Tips to Cool Down Hot Peppers

It's a burning question: What's the best way to handle hot peppers? We've got some cooling helpful hints!

When handling any fresh chili peppers, the oils, seeds, and juices in the flesh of the pepper can burn fingers just as they can burn our tongues, and if we touch our eyes, they'll burn too! Usually, the smaller the pepper, the hotter it can be!

You may have heard that buttering or oiling your hands will protect you from a pepper burn, but your hands will get slippery when working with a knife, so the best choice is using gloves.

Now, if we do take a bite out of a hot pepper and find our mouths burning, drinking water won't ease it; water can't break down the hot oils, so try these tricks:

• Chew on a piece of cheese. The oils in cheese can dilute the oils in chili peppers.
• Mix a bit of fresh lemon or lime juice with a bit of sugar. The juice in both fruits acts as a grease-cutter and can cool the burn!

Serving jalapenos as mini edible bowls stuffed with cheese or maybe some chopped cooked chicken or beef, then heating them up (and there are griddles made just for this!) makes a super appetizer with an exciting little kick! So enjoy their tongue-tingling appeal, carefully. Then they'll always be...“OOH IT’S SO GOOD!!”