What makes spicy heat linger?
I'm a total chili-head; I snack on pickled hot peppers from Mezzetta (the pepper is Cascabella, which I have never seen fresh) almost daily. What I love most about them is that they don't seem all that hot until a few seconds after I swallow. If I eat a big pepper in one bite, the afterburn is almost but not quite painful. The urge is then to eat another pepper. After I'm done snacking, I eat a big spoonful of yoghurt. The lingering heat sensation lasts a good 20 minutes.
Some peppers have that "lingering" quality. In Seoul I ate a lot of spicy street food that had that.
I have never been able to achieve that in a sauce.
I particularly want to make a sneaky sauce for chicken wings and gumbo.
Best Answer
I've lived (and eaten my way around) South East Asia for nearly the last fifteen years, and I think I know the effect that you're describing. Feel free to let me know if I'm off.
If what you're talking about is a slow and gentle burn that sort of creeps up, intensifies, and then mellows back down gradually (which is what I think you're talking about) then what you're experiencing is very likely an emulsion of a few types of peppers in a fat with a little acid, salt, and something sweet (sweet brewed soy, or even molasses).
A common street food is chicken gizzard over hot coals that's been marinated using the above method featuring bird's eye, serrano, calamansi (green, with zest) rendered fat (duck or pork) and something sweet. There are as many varieties of that as there are street vendors cooking up all of that goodness. I'm pretty certain it's the fat that causes the burn to linger longer on your palate.
Emulsification also helps maintain the pungency of chili in more basic (cream / curry) types of sauces in which it would otherwise mellow very quickly.
My experience is mostly in The Philippines, but I've been all over, and I don't suspect that it's done too differently in other places. This will definitely get you the sneaky kind of sauce you want, you just have to experiment with the types and ratios of chili. With sweetness and an acid, something like chipotle is going to introduce itself before habanero, and then take the stage again once the habanero has finished wrecking your mouth.
What remains is some experimentation that might ... err .. hurt a little :) But what you'll eventually end up with are a few really tasty pastes that you can add to any other sauce in order to get the desired effect. Also, don't feel bad about just using combinations of ready made chili sauces (sriracha, piri piri, etc) - this can save you a lot of work and give you a more refined taste. The sky and your budget for buying them are the limit.
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Why does spicy linger?
When high concentrations of capsaicin are consumed, this sensation of heat can increase to intolerable pain. Because capsaicin is hydrophobic (fat loving/water hating), it can pass through fatty cell membranes and stay there, causing the spicy flavor to be long-lasting and persistent.Why does spicy food last longer?
Capsicums, including chilies and other hot peppers, are in the middle of the antimicrobial pack (killing or inhibiting up to 75 percent of bacteria), while pepper of the white or black variety inhibits 25 percent of bacteria, as do ginger, anise seed, celery seed and the juices of lemons and limes.What stops the heat from spicy food?
Acidic ingredients such as lemon or lime juice, vinegar, wine, tomatoes, and even pineapple will all help to neutralize the pH levels of a spicy oil, and reduce some of that flaming-hot flavor. Add the juice of half a lemon or lime, or a tablespoon or two of wine, vinegar, or tomato sauce, to your over-spiced dish.How long does it take for spicy to go away?
The good news? That mouth-on-fire feeling only lasts for a limited amount of time. Because the sensation of heat and pain is from a chemical reaction, it will eventually fade once the capsaicin molecules neutralize and stop binding to the receptors. Typically, this takes about 20 minutes, Currie said.Do Spicy Food Lovers Live Longer?
More answers regarding what makes spicy heat linger?
Answer 2
I´ve added habanero + dried chile peppers to a tomato sauce recipe (5% oil final weight, cooking time 40min.med/high heat). The heat you describe is the same I tasted. It´s different from raw pepper heat, scales up and down in a pleasant way (20 minutes after you can still feel you ate it).
As Tim Post mentioned: it is probably the effect of the emulsified capsaicin (the final steps of the recipe are blend + strain.
The sauce recipe is under ·cookinginrussia: tomato/pizza sauce· on youtube.
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Images: Artem Beliaikin, Artem Beliaikin, Gagan Cambow, Artem Beliaikin