker 1: they look weird. Right, that bell pepper looks like Richard
38:31
Speaker 1: Nixon throw it in the trash. Yeah, and it's like,
38:33
Speaker 1: I'm not a crook. Um. The longer they ripe and
38:37
Speaker 1: the hotter they get, so like you said, the red ones, Um,
38:41
Speaker 1: if the red ones still have a little green, they're
38:43
Speaker 1: not fully ripe yet, so they probably won't be as hot.
38:46
Speaker 1: But that's that's the case with a bell probably anyway.
38:49
Speaker 1: So you're not looking for heat, right, looking for sweet Um.
38:53
Speaker 1: If you are cooking with peppers. Uh, it says in
38:56
Speaker 1: here like be sure to wash your hands. But what
38:59
Speaker 1: you really need to do, if you're serious, is wear
39:02
Speaker 1: gloves where, um, where doctors what are they called rubber gloves? Yeah,
39:08
Speaker 1: rubber gloves, um, because that is truly the only way. Like,
39:13
Speaker 1: if you come into contact with your fingers and that
39:15
Speaker 1: membrane or those seeds, you can wash your hands ten
39:19
Speaker 1: times and you forget and like the next day you
39:23
Speaker 1: will get an eyebooger out and you'll be like, what
39:27
Speaker 1: in the world my eyes on fire? You take your
39:29
Speaker 1: contact and you go to put them in the next
39:31
Speaker 1: I can't imagine. I cooked one night some piea and
39:36
Speaker 1: you some hot peppers and did not wear gloves, and
39:39
Speaker 1: I went peepee later. No, I didn't think about it,
39:43
Speaker 1: and I had a speaking of syphilis burning sensation down below.
39:51
Speaker 1: It was bad. That's how they simulated for medical students.
39:54
Speaker 1: Really it was bad. So I learned the hard way.
39:58
Speaker 1: I just got a box of those night is it
40:00
Speaker 1: nitrate gloves? Nitrate or nitrite? And I explodes the other
40:05
Speaker 1: one's fine, I think, well, I put them in the kitchen.
40:07
Speaker 1: I also wear a painter's respirator. What kind of peppers
40:11
Speaker 1: are you working with? The you know, the hot stuff
40:14
Speaker 1: like ghost peppers. No, but I cook with hobby arrows
40:17
Speaker 1: and stuff sometimes, and it's like it's nuclear. The fumes are.
40:21
Speaker 1: It's like if you're over the sink clean and the mountain,
40:23
Speaker 1: you're breathing it in, you'll you'll find yourself, or at
40:25
Speaker 1: least I do, coughing and burning. So I'll wear the
40:30
Speaker 1: respirator in my club. So um you mean? And I
40:34
Speaker 1: would juice sometimes, and every once in a while she'd
40:37
Speaker 1: put like a pepper in there, like a hall of
40:38
Speaker 1: peen you and it would just turn the kitchen into
40:41
Speaker 1: like like a tear gas bomb had gone off. It's crazy.
40:45
Speaker 1: It kids everywhere. It does because these things are basically
40:48
Speaker 1: vaporized and they just spread so easily through the air
40:51
Speaker 1: and it definitely gives it a kick. Um. Oh, if
40:58
Speaker 1: you want to store peppers, um, like we said, you
41:01
Speaker 1: can dry them out and they'll keep for a long time. Uh,
41:04
Speaker 1: don't keep you don't want to wash them. You want
41:06
Speaker 1: to just put them unwashed into your fridge. Yeah, true,
41:10
Speaker 1: and they'll just keep just regular peppers. Peppers will keep
41:13
Speaker 1: for a long time. It's not something that goes bad
41:15
Speaker 1: very quickly. But you can freeze them if you slice
41:18
Speaker 1: them and put them on a baking tray in the freezer.
41:21
Speaker 1: Then you can collect them and just throw them in
41:23
Speaker 1: a bag and you can keep them for like a year. Uh.
41:26
Speaker 1: But I don't see why you freeze peppers. Just buy
41:29
Speaker 1: the mountain neat and cook with them or pickle them.
41:32
Speaker 1: That's great. Pickled peppers are wonderful. I can just eat
41:35
Speaker 1: those straight. I don't like pickled things, so I'm not
41:38
Speaker 1: into it. But yeah, it's it's so good for you.
