Recovering from a singe...

Eating a real hot chili sauce can be beneficial to your health. Though I'm not necessarily qualified to be dispensing medical advice :) I can say that it is common knowledge to man and beast that peppers are a rich source of vitamins but did you know that -
All hot chili peppers contain phytochemicals known collectively as capsaicinoids.

* Capsaicin was shown, in laboratory settings, to cause cancer cell death in rats.

* Recent research in mice shows that chili (capsaicin in particular) may offer some hope of weight loss for people suffering from obesity.

* Researchers used capsaicin from chilies to kill nerve cells in the pancreases of mice with Type 1 diabetes, thus allowing the insulin producing cells to start producing insulin again.

* Research in humans found that "after adding chili to the diet, the LDL, or bad cholesterol, actually resisted oxidation for a longer period of time, [delaying] the development of a major risk for cardiovascular disease".

* Researchers found that the amount of insulin required to lower blood sugar after a meal is reduced if the meal contains chili pepper.

* Chili peppers are being probed as a treatment for alleviating chronic pain.

* Several studies found that capsaicin could have an anti-ulcer protective effect on the stomach.

Husby's hits a home run....

Well, I don't know if my constant badgering for more heat on my chicken tenders had anything to do with it, but finally, Door County has a REAL hot sauce contender. 

Husby's have adopted the venerable "Dead Heat" bottled hot sauce and incorporated it into their menu. This is a respectable "hot" sauce manufactured by Hot Sauce Harry's Inc. It is part of a limited edition run and comes with its own coffin and Death Certificate (100,000 scoville heat units). 
Anyway, mixed with Husby's own house wing sauce it adds a nice bite to your wings or tenders. However, not content to leave well-enough alone, James has thrown down the gauntlet to us heat fiends by introducing the Husby's Hot Wing Challenge. Using undiluted "Dead Heat" sauce plastered on an order of wings, one must eat around 7 of these fiery fiends to successfully complete the HHWC. Various incentives are on offer for people capable (read stoopid) enough of rising to and completing the challenge.

Naturally yours truly became the first moron to suffer through the 100,000 SHU's, downing about 7 or 8 wings and living to tell the tale.

So my hat goes off to Husby's, I recommend you visit them in Sister Bay and try the hot wing challenge.

I'll be dropping in tonight to issue them with their framed "Refrigerated Toilet Roll" award, the first issued to a Door County restaurant. 

How did it feel? - yes those puppies are hot! Not quite a 100 on the SOS, but  darned close at 96. By far my hottest experience in Door County to date.

Kudos to James and the gang for making this old sod suffer. Lets see if any other bar/tavern/restaurant in the area can kick it up a notch or two and compete for the 2010 RTR award.

Cheers!

C

A simple but effective Hot Sauce recipe.

With all the bottled stuff around we often forget what real peppers taste like. Remember that most of the bottled sauces are predominantly vinegar, with other flavors, colors and 'enhancements' to disguise the true flavors of our beloved pepper.

So why not make your own?

Here is a very versatile recipe that's quick and easy to make. You are going to make a hot pepper 'base', after which you can quickly create a wonderful sauce along with a bottled sauce for sprinkling as you need.

This recipe can be made to any heat level that you desire, so pick your peppers according to personal taste. You will be adding other ingredients to this so your pepper choices should be a little on the Hot side, to counter the 'diluting' affect of the additional ingredients.
I would recommend that you use 3 Poblano's, 6 habenero's, 4 jalepeno's, and one mild red pepper for flavor. This will give you an excellent first impression of heat, with a slow build up of heat intensity and a nice linger for a half hour or so. If it's too hot, you can always add more tomato, onion and mild red pepper to cut the heat.

This is simple to make, don't worry about any fancy chopping technique since everything is going in the blender after it's cooked.

