Hot peppers are, of course, known for their heat, but could cooking peppers make them spicier than you’d expect? Is it cooking fiction or cooking fact that cooking peppers make them hotter? Like many things, it’s a little bit fact and a little bit fiction.
Cooking peppers in a dish does make the dish itself taste hotter. But there’s a diminishing return in play here. Super-long cooking times can actually make the peppers and the dishes they are in taste milder than expected. And technically, roasting a chili alone typically makes the pepper less spicy, not more.
We go into the why of it all below, as well as a few ways you can use cooking peppers to gain heat to your advantage. We also cover a few ways you can temper the unexpected additional heat that cooking chilies can bring to the table.
Capsaicin is a natural substance found in chile peppers and this is where the hotness originates from. High heat, like from grilling, destroys some of it and has the effect of lowering the “temperature.” So no the peppers do not get hotter, but the opposite of it.
Does roasting peppers make them taste hotter?
The same typically holds true for roasting peppers — chilies tend to lessen in heat when roasted. The roasting releases the chili’s oils and capsaicin, but in this instance the capsaicin isn’t then spread across the entire dish. The chili eaten alone, may taste milder.
Roasting chilies over a high-heat grill can also destroy capsaicin. It can reach temperatures where capsaicin does start to break down, again decreasing spiciness.
An outlier where the chili could taste hotter is if the membrane breaks down and release its capsaicin into the meat of the chili fruit. That’s more likely if the chili pepper is roasted whole, where, of course, the membrane and seeds aren’t removed.
Granted, roasting chilies over high heat release all sorts of other flavors within the peppers, often enhancing their smokiness and nuttiness. So, it’s not like the peppers become bland, just less spicy.
Why cooking peppers makes dishes taste hotter
Before we look at the relationship between cooking chili peppers and their heat, you should understand what makes chili peppers hot in the first place.
The source of the heat in peppers is the chemical capsaicin. Capsaicin is concentrated in the pepper’s placenta, but the compound is also distributed throughout the interior, including in the seeds. The placenta or pith is the white membrane that anchors the seeds of the pepper to its walls.
–> Learn More – The Anatomy Of A Chili Pepper
Cooking peppers makes dishes hotter because the peppers break down while cooking and releases more capsaicin into the dish. The spiciness is then spread out throughout the dish, so it gives the sensation of an overall spicier meal.
But the catch: An extended cooking time can then see the capsaicin dissipate in the process. Meaning: your dish will begin to become milder over time. The culprit is typically steam. Capsaicin is considered thermostable — meaning it won’t break down due to normal cooking heat (unless high heat grilling.) But it is considered steam volatile — meaning some capsaicin is removed from the dish from the steam while cooking. The longer the cooking (especially with high amounts of steam), the milder the dish can get. Those spicy peppers you added will all of a sudden not kick as expected.
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers Grilled On The Weber Kettle
FAQ
Are grilled jalapenos less spicy?
Why do people grill jalapenos?
Does roasting jalapenos make them hotter?