41:42
Speaker 1: Pickling pickled foods are so good for you, there's so
41:46
Speaker 1: many health benefits. I'll you'll eat other healthy things that
41:49
Speaker 1: I enjoy. But how do you not like pickles? Stuff? Like,
41:52
Speaker 1: I could eat pickled any you could cut your finger
41:54
Speaker 1: off and pickle it. I'd probably eat it. How does
41:56
Speaker 1: anyone not like anything? But I mean, like, what about it?
41:59
Speaker 1: You don't like the tartness, No, just the the taste
42:04
Speaker 1: anything pickled, like a pickled pickle, sour kraut. Oh you
42:09
Speaker 1: don't like sour krau, hate sauer kraud. I guess I
42:11
Speaker 1: could have seen that. I hate. I hate pickled so
42:14
Speaker 1: much that I have to ask and rest, like when
42:17
Speaker 1: I go to a pub and have like a burger
42:19
Speaker 1: and fries, to leave the pickle off, because invariably they
42:22
Speaker 1: will put the pickle down soaking into the French fries
42:25
Speaker 1: in the bun, and it will ruin that for me. Wow,
42:28
Speaker 1: you hate pickles. That might hate pickles that much? Well,
42:30
Speaker 1: all the pickles that you get on the side from
42:33
Speaker 1: now Okay, well Emily eats the pickles, you can arm
42:35
Speaker 1: wrestle her for them. Okay, that's fine, that's a deal. Um.
42:38
Speaker 1: But when I said you shouldn't you know just buy
42:40
Speaker 1: the amount. If you're growing pickles or I'm sorry, growing peppers.
42:44
Speaker 1: Got me on pickles, pickled peppers, then you might end
42:46
Speaker 1: up with a lot of peppers. And that's why you
42:48
Speaker 1: might want to fickle them or pickle them if you're
42:51
Speaker 1: into that. Because we grew peppers one year and they
42:53
Speaker 1: were easy to grow and bountiful. Yeah, pepper plant goes. Yeah,
42:58
Speaker 1: that equals a lot of peppers. I guess we should
43:00
Speaker 1: talk about growing them a little bit. Huh. I guess.
43:03
Speaker 1: So they're perennials, so that means they stick around. Well,
43:08
Speaker 1: it depends on where you live. Yeah, if it's cold,
43:11
Speaker 1: you might grow them as annuals. Right, they're pretty flexible. Um,
43:14
Speaker 1: you can start them as seeds ten weeks prior to
43:17
Speaker 1: the first frost. You want to germinate them in little trays.
43:21
Speaker 1: First you soaked the seeds for a couple of days.
43:23
Speaker 1: Then you germinate them with a little bit of starter
43:26
Speaker 1: ten weeks prior to frost. After the last frost comes
43:30
Speaker 1: and goes, you can start to harden them by moving
43:33
Speaker 1: them outside a couple hours at a time and talk
43:36
Speaker 1: to them, say this is good for you. Right, then
43:39
Speaker 1: you shake them takes a couple of weeks, um a
43:43
Speaker 1: few hours each day more until they are hard and ready, right,
43:48
Speaker 1: and then they start to grow. You want to fertilize them.
43:52
Speaker 1: When the peppers grow out and turn hard, you can
43:57
Speaker 1: cut them. And when you do, you want to cut
43:59
Speaker 1: some stem because it extends their shelf life, and then
44:02
Speaker 1: you have peppers. You can also just go to the
44:04
Speaker 1: store and buy some peppers. Yeah, if you're in the
44:08
Speaker 1: garden garden, yeah, if not, or I've just grown from seed. Man,
44:12
Speaker 1: it seems like such a nightmare to me. Well, it's
44:15
Speaker 1: for people who have time and what our hobbyists. But
44:18
Speaker 1: I also get like if it's a very like if
44:20
Speaker 1: it's an heirloom something or just something you're not going
44:23
Speaker 1: to find anywhere. With peppers, I mean, sure there are
44:26
Speaker 1: some like if you want to buy the Carolina Reaper,
44:29
Speaker 1: you can get packs of those seeds for like ten
44:31
Speaker 1: bucks or something. Right, You're not gonna find those at
44:34
Speaker 1: any store. So I get growing those from seed, But
44:37
Speaker 1: like growing like a squash plant from seed, it's like,
44:40
Speaker 1: what are you doing, man, You've got you should have
44:42
Speaker 1: better things to do with your time than that a
44:44
Speaker 1: weaker squash last year from seed? What are you doing, man,
44:48
Speaker 1: we have a garden, right, but you can just buy
44:51
Speaker 1: like the seedlings. Yeah, you could do that. Okay. Are
44:55
Speaker 1: you saying why do people garden? No? I love gardening. Okay,
45:00
Speaker 1: I'm just saying growing from seed a plant. Like, if
45:04
Speaker 1: you like growing from seed, you should get a seed
45:06
Speaker 1: catalog and find something that you can't find elsewhere. That's
45:09
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I have a very strong opinion on
45:12
Speaker 1: growing things from to each their own with everything but gardening,
45:15
Speaker 1: but gardening, we we use start our plants a lot too.
