What's your heat tolerance level?

[Steve Kroll]

I've always considered myself a chilihead. I make my own hot sauces every year and don't usually have any problems with many of the commercial ones that claim to be the hottest ((Dave's Insanity, etc). But in the last week, I've eaten a couple of things that have made me question my tolerance.

First, earlier in the week I stopped at a Wisconsin cheese factory and picked up some habanero & ghost pepper cheese. I sliced off a good-sized chunk and proceeded to eat it with reckless abandon. Truth is, it went down easier than I thought, so I had another piece and then another. It was a good minute and a half later before it hit me. I got the same look on my face that I've seen on countless others when they've played with fire. I was coughing, my eyes were watering, and I ran to the fridge to get a glass of milk. The pain didn't stop for a good 20 minutes.

The second time was yesterday. I went to Whole Foods and bought some sort of vegetarian African curry from their hot bar. It wasn't all that flavorful, but the heat... YOW! I ended up throwing it out. Not only because of the heat level, but because it just wasn't very good. If it had been delicious, I would've choked it down anyway (and probably paid for it later). I was totally caught off guard with how hot something was that they were selling at a WF buffet.

So be honest, what's YOUR heat tolerance level? I kind of draw the line at ghost peppers myself, but I'll sometimes eat them if they are used sparingly in other things.

 

[Hoot]

I am a fan of all things hot and spicy. But I am also a fan of flavor. I went through a spell of "I'll try it!!! It ain't too hot for me!"
Well...I am over that now...My sister gave me a bottle of something called Endorphin Rush. It was hot...i mean HOT!! but not much flavor. I could not eat that stuff....and I tried. I like habanero sauce but that is about my limit.

 

[Andy M.]

That's curious, Steve.

I don't know what my tolerance level is. I have never had any desire to torture myself to see how much heat I could stand.

We have two next door Indian neighbors and they often share their food with us. It's usually accompanied by a warning that it's hot - maybe too hot for a non-Indian. It never is. I sometimes have issues with heartburn later but never the severe heat reaction as you described.

I don't test my limits. Heat in a dish is one aspect of its flavor/aroma/taste to me and not a challenge to be met. I would have tossed that African curry as well.

 

[FrankZ]

We ate at a Mexican place the other night while out of town. I asked our waiter for the hot salsa and he smiled and asked if I like it "hot?" I said yes and he brought me a delightful habanero sauce to put on thing, though I did not drown them in it.

We order curry from a familiar place and I always order hot. I almost couldn't eat it as it was too hot. But it was good so I choked it down.

I think it varies at times, so it is hard to say. I wish I had brought home their habanero sauce.

 

[jabbur]

I am not embarrassed to claim the title of "Heat Wimp!" I can tolerate general tso's chicken but anything much hotter than that and I give up. I'll add banana peppers and green chilies to recipes in sparing amounts more for the flavor than the heat. Mild salsas are the only way to go in my house. I can tolerate a single slice of pepper jack cheese only if it is heavily accompanied by turkey, mayo, tomato and bread.

 

[Harry Cobean]

i made piri piri chicken a couple of days ago(posted the recipe in the chicken section)it had 3 large green indian finger chillies in the marinade.....indian imports too.i kept back some unused marinade as a condiment.the heat built & stopped just short of pain but it did taste good!made me nose run too...always a good sign.
roll of toilet tissue in the fridge overnight proved a wise move the next day!

 

[Steve Kroll]

We ate at a Mexican place the other night while out of town. I asked our waiter for the hot salsa and he smiled and asked if I like it "hot?" I said yes and he brought me a delightful habanero sauce to put on thing, though I did not drown them in it.

We order curry from a familiar place and I always order hot. I almost couldn't eat it as it was too hot. But it was good so I choked it down.

I think it varies at times, so it is hard to say. I wish I had brought home their habanero sauce.

