Re: [CH] Cooling off from hot peppers
Charles Demas (demas@tiac.net)
Wed, 7 Jan 1998 14:09:38 -0500 (EST)
On Wed, 7 Jan 1998, Rebecca Skaziak wrote:
> We are planning on doing a science project on hot peppers and are
> looking for information on how to prove that milk and starchy foods ease
> the hotness of peppers without having taste testers.
> Do you have any suggestions?
Proving something without testing it hardly seems like the scientific
method.
Surely you could find some willing volunteers. :-)
Other than that, finding a chemist or neuro-physiologist and learning
what the mechanism that causes the sensation and the solubility of
capsaisin in different media might be the best approach. In the
milk case, I believe it is a solubility thing that washes away the
capsaicin, whereas the starch tends to absorb it.
BTW, the capsaicin is also soluble in alcohol, and if you did your
testing with that, rather than milk, you might get more volunteers. :-)
Chuck Demas
Needham, Mass.
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