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So there is use for the phrase 'talk amongst yourself'...Well, as long as the discourse doesn't get out of hand and remains Sybil.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Makes social distancing a tad difficult!
I'm not sure how many cookies it makes to be happy, but so far it's not 27.
JaxCoder.com
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how would I know... don't remember a thing. 
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OK - I'm surprisingly well into harvest for my Scorpion peppers. Much sooner than expected by several weeks. There are about a dozen of them, shiny, wrinkled and yellow - and many more on the way. These are a relatively tame variety (about one million Scoville).
My original plan was just to make a simple sauce (w/vinegar) and use with care in cooking. That wasn't taking into account the unexpected abundance for two of the three plants. In addition, and probably related, there's even a greater abundance of bright red habanero peppers - more than a pint (ca. 500 ml) of them coarsely chopped. OK - my cup runneth over with hell's snack food.
But I need suggestion for those with experience with the super-hots on what to do with them. They'll be producing for at least another six or eight weeks.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I've never grown a plant in my life, so take this how you will...
but how about making a chilli jam? For use on burgers and whatnot. Perhaps with a sweet element to it.
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You need to understand (if you don't) how extremely hot these chilies are. For a frame of reference, they're roughly 200 time hotter than a standard jalapeno pepper. They're (said to be) very fruity.
Past experience with their only insanely hot cousins, Habanero, have taught me how they do make hot food taste better (the heat comes on a bit later and smoother) for a given level of heat.
So - as a jam - for normal pallets, just a drop or two on a (vege)burger - spread thin - would be about all one could use.
Interestingly, even if overused they don't hide the taste of the food as the fire comes up a bit later (compared to most chilis and pepper corns, which burn immediately).
My call for suggestions is because a small jar of sauce (unjellied jelly?) will last a very long time but my pepper supply will far exceed my needs. Original plans included giveaways of plants and peppers but COVID put a damper on that.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I do like hot food, so I know how hot they can be. Although I have never tried one "fresh", only in sauces and oils.
I just assumed there might be a way to reduce the potency of them while making a jam (thus allowing a more generous serving)... I certainly wasn't suggesting they would be the "bulk" ingredient! 
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In the case of this entire subspecies, the entire pepper is laced with the capsicum oils that give your nerves the impression you're being burned. The way to reduce the potency is simple enough: use less! The flavor and the heat are just associated very closely.
For things like reduced potency I use gentle peppers. Jalapeno, Hot Banana, Serrano. That's in vaguely increasing order of hotness. I might even thin-slice them and put them fresh on pizza.
As I typed, however, I did consider some merit in your suggestion. The fruitiness would be lost but a hot-sauce of spreadable intensity would be an interesting experiment: using my own perceptions, the heat is different than regular hot sauces supply - usually overall better.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I think the Habanero jelly idea is a great one. I love spicy foods as well; and have tried Habanero jelly. It was fantastic! I had it on lamb and pork, but can imagine it would be delicious on a great many foods.
You can always try a small batch of jelly - it doesn't sounds like you're in Habanero rationing mode.
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rbuchana wrote: You can always try a small batch of jelly
I'm not into sweet, which the hot pepper jelly recipes I just looked up insisted upon - but it is jelly; should be sweet; and maybe I'd like the hot/sweet together. Like Thai hot/sweet sauce.
The thing is, it seems to be a real canning process - something for which I have neither the equipment nor the incentive. Back when I lived in West Virginia, everyone seemed to grow too much or buy too much and then can it. It's quite the process. More likely I'd get the earlier-suggested dehydrater.
Normally, as a method of simplifying usage, I keep the hot sauces as pristine as I can (peppers, vinegar, vitamin C) and add what else I need to the food: logic - once mixed with other things you cannot unmix them. Now, I'm thinking of maybe making a mixture (since I've excess) with aromatic spice. Maybe a bunch of garlic, ginger, - stuff. An all-in-one.
Anyway - this is all the point of the thread: suggestions from experience and suggestions for inspiration.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Just so I'm not misunderstood - and with the peppers I'm growing that could be the case.
I'm not looking to bring hell to my mouth and throat - hot food should be just hot enough to enhance the flavors . . . and no hotter. Anyone can put in "more" and make food hotter. My goal is to make food better. I discovered (due to accidental growth one summer) that habanero was better than the usual jalapeno/cayenne/Tabasco/whatever pepper sauces & Mrs wife agreed. So now I grow them on purpose. Planned prior to COVID, with sharing in mind, I am now becoming quite overstocked. But that doesn't mean I'll force them down.
That's why I'll try some trimming stems, first, and then maybe finely chopped - to protect the house from animals (and their owners) sharing their love on my lawn.
But - I don't eat hot for hot's sake (although many do - some even get high from it). I would no more eat super hot food than I'd eat a spoon full of salt.
At least this is where I'm coming from.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Make a nice big pot of slow-cooked chilli. And them post me some! 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Maybe pickle them, e.g: Easy quick pickled chillies - Simply Delicious[^]
Or if lazy, just throw em in the freezer. After that they are useless as fresh snacks but still fab in curries & stir-fries.
Happy 🔥🔥🔥
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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You can dry them out in a food dehydrator then grind them into powder using a small coffee bean grinder. Makes a nice fine powder that you can sprinkle sparingly on whatever you want.
Sounds like your peppers are a bit ahead of mine. This year I have some Caramel Scorpion, Purple Ghost Scorpion,3 different colours of Reaper, and some Yellow Douglah. I will probably be eating spicy food all winter...
