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I'm planning a chili pepper degustation together with some friends who are likewise interested in cooking.

We're planning to taste a number of different peppers both to better understand when to prefer one over the other and simply because it's a fun idea.
We'll be working our way up in hotness and inevitably everyone will reach their limit of acceptable hotness.

Is there any food or beverage that can be consumed to lessen the effects of chili pepper once someone has reached their limits?
As a counter example I've heard drinking water is a bad idea, as it helps break down remaining pieces of pepper which will in turn make you feel the taste more.

Not to be confused with this question that asks how to reduce chili pepper hotness prior to eating, I'm looking for a remedy for after eating the pepper.

Community
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Etheryte
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  • I hope this falls within the scope of this SE site, if it doesn't, pardon if I didn't understand the intent correctly from your help center. – Etheryte Nov 05 '14 at 17:08
  • To be fair, basically every answer on the other question would help you. For example, adding dairy (especially full-fat) to the dish helps, so drinking milk or eating, say, sour cream afterwards also does. – Cascabel Nov 05 '14 at 17:35
  • I agree that the question you pointed out is not a duplicate. However, we have at least one other question which asks what to do after the eating. I found one very old one and closing as a duplicate of it; there used to be another one which I can't find, maybe somebody will help so we can merge. – rumtscho Nov 06 '14 at 05:52

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Milk or milk-based products generally help lessen the hotness after eating chili peppers. At least it works for me.

Some people go for plain bread, I didn't try it yet so I can't say for sure if it helps.

Thaoden
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    With the milk, you want to rinse and spit ... the capsicum binds to the fat in the milk, and if you actually drink it, you're just washing it down. – Joe Nov 05 '14 at 17:16
  • Bread works with chilli oil (so the oil is chilli hot) because it absorbs the oil. It doesn't work with dry chilli, because there's no oil to absorb .. that's when you take dairy, or coconut juice and coconut milk also help. – Ming Nov 06 '14 at 00:37
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The active ingredient in chilies dissolves in fat, so any oil based foodstuff should also be good. Bread dipped in olive oil should work or maybe fresh Naan smothered generously in warm ghee.

Sam Holder
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