During growing season I can definitely just eat them off the plant but when my dried and ground pepper storage runs out in mid winter I lose some of my tolerance. So definitely at the beginning of the summer I have to rebuild it. Haha the best part is when you think you can handle a pepper and you get surprised by the heat which only makes it seem hotter.

I decided to try growing a few Naga Morich plants this year and I am debating whether or not I want to even try a sliver of a fresh one right off the plant. I have a feeling at some point I will give into the insanity and do it only to be in pain for a good 20 minutes to half an hour. My feeling about having super high tolerance for capsaicin is that you can enjoy the distinct flavor of the pepper more if your mouth isn't on fire :)

For women, I"ve noticed that the hormone cycle affects tolerance of heat. There are times when my girlfriend yells at me for making things way too hot [when they dont even register on my scale] and other times during the month she'll wolf down stuff I swear would make her eyes water without complaint. Two of my other chilehead friends have noticed this too.

My tolerance goes down in the winter as well. But by late September, I'm usually back to eating molten lava...

Do I pick habs off the plant and chomp on them recreationally? Well, not really. I do it so I know what I'm handing someone when I ask them to try it. Most of the insanely hot varieties are too hot for my palette so I only grow them for novelty purposes. Eg., bhut/bih jolokia, trinidad scorpion. I like a good Red Savina but I don't find them as hot as say the brown hab [which I also love].

This year my hab of choice is Harold's St. Barts. I grew it a few years back and liked its smokiness.

I'm not a glutton for pain. I'll cut them up and use them liberally in cooking but biting into a whole one? Nah...

Yes, I eat habs. I don't eat them whole in one bite, but I can be seen munching on one with a sandwich, or something of that nature. If it gets too hot then I'll just eat a little less of it with my food. But, I do enjoy eating them.

Alan

Like bdobs, I don't eat habs and wonder how they are eaten by those who do. What are the most usual ways of eating habs? Are they used very often in cooking? If so, in what kind of recipes?

Jim

I use them (and most other hotter peppers) for cooking, usually dehydrated and pulverized. I eat them cut up fresh, too, with sandwiches, rice, stuffed into burgers, all sorts of things. But I don't eat them straight. I actually don't like the flavor of a plain habanero, but I love the way in enhances other foods.

Other hot peppers, I will eat plain: tabasco, cayenne, labuyo, Thai, peppers of this variety I will eat like popcorn. Nonstop!

Heck no! Im not that crazy. LOL I will cook with habs but no way am i going to chomp on one. I do have a friend, who is my pepper guinea pig, that will eat a hab. He happily tries out any new varieties of peppers i have, that im not brave enough to try myself. Actually he says he can eat any hot pepper i can grow. Well I have some Trinidad Scorpions growing this year, so hehehehe i can't wait to see his face when he chomps one of those babies. LOL I like using a hab when making Jamaican Chicken. I think the recipe really calls for a scotch bonnet but a hab works nicely. I will also use them in other marinades i make for meat or when we make our own barbeque sauce. I do agree you seem to build a tolerance to the peppers. By fall i can hack alot more heat than say i could right now.

Ever have jerk chicken or jerk pork? thats usually a scotch bonnet or habanero.

I tend to think as c.chinense as food the slaves brought with them from africa. Its big in Jamaican, Haitian, and other Caribbean cuisines. Also some African.

I'm surprised the fatalii heads havent chimed in yet.

My wife and her sisters eat them with lemon and salt. I am amazed at the sight. They only eat half because the heat gets to be too much. They have eaten peppers since a very young age.

I have fallen for the, "The salsa is not too hot," trick. I'll take a nice spoonful and think that my life is going to end. All to the enjoyment of them.

But, this year...I got some Naga Jolokia's from unclesteve. They are doing very well. It's payback time!

Sure, I eat habs. My neighbors and my wife think i'm nuts, sitting on the porch with a pocket knife, smiling and hiccuping while I whittle the pepper down to its stem... I love the heat, the hotter the better, and if it can give me the hiccups, I know i'm in for a treat!

Speaking of hiccups...Anyone know why super hot things do that to you?
I've always wondered

I've never had hiccups from eating chiles. However, when my ears tickle inside I know the heat level is adequate. Anyone else experience that? Before you tell me I'm crazy, consider that it might be the result of capsaicin traveling up the Eustachian tubes.

Jim

I don't eat habs but will cook with them. Never really liked the flavor too much. I think you are totally right jimster. It could also be the release of mucus in nasal passages and around the tubes that gives that sensation. I get a buzz from eating capsaicin rich stuff. The hotter the pepper the greater the buzz. I know it is the release of endorphins, so I am a pepper junkie, and I will never go to meetings for it. God bless those little treasures of yummyness.

At one time I did, Just being a SA for eating the hottest, After about 5 years I backed off and went for great tasting chiles, something that adds flavor

have eaten peach Habanero ice cream

I did once. Visited the doctor after a couple of days because it felt like somebody stabbed me in the stomach every time I drank or ate anything. That lasted 5 days. These days, I normally put one + a couple of Jalapenos (Biker Billy's) when I make a 3 tomato Salsa. I am pretty tolerant though. I feel no discomfort drinking Tabasco straight from the bottle. The scariest Hot Sauce I'm using at the moment is Da Bomb - Ground Zero (234,000 SCO).

I have ate whole habs. Numerous times, but even with my high tolerance they can be painful. The caribbean reds and chocolate habs are really gnarly. My whole head feels hot except my tongue that feels numb/ on fire (if that makes any sense).

IMHO if you truly want the enjoy the flavor of the habs (which is fantastic) cooking is your best bet. I use them in anything you would put peppers in/on. Spaghetti sauce, burritos, on pizza after it's cooked (great use), chili, burgers, etc. I love hab burgers, either topped with habs, or cut into strips and mixed with the ground beef. Mmmmmmm.

Just make sure to wash your hands!!! I did a lazy job of washing my hands after chopping some chocolate habs and went to take a leak 20 minutes later. Holy s--t. BAD IDEA.

-HabBob

We cut one up and put it in a small bowl. Pour on about a tbs of shalt. Use a spoon to grind the hab into the salt. Add a couple oz of viniger and a splash of lemon juice, and cut up onion chunks. Then spoon onto meat or other food. Some also add some soy sauce as well. We eat the small chunks mixed in with the food. That's as close as we come to eating them.

Chuck's first steps of preparation remind me of the method I use for guacamole. As a matter of fact, habs would probably be good in guacamole. I find jalapenos too mild.

Jim

I will never simply eat a Habanero straight away. I do like to eat a slice of it with friends (who also partake) right after the first ones become ripe........just so I'll know what I have..
My favorite thing to do with Habaneros or peppers with a similar heat is to first make hot sauce out of them. From there, you just mix it in with other things such as soups and various condiments......that way you have much more control over what you're heating up. My absolute favorite use is simply to mix Hab hot sauce in with regular yellow mustard (maybe add some freshly ground black pepper too..) and then use it on things as you would normally. You might wanna reLabel it though rather than just putting it back into the original mustard container!!

Habaneros are great in salsa, but I see you've already tried that. Roasted tomatillo and habanero salsa... hard to beat!

A few whole -when the guys are gathered on my porch and having a few brews. The brews don't make it any more pleasant though! Seriously, I use them in many dishes finely chopped. Two favorites are cornbread and chili. My chili is begged for and fought over when I make a 5 gallon batch and bring it to work. You can always tell folks are into it when they walk around with runny noses and red faces and sweat on their brows. I also make home made salsa and a form of my own pico that is to die for as well. I dry my peppers in the fall and chop them and put them in shakers too. Good luck TiMoTeO