45:20
Speaker 1: Not everything is from seed. Because you're saying, sensible people,
45:23
Speaker 1: but do you do you see my point? I guess
45:26
Speaker 1: Do you get seed catalogs not catalogs? I don't think,
45:31
Speaker 1: but we buy buy seeds online. You should get your
45:34
Speaker 1: hands on sea catalog Yeah. Yeah, I can't remember the
45:37
Speaker 1: name of the company. That sounds like good toilet book reading.
45:40
Speaker 1: Yes it is. It's just so. Yes, it's very delightful.
45:43
Speaker 1: It makes you so excited for spring. H Off label
45:48
Speaker 1: uses of peppers will say you can eat them or
45:53
Speaker 1: you can rub them on your pain parts. Yeah, because
45:56
Speaker 1: remember they overload your nose susceptor. That's right, can lower
46:00
Speaker 1: your blood pressure. They can be antiquagulants. Like, I think
46:04
Speaker 1: that's one and the same. Think about it. If it
46:07
Speaker 1: thins the blood, it's going to also like lower your
46:11
Speaker 1: blood pressure. True, I would think. Okay, it's also been
46:15
Speaker 1: shown chuck, it lowers bad cholesterol, not even not just
46:19
Speaker 1: any cholesterol. It lowers your bad cholesterol. And not only
46:23
Speaker 1: does it lower the cholesterol present in your blood, I
46:26
Speaker 1: think it attracts it, right because remember it's fat soluble
46:31
Speaker 1: um and then it gets fleshed out of the system.
46:33
Speaker 1: It actually removes the build up of bad cholesterol plaque
46:36
Speaker 1: in your arteries. Man, this stuff is it makes me
46:40
Speaker 1: want to eat more peppers. Already eat quite a bit
46:42
Speaker 1: of peppers. I need to eat more, I think. Uh.
46:46
Speaker 1: In the future, they hope to use it for um
46:50
Speaker 1: cancer prevention, U stroke heart attack prevention, right, you know,
46:54
Speaker 1: I guess it already works. Is that if it's lowering
46:56
Speaker 1: your blood blood pressure, that's what I got from that too.
46:59
Speaker 1: But the cancer or it's its own thing. They found
47:01
Speaker 1: that that cap sasan itself basically attacks tumors. Wow, I
47:09
Speaker 1: mean that's Are you upset about the growing from seed tirade? Oh? No,
47:13
Speaker 1: I don't care. What like it was directed at me. Yeah,
47:17
Speaker 1: it didn't mean for it to be, but it took
47:20
Speaker 1: a pretty hard turn at the end. There no right
47:22
Speaker 1: to your right to your front door. I don't care
47:25
Speaker 1: right to your garden door? No, no, no no. Uh.
47:28
Speaker 1: We have an article called ken Ghost peppers kill you
47:31
Speaker 1: on our website. It cannot it's not good. Um, but
47:37
Speaker 1: apparently three pounds um the peppers can kill you. Is
47:41
Speaker 1: that right? Yeah? How like what's the mode of death?
47:45
Speaker 1: I don't know. They don't say. That's why it's not
47:47
Speaker 1: a good article. Well, so these these pain receptors, the
47:50
Speaker 1: um t r P, I mean it's a toxin cap
47:54
Speaker 1: sasan is trpv one um. They're also responsible for regulating
48:00
Speaker 1: your body heat. Helping regulate your body heat. So I
48:03
Speaker 1: wonder if you have like a heat stroke or something
48:05
Speaker 1: like that. I don't know. I would just say it's
48:07
Speaker 1: a If it's a toxin and you eat too much
48:09
Speaker 1: of any toxin, you could die. Yeah. But but there's
48:12
Speaker 1: you know, you die from like some toxin slow your
48:15
Speaker 1: respiration and you stop breathing from lack of eye you
48:18
Speaker 1: know what. I bet you had something to do with respiration,
48:20
Speaker 1: because if you are in a hot pepper eating contest,
48:23
Speaker 1: one thing that will talk about is their throat swelling
48:26
Speaker 1: and having a hard time breathing. That'd be my guess.
