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I'm a total chili-head; I snack on pickled hot peppers from Mezzetta (the pepper is Cascabella, which I have never seen fresh) almost daily. What I love most about them is that they don't seem all that hot until a few seconds after I swallow. If I eat a big pepper in one bite, the afterburn is almost but not quite painful. The urge is then to eat another pepper. After I'm done snacking, I eat a big spoonful of yoghurt. The lingering heat sensation lasts a good 20 minutes.

Some peppers have that "lingering" quality. In Seoul I ate a lot of spicy street food that had that.

I have never been able to achieve that in a sauce.

I particularly want to make a sneaky sauce for chicken wings and gumbo.

Jolenealaska
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    Try Arbol chili powder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile_de_%C3%A1rbol Not the hottest pepper ever, but the capsaicin mix seems to be a tight binder. Gets your mouth gradually warmer, and keeps it there. Naturally, the quality of the crop varies from year to year. The powder is supposed to be reddish, not drought-brown. – Wayfaring Stranger Jul 31 '16 at 21:17
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    I suspect that the 'slow attack' heat is from [capsaicinoids other than capsaicin](http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/chilli/capsaicin.htm). Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone who's analyzed what the relative concentrations are across different breeds of pepper. And the only note that I've found about the different properties of them is a claim that [homodihydrocapsaicin is "one of the most prolonged and difficult to rinse out"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homodihydrocapsaicin) – Joe Aug 01 '16 at 08:11
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    it seems that there was a paper in 2013 *[Characterization of Different Capsicum Varieties by Evaluation of Their Capsaicinoids Content by High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Determination of Pungency and Effect of High Temperature](http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/18/11/13471)* ... but they only broke out 5 capsaicinoids for 7 hot varietals (all dried in their analysis), under two different growing conditions. – Joe Aug 01 '16 at 10:13
  • @Joe That's very helpful. I'll keep looking. – Jolenealaska Aug 01 '16 at 14:19
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    @Joe Slow-tight binders are difficult to characterize, and there are likely hundreds of different capsaicinoids. I can see a graduate student up at 3am, isolating various fractions from her carbon-14 labelled peppers, for later treatment of cultured taste receptors and chemical characterization; but I can't see her prof getting a grant to support the research. – Wayfaring Stranger Aug 01 '16 at 14:29
  • @WayfaringStranger I can get (and have used) Arbol chiles. I haven't noticed any particular lingering nature in the chilis, but I don't think I've ever used the powder. I'll report back once I do. – Jolenealaska Aug 01 '16 at 14:37
  • @WayfaringStranger : I wonder if Dave's Gourmet (makers of Dave's Insanity Sauce) would be willing to give research grants. (Mcilhenny (Tobasco) doesn't seem like the sort of company to do it). Either that, or companies that make pepper spray. (although in the second one, they might not be interested in the taste issues) – Joe Aug 01 '16 at 14:48
  • @Jolenealaska Probably varies from year to year, source to source, and depending on fresh or dry. I've just had good luck getting that effect with the Arbol I buy. Joe: It'd be nice if someone would research this, it's a nice effect, and one people would probably pay for to get reliably. – Wayfaring Stranger Aug 01 '16 at 22:31
  • [This discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/243tkv/why_do_some_hot_peppers_have_a_slower_burn_than/) on Reddit may be helpful. If one of the top posts there is to be believed, someone with a biochem background hasn't found a better study on topic yet, so it may not be out there. But there's a pretty good explanation of what's likely going on physiologically. – Athanasius Aug 08 '16 at 20:03
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    Excellent Q that I have as well. I *love* dishes that aren't blazing hot on consumption, but then gradually build up in intensity (and sweat) after you have swallowed. A couple Thai restaurant dishes do that to me. RE scholarly studies: I wonder if the varying *waxiness* of capsaicin is a vector, ie: more wax = delayed affect. – Paulb Aug 10 '16 at 18:31
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    @Paulb Funny you should mention waxiness. Waxiness might very well play a part. – Jolenealaska Aug 10 '16 at 22:56

2 Answers2

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I've lived (and eaten my way around) South East Asia for nearly the last fifteen years, and I think I know the effect that you're describing. Feel free to let me know if I'm off.

If what you're talking about is a slow and gentle burn that sort of creeps up, intensifies, and then mellows back down gradually (which is what I think you're talking about) then what you're experiencing is very likely an emulsion of a few types of peppers in a fat with a little acid, salt, and something sweet (sweet brewed soy, or even molasses).

A common street food is chicken gizzard over hot coals that's been marinated using the above method featuring bird's eye, serrano, calamansi (green, with zest) rendered fat (duck or pork) and something sweet. There are as many varieties of that as there are street vendors cooking up all of that goodness. I'm pretty certain it's the fat that causes the burn to linger longer on your palate.

Emulsification also helps maintain the pungency of chili in more basic (cream / curry) types of sauces in which it would otherwise mellow very quickly.

My experience is mostly in The Philippines, but I've been all over, and I don't suspect that it's done too differently in other places. This will definitely get you the sneaky kind of sauce you want, you just have to experiment with the types and ratios of chili. With sweetness and an acid, something like chipotle is going to introduce itself before habanero, and then take the stage again once the habanero has finished wrecking your mouth.

What remains is some experimentation that might ... err .. hurt a little :) But what you'll eventually end up with are a few really tasty pastes that you can add to any other sauce in order to get the desired effect. Also, don't feel bad about just using combinations of ready made chili sauces (sriracha, piri piri, etc) - this can save you a lot of work and give you a more refined taste. The sky and your budget for buying them are the limit.

Tim Post
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I´ve added habanero + dried chile peppers to a tomato sauce recipe (5% oil final weight, cooking time 40min.med/high heat). The heat you describe is the same I tasted. It´s different from raw pepper heat, scales up and down in a pleasant way (20 minutes after you can still feel you ate it).

As Tim Post mentioned: it is probably the effect of the emulsified capsaicin (the final steps of the recipe are blend + strain.

The sauce recipe is under ·cookinginrussia: tomato/pizza sauce· on youtube.

Joe Perez
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