Pack Creek Ranch, San Juan County, Utah
Very smoky mornings from fires burning in the North, but cool, clear nights and warm days – some showers would be welcome.
HOT STUFF – in three parts:
One: Factoids
Peppers have been used in human cuisine for about 8,000 years.
They originated in hot climates in South America.
You can’t tell how hot a chili is by how it looks from the outside.
There’s more vitamin C in a chili than in an orange.
The chemical compound that makes chiles hot is capsaicin.
Technically, a chili is a fruit, not a vegetable.
There are hundreds of hot chili-eating contests worldwide.
Hybridizers continue to develop hotter and hotter chilies.
The longtime holder of the title of the world’s hottest chili is the Carolina Reaper. Testing at 2,200,000 SHU, but just this year Pepper X, grown by Ed Currie of the PuckerButt Pepper Company in South Carolina topped that with 2,600,000 SHU.
Two: Educational Experience
Once upon a time, I accompanied students in a wilderness program trip backpacking for three weeks in the Canyonland country in of southeastern Utah. The 12 students were divided into cooking groups of four – each group was provided with the food ingredients and utensils needed to prepare their meals.
Though intelligent and creative, most of the students had no experience with cooking – or with washing dishes. And their knowledge of food chemistry was nil.
Well, you can imagine – some of their meal concoctions were unpalatable, if not inedible.
And that’s where the little bottle of secret sauce was employed. Tabasco Sauce – a camping cook’s best friend. Just a few drops on top of a mystery mess would mask its taste. Almost any food could thereby be consumed – and was.
There’s more to the story.
The mix of microbial germs in badly washed cook pots and their own internal digestive bacteria made for volatile productions of methane gas. Which can be lit if the producer is willing, and a friend has a handy lighter – the result is a memorable blue flame.
But that’s a story for another time.
Three: Masochism
One of the mysteries of human experience is that pain and pleasure exist on a continuum – triggered by the same endorphins produced by the brain.
At the far end of the spectrum is sado-masochism.
Another subject for another time.
At the mildest end of the spectrum is the pleasure some people get from consuming chili peppers. The hotter, the better. When I asked a clerk at the City Market where Tabasco Sauce was shelved, she took me to a section filled with hot sauces.
She said, and I quote, “There’s mild, medium, hot, and some oh-my-God-call-an-ambulance – that’s my favorite. And besides Tabasco Classic, there’s Tabasco Scorpion.”
Enough – no moral to this story.
I’m an ice cream man myself.