Chop the above peppers, including seeds and membranes from the hot peppers (not the mild red one) and place them in a large hot skillet with a tsp of olive oil. Keep stirring. If you want to fuss and remove the skins from the Poblano and mild red pepper, you can, but I don't.
Add a small chopped red onion, three cloves of crushed fresh garlic, 2 tsp sea or kosher salt, tsp of ground cayenne, tsp of fresh ground black pepper, 2 tsp of course grain mustard.
Cook for around 15 minutes until the peppers are soft and the onion is lightly browned. Don't burn since the garlic will kill the flavor if you burn it.
Add a large can of tomato puree or tomato sauce. Add 4tsp of honey and 1 tsp of maple syrup. Let this cook down a little, another 15 minutes.
Taste and add more salt if needed. If it's way too hot you can add a little more tomato sauce.
Pour the whole mixture into the blender and puree.
At this point it will be quite a thick mixture and you have your base. I usually add this base straight into whatever meat I'm cooking without diluting it further. So if you're cooking chicken, pan fry it or whatever, then add the pepper base and cook until ready to serve. But if it's too hot, you can add more tomato puree or even red wine to cut the heat. Red wine works nicely, just remember to reduce it down to cook-off the alcohol. I've even added a bottle of good stout beer to make a nice dark, rich pepper sauce.
Now with whatever is left from your pepper base, you can bottle it. Add a little more salt and equal parts of apple cider vinegar to your base. So if you have a cup of pepper base add a cup of apple cider vinegar. Shake well and bottle. Keep in the fridge for at least a couple weeks, even longer. Shake well before use. You can use this liberally on just about anything, it won't be too hot given the added vinegar.

That's it!

The taste of real fresh peppers, cooking time about 30 minutes.

C

The Quest for a GOOD Hot Sauce....where it all began...

Well actually it's been going on for a while :)

I felt that this matter is of such importance to the general public that I should start a blog to chart my progress.

This isn't just about a 'hot sauce' per se, it encompasses any foods that are served with heat, and assesses the availability of accompanying bottled sauces to supply an extra dose of heat, when needed.

The whole heat fetish began many years ago in England. Most Americans, when asked about their knowledge of British foods, automatically think of fish and chips, bangers and mash and maybe shepherds pie. Fools. The national dish in England is Curry. Not the wimpish Chinese variety, but Indian, the real deal.

Growing up in England involves certain rituals, some of which cannot be avoided if one is to pass through one's teenage years with some hope of attaining "true adult status". One such ritual is the age-old ceremony of "doing a runner". One simply cannot claim to have a broad range of life experiences without being able to boast of at least one (multiple preferred) occurrence of this particular event. Doing a runner (referred to forthwith as DoAR) involves hitting the town (usually on a Friday night), consuming vast amounts of alcohol, attending an Indian restaurant (where only the hottest Vindaloo or Phal dish is served) and leaving somewhat unceremoniously without having paid the bill (usually through a bathroom window).

Since it is necessary for every youth to have it least one DoAR experience, it stands to reason that everyone will have sampled at least one Indian Curry. Quite often, multiple trips to the restaurant are necessary before one plucks up sufficient courage to perform the DoAR. And so the addiction begins, at a young age. One wise old man told me that the DoAR ritual was actually introduced by the owner of an Indian restaurant (Curry House), as a way of stimulating business. Something like "buy four curries and get your fifth one free", since statistically most people have at least 4 failed attempts at a DoAR before finally having the courage to complete the mission, on the fifth attempt.

Indian food is in our genes (literally, in some instances). It's more a part of our culture than fish and chips or even marmite, though drinking tea at 4pm each day comes close.

So that's the explanation behind the latest mission. It isn't that I expect to find a competitor for a Phal or even a Vindaloo, but that I need to experience the physical and emotional pain and suffering that comes with eating food that is so unbearably hot that one prepares ahead of time by placing a toilet roll in the refrigerator the night before the culinary event.

And so. With the stage set, I will now start to report on my experiences in the quest for the Golden Chili Pepper.

Feel free to post your experiences, good or bad, and inform the author of any establishments you feel may warrant inclusion in the Golden Chili Pepper Hall of Fame.

Rooze

(yes, I am probably insane).

PS - you need to scroll down and start at the end if you want to catch this blog unfolding in chronological order (recommended)

Tracking the hot chili pepper through the ages.....

Some of the earliest references to the hot chili pepper appeared in 49 B.C, when In ancient Rome it is said that Pompeia, wife to the self-proclaimed Emperor Julius Caesar, gaffed with her offering of hot chilies on march 14th, just a day before her husband got the chop. "Eat vestri parvulus piper quod vos mos adeo haud vulnero" (Eat your hot chili pepper and you will come to no harm), proclaimed the less than sage-like missus on the eve of Caesars assassination.

in the bible, Joshua, son of Hermetes and father to Don and Ray said "lo and behold unto him the gift of the hot chili pepper, for it has been said that he who endures the wrath of satan can further withstand the evil forces of the chili pepper and the pain and suffering that lies within".