48:30
Speaker 1: I think they uh. I think there was a Science
48:33
Speaker 1: Daily article originally that said that. So there was a
48:37
Speaker 1: speaking of ghost peppers up until last year. In two
48:40
Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen, there was a restaurant in Grantham, Lincolnshire,
48:45
Speaker 1: I take two to be in England, probably called Bindy
48:48
Speaker 1: it was. The restaurant was named Bindy. It was an
48:50
Speaker 1: Indian restaurant, UM, and it had a curry called the
48:53
Speaker 1: Widower that used twenty ghost peppers among a ton of
48:58
Speaker 1: other ones. And currently um they had sold like five
49:02
Speaker 1: six hundred of them and like about three quarters of
49:06
Speaker 1: the people finished it managed to finish it, which yeah,
49:10
Speaker 1: if you think like the ghost pepper that was like
49:12
Speaker 1: the one that got all the press in two thousand seven.
49:14
Speaker 1: I think what's remarkable is that people that are ordering
49:17
Speaker 1: this are probably have a very high tolerance anyway, and
49:21
Speaker 1: if they're not able to finish it, that says a
49:22
Speaker 1: lot exactly. So that's chili peppers. Everybody go forth and
49:27
Speaker 1: eat some. You said that it doesn't give you ulcers,
49:32
Speaker 1: and in fact, it actually helps with cases of ulcers. Right,
49:35
Speaker 1: that's right, and that amazing. It is. Okay, So if
49:38
Speaker 1: you want to know more about chili peppers, you can
49:40
Speaker 1: type that word into the search bar how stuff works
49:43
Speaker 1: dot com and it will bring up this article. And
49:46
Speaker 1: I said, uh, search pops as temple listener. Man, I'm
49:52
Speaker 1: gonna call this a rarely granted shout out. We get
49:55
Speaker 1: request a lot for shout outs and we couldn't do
49:59
Speaker 1: them all at the was our show would be called
50:01
Speaker 1: shout outs, you should know. But this one was from
50:05
Speaker 1: a fourteen year old girl who sounded very sweet. So
50:08
Speaker 1: I'm reading it. Hi, guys, I'm a fourteen year old
50:10
Speaker 1: girl who's been listening for a long time, and I
50:12
Speaker 1: wanted to say thanks for the time that you spend
50:14
Speaker 1: to make it smarter. It's been really fun for my
50:17
Speaker 1: sister Anna and I uh to listen to your podcast
50:21
Speaker 1: before we go to sleep. However, she's leaving for college
50:24
Speaker 1: soon to study studio art, and I'll be all alone
50:27
Speaker 1: when I listen to you, guys. So if it isn't
50:29
Speaker 1: too much to ask, could you give her a shout
50:31
Speaker 1: out and tell her that she is an awesome sister
50:33
Speaker 1: and will be missed. Uh, Sarah, you could tell her
50:37
Speaker 1: that yourself too. By the way you should express your emotions.
50:41
Speaker 1: I don't like to talk. You can also say to
50:44
Speaker 1: my brother's Jonathan, Stephen and Tommy that they are okay.
50:47
Speaker 1: Too many kids are in this family. It sounds like
50:49
Speaker 1: one five. Uh if you oh, she said, no, don't
50:54
Speaker 1: mention that's sixth one. I'm just kidding. Uh. If you
50:58
Speaker 1: do this, then you guys will be the best podcasters ever,
51:00
Speaker 1: not like you aren't already. Actually, Anna just sent an
51:03
Speaker 1: email or maybe it's Anna to you guys last night
51:06
Speaker 1: about hula hoops and uh, if you could put both
51:10
Speaker 1: our emails on the air, that would be the best.
51:13
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that, but I did write her back,
51:17
Speaker 1: so um, this is a secret from annas it would
51:19
Speaker 1: be a big surprise. So uh, Sarah to Anna, Anna,
51:24
Speaker 1: good luck at college. You will be missed. You're a
51:26
Speaker 1: great sister. That's so nice. Chuck and the brothers Jonathan,
51:29
Speaker 1: Stephen and Tommy, you guys are okay, man, that was nice,
51:35
Speaker 1: very kind of you. You never know. Uh, Well, if
51:38
Speaker 1: you want to see if you can tuget Chuck's heart
51:41
Speaker 1: strings give you your best shot good luck. You can
51:44
Speaker 1: tweet to us at s y s K podcast. You
51:46
Speaker 1: can join us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you
51:49
Speaker 1: Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff
51:52
Speaker 1: podcast at how Stuff Works dot com and has always
51:54
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51:56
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52:01
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