For eating fresh, powders and sauces. I love the heat!

I grow them for fun, for aesthetics, for friends, for hazing rituals ;)

I agree that super hots are great with steak or with tri-tips.
A good chocolate super hot, sliced up on a cut of meat, then cooked on the grill...
delicious! And the heat is really controlled by the cooking process.

Josh

No, wayright I make no assumptions as I realize "some people" have a high tolerance for heat, but very few of the population has that tolerance. I also feel that very few chefs are using Bhuts in their recipes and if so it would be for a very select clientele. I'm really not dissing anyone who grows the super hots at all, like I wrote I plan on growing them myself. Maybe I'll find that I can build-up a tolerance for them. I do know that I too love hot chilis and salsa with steak - hamburger - etc. I just thought that it would be interesting to learn how others feel.

Greg
Southern Nevada

Greg,
I agree that Chef's wouldnt use them for most patrons,, but I know alot of chefs that love to use them for their own dishes.
And I'm also not dissing anyone who cant handle supers. :)
Heck, not counting the Pepper forums I'm on,,,I know no one,personally, that can eat my peppers, But , When you make that perfect sauce,, and the hair on your head sweats before the heat even hits your tongue....You are hooked! :)
Kevin

I'm lucky, I guess, to know a bunch of folks who eat peppers.
Even those who don't actively eat the peppers enjoy the colorful pods - fresh and dried -
that I bring them. Other friends take them to Clamper functions for the aforementioned hazing rituals.

This Summer, I made a damned hot salsa that I gave out in small batches to friends and family.
My brother and his girlfriend called it "Spray the Rocks" salsa, and they've been asking for more
ever since they finished it off. My brother was sending me texts from the toilet, thanking me...
and yet lamenting the heat. That's dedication.

I have to admit, I do enjoy the "rush" that comes from the intensity of a hot pepper.
I don't have a high tolerance, either. Tabasco peppers kick my ass...
and I can barely swallow Chocolate or Caribbean Red Habaneros.


Josh

I personally can't stand the heat of much more than a cayenne at 30,000 scovilles. But I can stand the money I make selling plants and seed of superhots. Bhut Jolokia anyone?

DarJones

No thanks, already received some from generous Forum members.

Josh

I don't think its really about standing up to their heat when cooking with them. For me, Bhuts have a unique type of spice to them. I think its more a matter of figuring out how to tame the heat in interesting ways. One way we like is throwing a whole dried Bhut in at the beginning of making stews. The bhut imparts a deeper heat without simply burning.. you can add super hots to sauce mixtures, etc..

while the peppers themselves don't sell particularly well at market, i make hot sauce out of them that does. plants also do well.

this year i'm setting up around 10 breeding beds (each 1/4 mile apart) to produce pure seed of a number of varieties as well- tried it on a small scale last year and everything seemed to go fine. some of my first nagas are coming up now with datils and trinidad scorpions still to come. unfortunately the deer got my bhuts at an inopportune time so those i wound up digging up and am propagating by clone over the winter...

It is a machismo contest to see who can stand the most pain.....it has nothing to do with taste.

Where people really eat chiles and they are available in markets, nobody has any superhots.

My son recently returned from a tour in Iraq and said while there he dreamed of planting lots of super hot peppers (in MY garden of course) haha He seems to love the intense flavor...hovering on the edge of pain. We have been collecting seeds but still need a few (scotch bonnet-yellow red and orange, habanero-mustard,red,chocolate,white, giant ghost, etc. I'm not new to gardening but I AM new to hot peppers. Just how far apart do you need to plant the different varieties? Any other suggestions are appreciated.

Willard, why do you think Wayright is doing this for a 'machismo' reason? He said he just likes them.

Chris

No machismo here, either.
Like I said, a Tabasco pod can damn near take me out.


Josh

Definitely not machismo, I love Bhut Jolokia, habanero and any other hot peppers in my salsas and hot sauces. You only need a few jolokias to make your food hot where as you need tons of habanero.
I eat them grilled, pickled, fried. They are good in cornbread. Hundreds of uses.

unless you are trying to breed pure seed of a variety you can plant them right on top of one another, will have zero impact on your crop of peppers for this year- according to my friend at the seed company they are looking for around 1200 feet between varieties to insure purity for marketable seed. peppers cross pollinate prolifically so i don't recommend trying to save seed unless you have a large buffer zone between varieties.

those who don't recognize that different very hot peppers actually taste different have not done their "lips on" research imo.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the health benefits of capsaicin! The wonderful heat/flavor is plenty enough reason to eat these things, but the fantastic health benefits are the driving force which keep me making dishes hotter and hotter.

See link below...

Here is a link that might be useful: Capsaicin Health Benefits

you can't deny that it IS fun to be able to say that you ate the spiciest pepper in the world... and yes, some people do it for the machismo, but those people usually end up on youtube holding their faces and crying in agony for taking a bite out of a bhut

willard3, you should try some small bits of a bhut, and you'll understand the different flavor the bhut imparts... it feels like a deeply reverberating heat that carries its own flavor. i mean, with that level of heat you're not really tasting the flesh of the chile. you're tasting the flavor in that super concentrated oil that makes those thin skinned bhuts so angry

Some folks just like to GROW things, and peppers are a great choice. To be able to start from seed and end with fruit (and next years' seed) can be VERY satisfying.

Have ya'll SEEN the pics of Kevin's (Wayright) pepper plants?

Eating supers,"By myself" is no proof of machismo.

A good powder can give you the flavor of the super, ,Used sparingly,I think anyone can enjoy it!

Thanks for the compliment Rick, Growing peppers is VERY satisfying! It is my zen!

Kevin

Lets see some of those pepper pics Kevin!

nothing quite tastes the same, without a little powder sprinkled on