During the Moors' invasion of Europe in 711 A.D, Cederic the Moor was said to have regretted his not bringing along a jar of hot chili peppers for the trip, then mercilessly slew an entire township near a beachhead on Andalusia in Spain.

Adolf Hitler was said to be a fan of hot chilies and was attributed with the first recorded comment by a Dictator relating to ring-sting, documented in his autobiography 'Mein Kampf', (my Struggle). "Mein Gott, mein Esel ist auf Feuer" (My God, my ass is on fire), said Hitler, complaining bitterly as he struggled in the bathroom the morning after consuming too many hot chili peppers.

In 1963, June Carter, wife of the late Johnny Cash, became so incensed with her husbands hot pepper indulgence, that she co-penned the popular country song "Ring of Fire". It is said that the late Cash became so animated during his morning constitutional sessions in the bathroom that the police and paramedics were called out quite frequently to the Cash household. "He was as regular as clockwork and you could hear the screams three blocks away", commented neighbor Art Kanutzen.

:)

Pain, pleasure or both? -

How can it be good to suffer? Well, there is something almost sensual when you first experience the intense heat from a really good hot sauce.

Often the nose collects information on what's about to hit the pallet, relays that information to the brain, and the brain responds by forcing an involuntary 'cough', as a preemptive strike against the idea of ingesting something that the brain already knows is inherently wrong. But you go ahead anyway and put the fiery concoction into your mouth. The tongue is instantly hit by a missile and saliva is released in a vain attempt to dilute the source of the pain. The front of the tongue is hit hardest, you want to roll it out and hack it off to make the pain stop. But wait, things start to get worse. The sweat glands are forced into overdrive as a natural reaction, attempting to expel and purge the system, trying to remove the source of the suffering. Direct skin contact in the mouth and around the lips results in pain and burning which slowly starts to form and spread outwards radially from the point of contact. People across the room sense your distress and ask "what's wrong with you?", "Nothing, I'm good, I'm good", you reply... but oddly enough you actually believe this to be the case. For somewhere deep within, a doorway opens into a new realm and you're stepping through it into a world of sensual stimulation, the likes of which you have never encountered before. As pleasure and pain intersect, you pray for an end to the suffering and vow never to go through the door again. Your face is bleeding, you think, and you look at the perspiration you've wiped away with your hand to see that it is not red. As you wipe, you unwittingly spread the suffering to other parts of your body, and soon the heat is felt from the inside out and you're in total pain and ecstasy simultaneously.
Quite often, hours will need to lapse before you can claim to have recovered fully from the ordeal. Foolishly you forget that your intestinal tract is slowly processing the substance and that you will suffer again, quite soon, as you deliberate in the throne room.
In spite of the suffering, you will most likely repeat the process again, next time seeking an even hotter concoction with which to assault your senses.

The lunacy of the whole process cannot be denied, but only those who have experienced it can truly describe the intersecting of pain and pleasure and the positive way it makes you feel.

It is truly addictive.

Getting in trouble with the law may be the ultimate hot pepper experience.

With all the culinary duds around, there may only be one way to get the real deal when it comes to our hot pepper fetish. (what is the plural of fetish?...fetishes or feti?).

Hmmm.

Many of you know that heat, from a pepper, is measured on the scoville scale. I have my own version of this scale, the SOS, which is covered elsewhere in detail.

The scoville scale of documenting 'heat' covers all known hot chili peppers and grades them conveniently on a scale of zero to 16 million.
Huh, 16 million?...hmmmm.

So, the crappy but ever popular Jalapeno scores low down on the scoville scale at 2500-5000.
The beautiful Habanero or scotch bonnet pepper scores a respectable 100,000 to 350,000 on the scoville scale. That's enough to put it into the 'I've been singed' category, (not burned), and earn it a nomination in the prestigious "Refrigerated Toilet Roll" awards.

But did you know that the police, when called to do so, will spray you with a "US Police Grade Pepper Spray", that measures an astonishing 2.5 to 5.3 million, on the scoville scale?....huh...baby, give it to me...

Wow.

That's a whopping 15 times more potent than our beloved Habanero.

So I encourage you to go out and create a public disturbance, then have someone on standby ready to call 911.

