Your Favorite Hot Sauce

Yep. Makes sense.

Sprit! :shock: Capsaicinoids are fat soluble and sprite contains carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium citrate and sodium benzoate. I wonder what the sprite does. Do you have a link Pyg?

It's all over the internet. Just google "how to tame jalapeno peppers," and you'll get all the links you need. I haven't seen any links where people claim to explain the chemistry, but there is plenty of documentation for the idea that Sprite works. *shrug*

The only thing there that should be specific to the sprite is the citric acid. Everything else is pretty common across all sodas (pops, tonics, whatever they call them in your neck of the woods). If you were inclined to experiment, you could try club soda, simple syrup, or lemonade, to see if any of those were as effective. ;-)

Yes. It seems likely that citric acid is the active ingredient. Most of the recipes I found specified Sprite, but quite a few also referenced "any lemon-lime soda."

Tiger Sauce for me

http://www.cajungrocer.com/tryme-tiger-sauce-1263.html

OMG, my tub of korean hot red pepper paste went moldy. I can't believe anything could grow on it. I'm certainly not going to mess with anything that could grow on it...

The combination of sweet and spicy sounds intriguing ... but not as intriguing as the recipe for alligator meat that's on the same page. :lol:

Nor would I. Did you have it a super long time? I ask because I've seen similar pepper pastes last months (if not years) without refrigeration. The ladies who make it just cook the bejeebers out of any possible bacteria. Short answer: I'm wondering if your pepper paste may have been undercooked.

I've had it a couple of months, a little too short a time for this to happen. Looks like I will go for a different brand, next time.

I found a bunch of the sauces mentioned here, while I was shopping today at my local Target. Who knew?

Now it's time to get adventurous.

What is a ghost pepper, btw?

as of a couple of months ago, the hottest pepper in the world, although last I heard it was overtaken by a trinidadian scorpion pepper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naga_Bhut_Jolokia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion_pepper

I guess I'll be avoiding the ghost pepper salsa, then.

ki was really very pleasantly surprised at the selection of pepper sauces at Target. I started out in the Tex-Mex section which was okay. The Asian food section and the condiment aisle really surprised me with the diverse selection. There were all sorts of pastes and sauces and peppers that I would never see at my local Kroger. Very cool.

ki was surprised? Oy. I was surprised, too. That's what I get for attempting to post in the dark. My being old and decrepit and a bad typist has nothing to do with it. Honest.

Somewhat random question: What makes salsa verde green? Green peppers?

The tomatillos.

Ahh. That makes sense. I was wondering. I didn 't think unripened peppers would be so unabashedly, vibrantly green.

I've been cooking a lot with whole fresh habaneros or japalenos -- add them to the blender with a bit of water to purify, then add to recipe. Take out seeds if you want less of a burn.

I'm basically becoming addicted to variations on a theme -- habaneros, garlic, onion and ginger blended up together and added to whatever curry I'm making. Fabulous with greek yogurt & pulverized almonds, finished with lime juice & cilantro, no additional spices necessary. Three or four habaneros are enough to really give a rush.