Careful of what you eat

[ALLOSAURZ]

Ok today I was harvesting tomatos from my little garden. In this garden we grow tomatos, bell peppers and cucumbers. That all. Anyways I was harvesting tomatos when I noticed this wierd look orange thing. It was a pepper on a pepper plant. There were 2 peppers on them and they looked weird. They were a bright dayglo orange and they were about the size of a golfball. "Hmmm" I say to myself "I don't remember my mom and I planting these crazy looking peppers" SO I plucked one off the plant to show my dad. I then popped it in my mouth and started to chew. Suddenly I felt the familiar tinge of a spicy pepper. Now I am no wimp when it comes to hot food as I like to eat Jalapenos so I kept chewing and swallowed it. About that time everything went to Hell. My lips burned, my mouth burned with a pain more painful then I ever experienced. My stomach started to burn like fire (can your stomach even do that?) my esophagus burned. My eyes were watering and my nose was burning while leaking mucous. I tried to tough it out but that only lasted 5 seconds or so as the pain skyrocketed from horrible to hell on earth. I started pacing around spitting a lot as by this time my mouth was producing copious amounts of saliva. It was as if I had literally turned on a faucet. Next I went inside and grabbed a gallon of milk and started to chug the entire thing but my stomach couldn't handle the milk and i started to gag on it. I then spent about the next 10 minutes over a toilet spitting and frantically exhaling. I was starting to get light headed and numb from breathing so fast but if I didn't the pain hurt more. Eventually i ran back into the kitchen and grabbed a bag of bread and started shoving slices into my mouth wolfing them down. I then went out back with bread in hand and started frantically pacing back and forth. It has been about a half since then my mouth still tingles and my stomach is still upset. The moral of this story is that even in your own garden becareful of what you eat as a little orange pepper the size of a golfball can bring you down and burn your soul as well as your body

 

[Capslock]

Ahhh, the habenero, the hottest of the peppers.

Don't eat the little orange ones!!! Don't even HANDLE them!

Capslock

 

[ALLOSAURZ]

You don't have to tell me twice. I learned my lesson and can now say I am an expert at identifying the habanero. I now know what it feels like to be one of those animals that eat a brightly colored insect or frog.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Ahhh...the habanero!  Love them!  They rank 10 (highest) on the Scoville heat index.  BTW...dairy (milk, cheese, sour cream) is recommended for taming the heat.  (One reason some Mexican dishes are served with sour cream.)

You can lower the heat level in hot peppers by removing the seeds and veins before you eat or cook them as that is where most of the heat-producing capsaicin is.

Like Capslock said...make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after slicing or handling hot peppers. You will be in deep doo-doo if you touch your eye or your...privates...with pepper juice still on your hands.

Habaneros are very beautiful peppers...one of my favorites in looks and flavor.  

 I added a teaspoon of sliced habaneros in my beef with broccoli yesterday to get the heat up a little.  Delish!

I'm a chilehead.  

 

[rattler]

i had some christmas peppers one time and had more fun with those things they were about 3/4 of an inch long and shaped more or less like a Jalapeno. a friend of mine loved eatting Jalapenos and had one a couple of local contests involving eating the most. i gave him one of my lil babies and he went a running looking for milk. BTW if anyone grows these lil guys i would really be interested in some seed. i havent grown them in years. they are cute lil pepper plants that get about a foot high and make great house plants.

Rattler

 

[mabudon]

Ahh yes, I knew where this story was going at the word "orange"

Yes, they are deadly, I love them myself, usually halve them and dry them out in the oven, then rehydrate them for use all year....
I was ecstatic when I discovered them a few years ago.... I ruined a lot of meals for people then...
And I wear contact lenses, (and for some reason the oil from habaneros sticks to my skin like tanglefoot, I can't wash it off for days), so touching them is right out of the question.....
I learned the full vengeance of them once, after chopping a few pounds up for pickles and I washed up fairly well then headed to the washroom.... you can finish the story yourselves, but as a hint it involved me riding around the neighborhood on my bike screaming for several minutes....

But I agree with PAK, they are delicious when (not) handled correctly...

And Allosaurz, beautiful description of the "full trip", you've climbed the Everest of hot peppers and lived to tell about it (although supposedly the savina habanero is hotter still, somehows)

 

[pond boy]

I love habenero sauce I get it for 69 cents for an 8 oz. bottle.(in mexico)

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

I have Super Cayenne Hybrid II peppers.....they are just about as bad as a habernero....just pure pain......no flavor. Also have some Christmas tree peppers......wow they are bad. Woo!

 

[pond boy]

Habaneros are full of flavor and heat they aren`t just empty heat! If you eat too much you won`t taste the flavor though cause youll fry you`r tongue! When I was well one of my favorite drinks was ale-diablo wich is where you take 4 oz. of ginger ale and add 5 drops of habanero sauce and then chug it down! Good stuff!

 

[Kirkscoastalcarnivores]

OUCH! Soundsum.. painfull

 

[Plantslikebugs]

DUDE, 2 words.
Peanut Butter its the best thing to tame the heat. Or sugar, taht works too.

 

[ALLOSAURZ]

To be honest I have had many good experiences with hot foods. Most hot peppers don't make me so much as wince. However normally I can prepare myself by knowing it is hot. This one caught me off guard as I thought it was a regular peppers and I normally chew them up and suck on the juices in the side of my mouth. Which is what I did with this pepper. I am still trying to figure out how the hell a habanero pepper got into our garden as the only spicy peppers we have ever grown are jalapenos and the spicy bananna peppers

 

[droseradude]

that really sucks, one time I put some white board cleaner in a water bottle and drank some by mistake [naturally]. we'll just say it didn't taste too great..

 

[Lauderdale]

Here is a pic of my Habenero plant from last year.  It now produces six or seven peppers a week.  Very tasty little devils.

And they are hot, hot, hot.  I use them in almost all of my cooking...sometimes fresh, sometimes dried.  
Just one in my corned beef and cabbage livens things up and they are what put the "award" (three firsts and a second) in my award winning chili.

 

[chesara]

Hi They are hot little fellows.I have grown Scotch bonnets and these suckers could strip paint thats for sure.ite recomended that you where gloves when preparing them as if
it gets anywhere near the eye your doomed

Bye for now julian

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

doooooomed i say!

 

[ALLOSAURZ]

Yeah lauderdale that's the little small of a pepper that sent me to Hell and back. I am going to have to figure out what to do with this plant though. Don't want to waste the peppers. Is there anyway to cool the heat a bit?

 

[mabudon]

Allosaurz-
Just do what I do and dry them in an oven set to low, you can grind them into flakes and use them sparingly, they aren't nearly so bad when you mix them into stuff, it's really only eating a whole one unaccompanied that gives you the Simpsons-style reality distortions

 

[PlantAKiss]

Habaneros don't dry as well as some other peppers like the cayenne. Peppers need a certain type of skin to dry well. Notice you never see dried jalapenos...usually canned or pickled. De best is the CHIPOTLE pepper! YUM!

To tame the heat, see my first post...remove the seeds and the veins. That is where most of the heat-producing capsaicin is.

You could slice them and pickle them in some vinegar and oil.

Beautiful pepper there Jan. Sounds like you really know how to cook....crab, lobster, chili with habaneros...(ummm...I can live without corned beef and cabbage).

Good thing I don't live closer or I'd be knocking on your door around 6 o'clock every nite.....

 

[Dyflam]

Dis is a chocolate hab... dey be hot too...

Dese are datil peppers... tasty and hot.