There are possible (in my case probable) things that can go wrong however, and you should be aware of them beforehand.
One possibility is that the gorilla you pick on beats the living crap out of you before the cops arrive. He gets pepper sprayed and they cart him off on a stretcher with a big grin on his face, while you go to the ER to begin a slow and painful recovery.
Another possible outcome is that the cops arrive and zap you with a 100,000 volt taser. Now balloons stick to you at parties and regardless of how much gel you use you can't get rid of the perm.

But hey, there's little doubt in my mind that it's worth a try.
CH

Mojo Rosa's Lays an Egg.

Look. If you're a Mexican restaurant you should keep a couple frozen Habaneros on hand for the occasional customer like me, who needs it baby, and needs it real bad.

So scouring the menu I come across a dish who's description makes reference to the fabled Habanero pepper. I can't remember the name of the dish but obviously I ordered it. (having first consulted with the server to establish that this truly was the spiciest dish on their menu).

Well it was heat on a low, low scale. Look, I don't expect that most people want to suffer to the extent that I do. Jeese, my whole life has been geared toward suffering, on a grand scale. But don't tease me with the 'H' word then serve me up a wet lettuce.
Barrumph (composes himself). So we move to plan B which is to explore the bottled sauces. I don't remember the specifics, but there really wasn't anything HOT, per se....just the usual 'Tabasco' crap with a different label.

All in all a weak Tex-Mex joint with high prices and low appeal.

JJ's of Jacksonport - when will the fire strike?

Ok...I'm going to be reporting on the 'original' JJ's in Sister Bay quite soon. They astonishingly hit an SOS grade somewhere in the low 80's with their Steak Ranchero's dish (haven't decided exactly what their score is yet). But, alas, all good things are destined to disappear before your eye's. The place burned down. Not totally, but the kitchen was torched sufficiently to deny us the only true hot sauce experience in Door County to date.
So we move on to JJ's of Jacksonport. Another location recently opened in Jacksonport WI, sporting a similar Mexican themed menu to the Sister Bay location, but falling some way short of the parent operation in its ability to deliver the hot chili sweats.

JJ's of J have (supposedly) the same dish on the menu as the parent operation JJ's of Sister Bay, - the infamous Steak Ranchero's. So shortly after their grande opening I visited, hoping (foolishly) to get my hot-fix via the fiery steak dish.
But the Ranchero's at JJ's of J left me cold, or at least comparatively cool. A poor facsimile of the original dish served in Sister Bay.
Some time passes and I pluck up courage to return. The delightful Lynn pours me a margarita and a few Fat Tyre's and I'm sufficiently juiced to revisit the menu.
I order the Chimi with instructions to serve a side of their HOTTEST sauce, along with more hot sauce just in case.
Now the hot sauce they served with chips was once quite potent, and my side of hot sauce was supposedly based on that, but kicked up.
Well it was very, very mild - delicious of course, as we've come to expect, but without the fiery bite that we've also come to expect.
Some mild perspiration under-eye, but no burning or reddening and absolutely no screams from the throne room the following morning.

Well, I wait in anticipation for the reopening of the Sister Bay operation and pray to the chili gods that their old menu is reinstated in full.

A poor 40 out of 100 on the SOS scale.
Rooze

AC Tap, the new kid on the pepper block.

Well I quit work early one afternoon and stopped in at the AC Tap in Door County.

This little bar is located on HWY 57 just south of Sister Bay well before you hit Bailey's Harbor in northern Door.
On first encounter (there have been many), the Tap strikes you as a typical small-town Wisconsin bar, more than a 'local' (you know the type). Surprisingly enough the owner of the Tap imposed a ban on smoking inside the building some time ago. I find that quite amazing, in a positive sense. It isn't what you'd expect to find in a little bar like this, a very welcome and refreshing change. I don't care much for lung cancer with my chicken wings, so kudos goes to Steve, the owner of the Tap.

Now to business.

Look at the menu and there is nothing stand-out on the spicy-hot front. A typical assortment of bar food and fried delicacies to harden even the most seasoned arteries.

So to start the evaluation process I ordered their hot wings and a cup of chili, with special request to deliver a bottle of whatever their hottest sauce was.

To my surprise they have Frank's Extra Hot sauce, which I used liberally in my chili and on my chicken wings.
Now at this point I need to make a stand against the kind of chicken that inhabits the planet that has fricken wings like Arnold Schwarzenegger's arms. I mean come on, give steroids to your athlete's but leave the chickens alone why don't you.

