What kind of pepper did you get from a McCormmick bottle? cayenne?

I have had great luck with both dried peppers from the market and fresh peppers(ripe ones) that I have dried myself. A lot depends on how the company dries, or handles them. I have had rotten luck with Anchos for example.

I've had 100% germanation from seeds of a Thai pepper:)

yes cayenne

That has got to hurt I am surprised that you are not still blind. I have never done that but I did use lemon and then put my contacts in, not quite as bad but that is the worst I want to feel. Love_a_lot

heck yeah it hurt

but what do you mean by lemon???

lemon pepper or a lemon lemon

No I mean a lemon lemon.

It stings more than anything but an orange hab would burn.

I've done that with garlic - I minced the garlic, rinsed off my hands, and poked my eye. INSTANT PAIN. I was crying for a while, and it was diluted garlic oil, too. I can't imagine how much pain pepper oil would be!

I grew cayennes many years ago and my first year I had a wonderful crop. I picked buckets and buckets of beautiful red peppers. Of course I didnt want to waste any of these so I decided to dry them and grind them into powder. I tried several methods and ended up using my trusty cuzinart. I "fogged" the house with a such a cloud of cayenne that we could hardly breathe. Hours later the kids were still screaming and cats howling. Worse yet is the annual ribbing I receive from the wife.

If any of you watch Alton Brown on "The Food Network" channel, you may notice that he now wears glasses on his program instead of the contacts he used to wear.

Apparently he did a show where he chopped up some hot peppers - believe they may have been habaneros - & didn't wear gloves. Even tho he washed his hands, when he touched his eyes with the contacts still in, the pain was unbearable, & from then on he went back to wearing glasses on his cooking show.

Last year my son (18 months old at the time) walked up to my wife bawling. She said it looked as though he had a rash all around his mouth. He asked for a drink, so she gave him a cup of milk. He quickly drank it up and asked for more. She refilled the cup, he drank it, and soon stopped crying. My wife had no clue why he was crying, but the milk seemed to solve his problem. When I awoke a couple hours later, I found a partially chewed orange habanero on the floor in my son's room. I showed it to my wife, and she informed me of the earlier incident. I am now no longer allowed to keep my habs on top of the kitchen counter.

pbmax,

Your son is more of a man than I am! I had a Mexican girlfriend when I was 18 and her dad asked me if I liked spicy food one time, I said, yeah, and he pulled out a pepper from the fridge and asked me if I knew what it was. I said, no, so he said, "go ahead and take a bite, pinchi". Well I took a manly bite, and it was a Habanero, floored me for about 35 minutes. Lesson learned, the hard way.

oh my gosh my peppers were overwintered at a green house and there were two a orange hab and a red chili well to makea long story short i was pulling out the weeds from the red chili pot because it did not make it and noticed some oddly familliar leaves but theplant was long gone well i got to the center of the pot and found two red chili plants that had reseeded themselves befre the plant died. they are about 6 in and 3in tall this is incredible kinda reminds me of the movie dragon fly ill try to post piics or have someone do it for me.

I did the same with the habanero and contacts - I washed my hands probably ten times, but still after I put my contacts in - searing pain. I ended up in the tub with cold water running over my face!

I've also never had any luck with growing ancho seeds - every other pepper that I've tried - dried or fresh - has had at least some results.

Hehehe. I habaneroed myself in the eye about a hundred times last summer. Ya'd think I'd learn...I guess it didn't hurt me enough. It wasn't pleasant but it didn't blind me, either. :-o They say if you apply capscacin to nerve endings repeatedly it numbs them to the burn. I guess it worked on my eyeballs, too.

i have a dachsund (long haired) that used to eat my 2 year olds ice cream and cookies. he used to jump up to get the goods then mikey would cry. so i baited his ice cream and cookies with powdered habanero. a couple of treatments and problem solved. that was funny

A friend gave me some dried cayeene-type peppers that he carried back from China about 6 or 7 years ago. The've been sitting in a plastic back in the back of a kitchen cabinet for most of the past 4 years. They traveled during the summer in an uncooled truck half-way across the country, 4 years ago when I moved from Chicago to Washington state.

This year I discovered them in the cabinet and removed some seeds for planting. They germinated as fast as the fresh pepper seeds that I bought. It's only been a few weeks, but their 1st pairs of leaves are green and healthy-looking. I dont know the %germination, probably less than 50% but it's still amazing.