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You definitely have your work cut out for you. I don't have the food dehydrator but making a powder of it could be a good use for the excess. Less volume than sauce and it doesn't need refrigeration (although if vinegary enough and with a vitamin C pill as an antioxidant, it is stable at room temp for a very long time).
Yeah - they're way ahead of the normal schedule. What's even weirder, this is growing zone 7B - and the normal safe date for putting plants in the ground is about Mother's Day. This year, soon after that, we has some near freezes and all the plants with a tropical bent (peppers, eggplants) were very unhappy. I thought the harvest would be miserable and delayed. Even in a normal year I get most of the ripe Habaneros near the end of August, onwards, until the chills come into the night.
I only happened to read about the Douglah yesterday (looking online for what-to-do). You've clearly gone-for-the-gusto. I barely ventured into these Trindad Scorpions as I want to be able to put in enough to get some of the pepper's flavor along with the heat.
Another use - perhaps a bit tragic - is to chop them finely and put on the front area of my lawn. We are "blessed" with a fire hydrant and people think that's a license for canine defication. The small pieces sprinkled throughout may work very will in causing their puts to hurry by without stopping. I've used camphor balls (naphthalene) to keep squirrels away from newly planted bulbs and cats from using our font bushes as a modesty fenced litter box.
If I can figure out what else I'd desiccate I may invest in your suggestion. Thanks
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Top tip - when you open up the grinder DO NOT INHALE. 
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This year I am also taking advantage of another now readily available commodity: plastic gloves. So far its been quite a success. For the ground habanero pepper sauce I learned not to breath in when I open the blender !
For these, following implications from online users, I'm thinking of having a fan blow the vapors away as I cut them and otherwise process them.
But thanks for the warning - that dust could be really unforgettable in a nasty way
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I'm in 6b (Idaho) and last frost is around May 15. I grow mine in pots so I can take them in at night in case of late frost. Pretty short growing season here.
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I am a big fan of chilis. Habaneros are my favorite. I really enjoy their flavor when they are picked still green. That's right before the serious heat kicks in. They are still good later but the flavor comes through better when they're green.
Anyway, when we had our salsa garden going full blast we would make a couple gallons of salsa, can it, and then use it over the year and give some away to friends. I also liked to find a really good, locally-made salsa and then blend a bunch our hotties into it. That always made for a spectacular salsa. They never make it hot enough for me and that helped a lot.
Something else we did was we had a favorite little mom-and-pop, hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that made very authentic food, not definitely not Tex-Mex. We used to give them gallons of peppers and they loved them. Their food was terrific and we were very happy to help out. I really miss that place. That was in Central California, the Fresno area, and they have since closed. That was a grade A, prime pepper growing area.
I recently discovered Trader Joe's extra-hot salsa and it's so good we stopped growing peppers. That is the best salsa from a store I have ever had. Of course, taste varies.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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Three options if you want to keep them for later all super easy, freeze whole - I've done this before with birds eye chilli's, you can take them out one at a time when you need them for cooking. Preserve in olive oil, great mixed with garlic and ginger. Pickled, just jar up with plain white vinegar and store.
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Storing in white vinegar has been my standard for years. I've some Thai peppers that have been that way long enough to become a family heirloom (still bright red). Have done the frozen route, too - but in the freezer they get pushed to the back and there they are.
Now the oil suggestion - an alternate option came to mind when I read that: dry them and soak in light oil for some high-test pepper oil. My normal route is using cheap dried "pizza pepper" for chili oil. These, if at the full one million Scoville, are about 7% capsicum oil before drying and all of the pepper's lace with it - I wonder if I could just extract it from them without drying?
Yesterday, however, I put on some gloves, sliced them into smaller pieces, and put them in a jar with vinager - it's about a cup full (chopping reduces stored volume considerably). A lot of intense aroma at the first cut - borderline of harsh. This jar, with further contributions, will become a plain puree. Mixed with other stuff is one of the options if I have another burst of fruit.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Losing things in the freezer... I can relate to that! The oil method I use really just to preserve and they look nice on the shelf too, I guess if you chopped some and left some whole you could have a nice chilli oil with some whole preserved ones should you need any. There's a kind of chilli paste you can get in Chinese stores as well, crushed chilli's with oil and soy, spoon it out as required I think this would be easy to make and saves space. The wife makes a simple dip, great for grilled meat or fish, a little vinegar or soy (or both?) With a single squashed chilli in it as well as garlic.
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[^]Quote: I’ve always believed that nothing is withheld from us what we have conceived to do. Most people think the opposite – that all things are withheld from them which they have conceived to do and they end up doing nothing.
Quote: So, at the ripe old age of 81, he began working on a masking system that creates 6 x 6 pixel areas and then intelligently divides those areas into the two sections that have the most contrast before re-fusing the pixels on either side of the seam. The idea never caught on, but he explains the technology and its benefits in detail in the video below:
[^]
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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I looked up his Wikipedia bio. Totally peripheral to his main accomplishments I read something about a great contributor to technology/literature/etc. that seems to come up amazingly often.
He was the son of Jewish Immigrants.
It speaks volumes about the value of both immigration and diversity.
It may have to do with dwelling for so many years in a science/laboratory environment, but so so many of the people were from somewhere else . . . and glad to be here. Considering how we have been enriched by them, we should be glad they came.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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