Clyde A Dodge wrote: > I believe the use of the word immunity or immunize with respect to > the effect of reduced pain from capsaisin is incorrect. "Immunity" is fine with me. "Resistance" (from Mark) is also fine. If I were trying to be precise, I might use "tolerance build up" or "acclimation". But, all-in-all, I rather be eating a chile (or going scuba). > <snip> > It might be interesting to learn if this insensitivity is permanent > or if it wears off after a period of disuse. > <bwg> Wears off to some degree. My own experience: Assuming that one already has some degree of tolerance to chile heat. A high degree of toerance can be built up in as little as 1 to 2 hours, see below*. It slowly starts wearing off after a few hours, but some amount of high tolerance can remain for about 6 to 24 hrs. And a residual tolerance can remain for an indefinate time. When you push your envelope, you can rise your residual. * A caution here: & a true story. For the beginning of the year, I made a smoky habanero dip the night before. I decided to make the heat near my enjoyment tolerance level. I made a trial amount, using some hab powder. After adjusting the seasonings, I thought it needed some more hab. I then made a larger amount in proportion. I checked the seasoning, and it needed some more hab. I decided to let it sit for a while for the flavors to blend. I then adjusted the smoke flavor a bit -- but it also needed some more hab (well, I knew that there would be CHs there). Later on that night, I got it out of the frig, and checked it -- it needed a little more hab (well, maybe the sour cream was absorbing the heat). The next morning, I checked it and got a big surprise -- the sour cream hadn't absorbed the heat! With a big, red marker pen I labeled it HOT. What had happened was that each time had I sampled it, the sampling raised my tolerance level. Now, with just a couple of more samples, it got to the point that I could actually taste the flavor of the smoked hab powder with out it getting masked by the heat. So, if you adjust the hab level of a recipe by tasting, be aware of the acclimation effect. Andy.