The Chinese pepper story is intriguing. If there are any left, or if you can produce pure seed (not crossed with others in your garden), I would love to trade for some.

re: kids eating habs. A coworker (who's a botanist) was telling me the other day that when his son was little, they saw him reaching out to pick and eat a hab off a plant. They were about to stop him, but then realized what a good life lesson it would be on not eating things from plants you can't identify. He said it was seared into his son's mind well enough that he never had to worry about him eating anything poisonous!

I too have had the contacts thing happen many times. The last time was when I was making pepper powder from what I thought were "mild" chilis. My wife asked why I wasn't wearing gloves and just gave her a look and explained that they were mild. A few minutes later, the uncontrollable tears of my foolishness were running down my face. Live and learn.

Hab story: At a party about five or six years ago, a few folks decided to whip out some habs and see who could eat them. There were only three of us who stepped up to the plate. The other two contestants chewed theirs up with disastrous results, while I thought I was being smart and swallowed it whole. I received the admiration of all who didn't realize what I did...but 20 minutes later I had the worst stomach ache of my life. And no Tums. There are no winners in hab eating contests.

The one year that I grew habs i decided to make some spicy oil. So I chopped them up -- carefully -- and let them macerate in warm oil. I tasted the oil several times. It was good, so I poured it into a jar and put it in the fridge and got ready for work. Just as I was leaving, the hot oil that I had been tasting, uh, well let's say it had to be set free. I would up taking a sick day. And it was a very unpleasant day at that. Now I go no hotter than serranos, jalapenos, etc.

As for getting rid of the heat on your hands, you have to wash them with dish soap, any kind will do. And water as hot as you can stand. Since I started doing that I have had no problems. It cuts grease, and Capsicum is oily by nature. The same goes for grease from working on your car. Don't buy LAVA soap or any other gimmick, dish soap takes it right off.
Tom

Was mincing jabeneros in girlfriend's Kitchenaide for pepper jelly last year. A couple got hung up in chute so I mashed a little harder. All of a sudden a whole mess of juice came squirting out into my face, closed my eyes just in time. Now I wear safety glasses or goggles when I can or grind anything.

Yikes, after reading all of these horror stories, I don't feel like such a science geek wearing labcoat, safety glasses and TWO pairs of gloves. The reason for the 2 pairs of gloves is: I always cry when I mince hot peppers and I cough up a storm too and my nose always runs. I have to take off the 1st pair very often and blow my nose immediately. If I didn't wear 2 pair of gloves, I would end up with a really messy face as well as capsacin on my skin, OW!

These stories are all bringing back memories....memories of PAIN!!

Here is my contribution to such tales. Okay, one weekend afternoon, I decided to make my most excellent "habanero slow-baked chicken wings"...well, some five hours later, they were done to my satisfaction. I ate about two dozen and then completely scrubbed down my hands...don't need to be rubbin' my eye with THAT on my fingers :(

Well, later that evening, m'lady is feeling frisky and decides that it is time to mess about in the bedroom. YAY!!

The "messin' about" was in progress, when suddenly m'lady jumped up and started calling me every nasty name she could think of...and not in a sexy way mind you.

Evidently, that habanero oil was still on my fingers.

Lesson learned: chile oils + naughty bits = End of the "messin' about" for a week :(
I now scrub my hands over and over after eating such fiery wings and use a food processor to puree the chiles.
No problems since.

Can we please have a recipe for "most excellent habanero slow-baked chicken wings?"

When I used to run a restaurant kitchen one of my cooks was cutting up some jalapenos when he felt the urge, he went downstairs and used the bathroom. He came back up and after about 10 minutes he felt the pain of pepper juice, where pepper juice should never be. Needless to say, he was teased quite a bit and we made a new rule about employees washing hands before using the bathroom in addition to washing them afterwards.

One time a few years ago I was working out in my yard pulling weed and such. I had planted some sweet peppers that looked kinda like jalapenos that I had planted in a totally different spot on the opposite side of the house. Well I loved eating the sweet ones right off the plant so I was out there talking to my friend I decided to take a BIG bite of the pepper from the front yard. I ate almost the whole thing in one bite. Well needless to say I couldn't get that out of my mouth fast enough. Somehow through magic or something My sweet peppers turned HOT HOT HOT. I think maybe a new plant got planted by a bird or something. I was in pain for about 20 minutes.

