I’ll give you a hint the answer is a lot.

Yesterday at the pepper party I tried a lot of new things (something that for me is a little strange considering how much of a picky eater I am), all made with peppers and all surprisingly really delicious.  I tried some pepper ice cream which no wasn’t spicy at all; it was surprisingly sweet and delicious.  I tried some amazing mustard made with Datil peppers (I think I spelled that right) that was so delicious that I wished I could’ve just taken the entire jar.  It was like one of those perfect almost spicy mustards but still sweet like a honey mustard and made my mouth water when combined with pretzel sticks.  I tried some very spicy Chinese inspired stir-fry that made me wish I had some milk on hand.  I had some delicious Southwestern inspired chili which I went back for three times (oops).  I had chile pepper dark chocolate which surprisingly went very very well together.  This along with countless other food options was one of my favorite parts of the pepper party.

But it wasn’t the only thing I loved. What I enjoyed the most was all the knowledge about peppers that I didn’t even realized existed.  The most valuable thing I learned at the pepper party revolved around one chemical compound: capsaicin.  Depending on the length of the capsaicin chain and its make up, the spiciness of the pepper can change.  Capsaicin binds to the pain receptors of the mouth, making them believe that not only are you experiencing pain but also heat.  The chemical actually does absolutely nothing to harm your mouth and instead makes you believe you’re in pain even when nothing is hurting you.  The easiest remedy to dull out the spiciness of peppers is to actually drink milk because of a compound in milk called casein.  Casein bonds to the capsaicin chains to prevent the capsaicin from bonding with the pain receptors in the mouth, thus making the pain of spicy food die down a whole lot faster.  Next time you eat some spicy peppers be sure to reach for a glass of milk; water only spreads the capsaicin out making the pain actually worse.

So I hope anyone that reads this gains some useful knowledge for eating some spicy foods made with peppers.  And maybe another lesson which I learned at this party: don’t knock something until you try it, because you may just discover that you like it.