The heat really didn't kick in from the Extra Hot Franks, and the pumped up chicken left me feeling a bit cool overall.
On a subsequent visit I ordered the deep-fried chicken dinner and asked for a side of hot wing sauce. I was told that this is a homemade recipe. I can't confirm that but it didn't taste like the usual Franks or anything like that. It was actually pretty good, not really enough for me, but then what is?
One important point here, pretty much anything can and should be used as a delivery system for hot sauce. If they can sauce the wings they can sauce the tenders or an old shoe if requested. So don't be too intimidated to ask for the hot sauce on something other than wings.

About a 45 on the SOS scale and you gotta like your birds plumpy.

AC Tap - Door County 9322 Hwy 57. Baileys Harbor 920-839-2426

Husby's in Sister Bay hit the halfway mark on the Scale of Suffering.

Thanks go to Husby's for bearing with me and accommodating my many requests for increased heat intensity.

Husby's is a bar located on 42, just at the bottom of the hill in Sister Bay. James, Mike, Kayla and Company provide a warm welcome and make even the most miserable bums like me feel right at home.
Their menu doesn't really hold anything new for the heat craver, but with a bit of tweaking you can at least get to half way on the Scale of Suffering (SOS, defined in previous posts).
Their chicken wings are deep-fried then rolled in Frank's Hot Sauce. Sometimes (not always), the cook will add some chopped Jalapenos to the sauce to give a little more bite and flavor.
First off, I really like Frank's hot sauce, not so much for its heat intensity but more for its flavor. There's also a Frank's Red Hot Xtra Hot sauce, but Husby's use the original Franks and rely on a little chopped Jalapeno to kick it up.

Now when coaxed (and it was really quite easy), Husby's will make their chicken tenders and smother them in the same hot sauce used with their wings. Grab a side of Jalapeno and a bottle of the XXX sauce and you can attain at least a heat level of 50, on the SOS scale. During one experience I was able to break into a lower-eye sweat and had visible reddening of the lips and cheeks. My brow was perspiring and I remember some discomfort in the bathroom the following morning. Insufficient to award this experience with the prestigious "Refrigerated Toilet Roll" accolade, but close.

Talking with the cook one day, he happily suggested I purchase my own Habanero at Piggly Wiggly and bring it to him, whereupon he would dice it and add it raw to my hot sauce. I haven't done that yet since the Pig, Main Street Market and Econofoods offer nothing hotter than the miserable Jalapeno.
Kudos to Husby's for their flexibility and for attempting to humor me. Oh..and for their Wild Turkey 101 proof.

Rooze
PS -they have Central Waters beers on tap too. :)

Highland Howie's...simply the hottest fricken chicken wings.

I may jump around a little chronologically, but bear with me.

Highland Howie's - Well it isn't in Door County, but these folks really laid down the gauntlet when it comes to serving up the hottest wings.
Highland Howie's is located in Green Bay WI, up yonder on Humboldt Road, out in the boonies. To get there from DC, take the Bay Settlement Road exit, about 4 or 5 miles north of where HWY 42 splits for North and Milwaukee exits. Then drive around until you find it.
My recollection on consuming their wings was one of a mild to moderate degree of discomfort, some pain and reddening of the lips, sweating under the eye's and a stronger than normal urge to drink cold beer very quickly, in an effort to dampen the suffering.
At this point we have to refer to the scale of suffering (SOS) and award Highland Howie's a remarkable 70 points from 100 on the SOS scale.

Rooze

Introducing the "Scale of Suffering" (SOS) as a means of measuring progress.

To chart progress through the various establishments and eating experiences, one must at this point introduce some way of recording the heat experience in a meaningful manner.
And so. I am introducing the "Scale of Suffering" as a way of grading each experience. The SOS relates to the most intense heat experience I have ever encountered, and I remember it well.
The night was way back in the late 80's. I was manager at an engineering company and we were going through a Chapter 11 situation and shedding a large percentage of our workforce. As manager it was my duty to pick people from within my team to "let go" and to sit down with each person individually and explain the reasons why. These were people with whom I had worked and developed close friendships over many years in some instances. It was a traumatic event and I was the lucky one, since I got to keep my job. After a miserable Friday, I went with a few buddies and hit the town, after which we attended the Light of Bengal on Yorkshire street, for a Curry.
Needing to feel bad I foolishly ordered a Vindaloo with instructions to make it as hot as could be. It was the most intense heat I have experienced, ever. I won't dwell on it, but suffice to say that it represents a maximum 100 on the SOS scale, and all future experiences will be graded against this.

Rooze