All of you have great stories. I've never grown my own peppers but I plan to start this year. My personal lesson about hand-washing happened a few months ago when I woke up after making my "How Hot Can You Stand It" Spaghetti the night before.(a few minced habs in the sauce)

A few minutes after rubbing the sleep from my eyes cured me. Talk about your WAKE UP CALL!

I was crushing dried jalapenos and dropped the bowl... I was hit in the face by a cloud of dried jalapenos... My eyes and mouth were open... Lets just say it wasn't the nicest experience of my life...

Grinding hot peppers outdoors is better.A wet mask is helpful.After grinding,allow a few minutes for the pepper cloud to settle.Quickly transfer to a plastic bag, Clean up with alcohol,then soap.

do not wear contacts before or after for a reasonable time!!!!!

Ok, I'll add to this. Best friend had a roomie in college named Bobby, I'll never forget him. He enjoyed spicy food and kept one of those honkin big jars of pickled jalapenos in the fridge all the time. Usually it was the only thing in there besides beer. Many times they would go out drinking and end up back at their place at 2-3 am, and being in college, would keep drinking. Bobby would always challenge some poor fool to a pickled jalapeno juice drinking contest, and being the owner of the juice would get them to go first. After someone would try to drink the stuff.... usually followed by getting ill, Bobby would excuse himself from the contest and tell them that they were the winners....

Ah peppers. The lure. Peppers for some reason call to us. I got the calling awhile back. Always liked jalops.. and from there learned of other "hot" peppers such as Habinero and Scotch Bonnets among others. Having visited South and Central America many times I got hooked even further as I got to experience many different kinds of peppers. Now the part about some chile I made recently.....

Like many people I have my own recipe for a very good chile. Use smoked sausage and such..once won a cook-off with it. I can make it cool to hot. Well this time i was going to to cook all the heat out of a wide mixture of peppers which included 2 orange habs, 4 jalopenos, 4 seranos and 3 scotch bonnets. Was getting ready to cut them up and thought that with so many of them that Id be there awhile. Hah!!! Why not use the wifes new mincing machine. I did and their was perhaps 2 CUPS of a SUPER HOT minced conglomeration that just didn't have anywhere to go but, yup, in the pot it went. See I wasn't intending to use all those peppers right then. I was going to use them for other dishes. O well in they went..

An hour later I have this batch of chile that when I lifted the lid off the pot to get a smell, a cloud of steam rose up and I sniffed and began to cough dutifully, eyes began to water, knees trembled. Wooo!!

Got my self together and seperated the chile into about adozen bowls and put a small bowl out for myself to taste. All else went into freezer. I started to eat the tasting bowl and just about went insane with the heat.. Sweating, coughing, weezing.. all the "ings."

Next day I get out another bowl from the freezer and microwave it. Same thing.. lots of "ings."

I got through only 4 bowls before I took the rest to work. Several people did the "ings" thing.

That was the hottest stuff I ever ait. It was so hot my stomach would hurt for a couple of days after Id eat a bowl. No more super hots for me.

A powerful lesson learned by us louisiana guys early on in life pertains to eating crawfish and washing hands. enough said. hahahaha

Saw a no-heat jalepeno plant at the feed store and i got one for the garden. That evil glint in my eye twinkling....
pepper eating contest... hmmmmm
if i remember right its called a Tam jalepeno??? any of you ever grow one before? The bush is quite vigorous and starting to bloom.

Hey chad LA,

I put a Tam Jalepeno in this year. It has rooted well and is starting to put some more green with a few buds starting to show.

Also has anyone tried a "Carribean Habinero?" Its supposed to measure up to near 450,000 scovil units!!!!!!

Also does anyone know of a way to coax a pepper plant to bud and flower more? Or is this possible with them?

I wanted a lot of varieties this year, grew some from seed and bought some from chiliplants, Transplanted them into 5 gallon bullets. Marked the sides of the buckets with permanent marker. We had a fair amount of rain. Permanent marker wasnt. Now i need to print out pictures and try to identify. OOPs
BethL

Have had the same problem with the sun fading them. Now use pencil and problem solved. show us those pictures and tell us what you planted

John

Chadla,
I'm trying the TAM, but I'm also growing the reg. jal. Guess what I did. Yep. Forgot which was which. LOL After one, I guess I'll know:)

Garfish

John, I took pics but havent had time to post. Need to soon, have a bug nibbling on them now. ends of leaves curled under and holes appearing.

