#15 I spat out the pulp immediately & rinsed out my mouth, but it was too late.
Cold water, especially ice water only makes it worse.
Several years ago I flew into Austin, Texas to cater a friend's birthday party. I made nine kinds of salsa including my Agent Orange™ Habanero salsa. In hindsight, arranging them in order of heat was probably not enough and I should have labeled them as well. Some assclown loaded up a corn chip and, saying the Habanero was mango salsa, give it to a girl at the party. Standing in the kitchen I watched this poor young lass dash into the kitchen—tears streaming down her face—and make a dive for the icemaker. I held her off and got out a bottle of frozen vodka from the freezer, poured her a shot and told her to "rinse and spit". She was okay after about half an hour.
The only things that really cut the capsicum oils are very hot liquids—which I do not recommend—or alcohol which dissolves the oil. Milk is supposed to help but any chilled liquid tends to congeal the oils on whatever surface they're in contact with.
My own first run-in with Habaneros was no less painful. Knowing full well what I was dealing with, while chopping up one or two peppers I studiously avoided touching my fingers to any other part of my anatomy. It was hot in the kitchen, so I wiped the back of my hand across my forehead. After a few minutes another bead of sweat trickled down into my eyes and it was lights out!
To my great chagrin, the kitchen's owner didn't have any ice in his freezer. I had to scrape out the frost and pack that into my eye sockets. I was temporarily blinded for almost half an hour and the pain was excruciating. It too me a year or two to finally figure out that just the tiny spray of juice that landed on the back of my hand while cutting the chiles—subsequently rubbed across my forehead—was enough to mingle with my sweat and do the job.
On another occassion when I was making a dozen different salsas, I peeled all of the roasted peppers by hand and experienced what felt like a second degree sunburn on my hands for an entire week thereafter. Since then, I wear latex gloves or simply remove the peppers' stems and then puree the whole mass, straining it if I want a sauce instead of salsa cruda. |