I like good habanero sauce, too. Habaneros can be very hot, but they also have an almost fruity kind of quality to them. One of the sauces I make is a habanero BBQ sauce with Jamaican curry spices. Tastes fantastic on grilled chicken and pork.

 

[justplainbill]

Max 40,000 Scoville units. E.G. Aji, Cayenne, Serrano, Tien Tsin.
Do not like the flavor nor heat of Habaneros.

 

[Steve Kroll]

I am not embarrassed to claim the title of "Heat Wimp!"

No shame in that. My wife's the same way, and so was my daughter until fairly recently. She's still cautious, but now adds a splash or two of cayenne pepper sauce when we have Mexican.

 

[Hoot]

No shame in that. My wife's the same way, and so was my daughter until fairly recently. She's still cautious, but now adds a splash or two of cayenne pepper sauce when we have Mexican.

It's nothing at all to be ashamed of. Mrs Hoot has little tolerance of the heat. I am luring her down the path, however.

 

[Dawgluver]

I hold my own. Used to grow Thai hots, a little goes a long way. Tiny bits of Habanero sauce. I too prefer flavor over heat.

 

[Zhizara]

I found out that you become more tolerant to heat if you use it regularly. When I lived in Hawaii, at first I couldn't handle the Chinese hot mustard until my Chinese girlfriend told me to thin it down with soy, gradually using less and less until I could handle it. The same for kimchee. It was hard to eat at first, but so tasty I kept at it.

Lately, I found out that taking a half teaspoon of cayenne in 4 oz. of water would lower my high blood pressure. The first time nearly killed me, but with regular use, my tacos started tasting too bland and I had to up the heat.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I have a very high tolerance for spicy hot, although there limits to how hot until it becomes unreasonable. I've often ate spicy hot foods that were hot but fine with me, until 8-12hours later... you know. I guess I can tolerate more than is good for me.

I often order spicy dishes at Thai restaurants, and the waiter asks how hot? The choices are usually standard, mild or spicy. I always select spicy if that's tolerable to others in my party. I've never gotten anything that was too spicy although a few times it came close.

I've discussed spiciness with Thai waiters before, asking them how hot the dish would be prepared traditionally in Thailand. From what I hear the restaurants spice it up a bit more than at home because the Americans expect it. I suspect traditional is probably along the lines of what they serve if you don't specify it or maybe a bit hotter but not as hot as when you order spicy.

I like hot sauces of most varieties, except a very few that seem to be mostly pure spicy without much taste otherwise. I prefer to not add spicy just for its own sake, but prefer sauces that have a bit of character and individuality to them.

I've often grown my own chilis, one type that closely resembles Thai mini-chilis, jalapeno, serrano, cayenne... I use them in my own cooking thinly sliced or minced, or dry them and then use a mortar and pestle to make my own dried chili seasoning.

 

[Dawgluver]

Mexican parents introduce hot stuff gradually to their children, and they build a tolerance.

Poor DH, I remember at a Mongolian grill, he had put on so much hot stuff, he couldn't eat the dish. And this was the same guy who could eat Thai hots like popcorn.

 

[FrankZ]

I like good habanero sauce, too. Habaneros can be very hot, but they also have an almost fruity kind of quality to them. One of the sauces I make is a habanero BBQ sauce with Jamaican curry spices. Tastes fantastic on grilled chicken and pork.

Ok.. that and yer wine and I think we have a cook out planned.. on the way.

 

[danbuter]

I don't mind a little heat, but once it gets to the point that the heat starts trumping flavor, I'm not interested.

 

[Kylie1969]

We like our food at a medium heat

 

[CWS4322]

My tolerance is going up because the DH likes "heat." I certainly can eat hotter today than I could four-five years ago. I do go for flavor, so I don't want the heat overwhelming the taste. That I don't do.

 

[Cheryl J]

Another 'medium heat' here. If that.

 

[Gravy Queen]

My favourite type of heat comes from scotch bonnet chillies they have flavour and heat .

Worst chillies I had were Dorset naga chillies hot and nasty .