I have many pepper storys, here is one of them. Put a carribean restaurant together several years back, bottles of different types of sauces on the tables, jalapeno cornbread muffins with spicy mango/pepper dipping sauce in liew of bread & butter, many island receipes on the menu etc. was at the bar explaining the virtues of the scotch bonnet to some guys doing a little tasting/testing with them, a tiny slice of habenero, a smidge of daves insanity, a drop of endorphin rush and so on, all being washed down with copious ammounts of Red Stripe, when I remembered I'd received a package from Mo hotta Mo betta that morning, so I brought it out to the bar, opened it and was showing off the contents when a small bottle caught my eye, we were all sweating profusly by then and having a general good time. The bottle was called I think 'I'm on fire ready to die' powder, well let me tell you, after dipping in a tooth pick and scraping it on my tongue, the look on the guys faces, I turned the color of puirple lost my voice and almost coughed my head off, I new then that I'd reached my limit and was ready to die. It was an out of mind and almost body experiance.

Now here's an idea for a devilish prank: Other day I was at a grocery store, stopped to look at what I thought was a bottle of dried onion flakes. But when I turned the jar around, low and behold it was really red jalepeno flakes. They had somehow lost their color & fooled me easily enough. If they wound up in someone's spice rack actually labled as onion--boy would they get a surprize!

WHen I was in elementary school some kid brought a bunch of hot peppers in. I have no idea what they were, but they were hot enough for 10 year olds. We all Tasted them and realized how hot they were. Myself and maybe 1 other person liked them. Anyway By the time lunch came around and we Somehow came up with the idea to hollow out pieces of Soft Pretzels and shove them in the middle. I am not that cruel, but my friends were and offered them to people who didn't know what was in them. People were in pain. ANd yes people got in trouble

Hey,
I was cooking using habanero yesterday, and it is still stinging my hands; there are basically still traces of it on my fingers, esp. under my fingernails, and I have tried dish soap, several kinds of regular soap, alcohol, lemon and oil to get it out (the last two were my mother's suggestions, and all they did was make my hands smell like food).
Having to take my contacts out yesterday night was pure hell, and now I have to put them back in again... Does anyone have any tips for how to get it out of my skin? My father says that it should take care of itself and go away withing 24 hours, but I don't really trust him on this, and besides, HE has never had to poke himself in the eyes two times a day, so of course it wouldn't be as bad to him...
I'd appreciate ANY help I can get at this point, so please answer this!

I did the same as Don but I put my dry Cayennes in the blender for a finer powder. I was blinded in both eyes by the cloud of smoke. had to crawl the length of the house and up the stairs to my bedroom to sleep it off. I was home alone at the time.

Live and Learn. Nope, I still refuse to wear gloves. blinded myself 2 weeks ago with some habs. I am real bad though. I dont wash up good until after I get blinded. haha.

Last fall at a family BBQ, my brother was sampling some of our Peruvian Purple peppers shortly before he had to leave to get ready for a date. He relieved himself before heading out - neglecting to wash his hands first. It was a long drive home for him.

I lived on Guam for some years and discovered the Guam Booney Pepper. They grow wild in the jungle. The pppers are so thick that when you pick them, you can just close your hand over them and get 20 or so at a time. These little guys are small and squish easily when ripe. The folks there never use gloves, and their hands would be covered with the red juice. They would just wash it off with some Budwiser and laugh. I pick them one at a time.

I worked in a casino kitchen in Atlantic City that had a bathroom right off the line. We had an oriental broiler cook named Ray who was a hothead. He brought in this homemade chocolate hab hot sauce that would take the paint off your car. Of course cooks are cruel practical jokers...living up to this, I took a napkin and soaked some of the separated oil from the hot sauce and carefully rubbed it on the door handles and sink handles of the bathroom. Needless to say, about half my co-workers were hopping up and down, sweating and yelling about their...hotness. One of the cruelest yet funniest things I've ever done. Another good one was to take some of Ray's sauce and load up some pasta marinara with it...the best part of the trick was the pitcher of iced white vinegar next to the plate looking like cold, refreshing water....