Hot with out flavor?

I love hot food but everything I cook with has a flavor. I was making some spaghetti sauce tonight and wanted some heat with out an added flavor. I have home grown habanero, but that adds a flavor...what should I use short of a pound of black pepper?

quote:

Originally posted by Theedge

...what should I use short of a pound of black pepper?

I don't quite understand your thinking. If I use fresh-ground black pepper even in small amounts, I get more aroma and flavor per unit of "heat" from it than from some of the varieties of "pod" peppers.

I love hot hot hot food, I mean I've never had anyone serve up a dish I couldn't eat. I grow my own habaneros in the back yard and use them on almost everything. However, I don't want my spaghetti to taste like habanero or any other pepper, I just want some heat. What can I add?

I usually just add some cayenne powder in this situation. If you can taste the cayenne, you have better taste than I.

Hot WITHOUT flavor? WHY??????????

I love hot, but I also love the very simple flavor or a plain spaghetti sauce. Just the flavor of tomato, salt, pepper, oregano, bayleaf. I don't want other flavors cluttering up the sauce, but I like heat.

How about something like this:
http://www.firegirl.com/hs1154.html
with no other ingredient beside capsicum and soybean oil (as a base,I imagine) there should be no overriding flavor,and you can be sure there will be **plenty** of heat.Be careful.

I like flavor and heat also. For spegette try some red pepper flakes. Works for me

I like hot but I can't spell. spaghetti

Let me tell you a little story to illustrate just how hot pure capsicum is(dangling participle? sorry). In developing a certain specialty food product some years ago, we worked with a very talented food scientist who worked out of his home, stocking all the necessary ingredients there in his pantry. We were trying to heat up said food product using unique elements. Our expert pulled out a small vial of capsicum. He then dipped a wooden toothpick into the vial and shook off any excess liquid. With only a thin film of capsicum clinging to the toothpick, he swirled it around in the rest of the sauce contained in a one quart saucepan. The resulting product was hotter than anything we wanted to eat under any circumstances.

So, I second the motion, "Be careful."

I doubt you can get pure capsicum. It is actually a very dangerous thing to have around. Lethal in fact.

I'm with the person who mentioned powdered cayenne. . . very little taste and lots of heat.

You could try BOTH cayenne and red pepper flakes. Try adding them as you start cooking your tomatoes and let them actually cook into the sauce. Or you could saute the pepper flakes in a bit of olive oil and then add your tomatoes, etc. I think that may give you the heat you are looking for and not add any other flavor.

quote:

Originally posted by Bushie

I usually just add some cayenne powder in this situation. If you can taste the cayenne, you have better taste than I.

You beat me to it. To my taste, ground small red dried peppers such as cayenne (but not the larger Mexican chiles) adds very little flavor other than the heat. I use cayenne in recipes that call for it, but I also have Thai bird peppers that I grind myself and use them a lot too.

Anyway, I think black pepper adds significant flavor and not much heat so I wouldn't use that if heat is what you want. And the flavor of red pepper, such as it is, is quite compatible with spaghetti sauce. I add it to mine as a rule.

quote:

Originally posted by SouthHillbilly

I doubt you can get pure capsicum. It is actually a very dangerous thing to have around. Lethal in fact.

I'm with the person who mentioned powdered cayenne. . . very little taste and lots of heat.

Well, the closest thing you can readily get may be pepper spray (the kind for warding off attackers). I suppose you could spray a puff of that into your sauce

Thanks for the info; I will try the pepper flakes and cayenne. The capsicum sounds scary, but tempting. I’d have to keep it under lock and key so know one got into it. I’ve had macho friends cry like little girls after insisting that they try a piece of fresh Habaneros out of the garden. I can't imagine just the capsicum.

quote:

Originally posted by SouthHillbilly

I doubt you can get pure capsicum. It is actually a very dangerous thing to have around. Lethal in fact.

I'm with the person who mentioned powdered cayenne. . . very little taste and lots of heat.

I use "pure cap" scoville rating...500,000, one drop will heat up 5gal of chilli. It comes in a glass bottle with an eyedropper inside a plastic pill type bottle, in the 4 yrs I've had it I've used maybe a third of the bottle and had to replace the cap because the stopper had melted!! ALL heat very little flavor its kind of like eating a glowing ember, Just opening the outter container is enough for most people to say no thanks.. My dad had to sign a release to purchase it from "Peppers" in Dewey Beach De. Im sure theres a website and the Ph# on the old label is 1-800-998-fire (3473)

quote:

Originally posted by dreamzpainter

quote:

Originally posted by SouthHillbilly

I doubt you can get pure capsicum. It is actually a very dangerous thing to have around. Lethal in fact.

I'm with the person who mentioned powdered cayenne. . . very little taste and lots of heat.

I use "pure cap" scoville rating...500,000, one drop will heat up 5gal of chilli. It comes in a glass bottle with an eyedropper inside a plastic pill type bottle, in the 4 yrs I've had it I've used maybe a third of the bottle and had to replace the cap because the stopper had melted!! ALL heat very little flavor its kind of like eating a glowing ember, Just opening the outter container is enough for most people to say no thanks.. My dad had to sign a release to purchase it from "Peppers" in Dewey Beach De. Im sure theres a website and the Ph# on the old label is 1-800-998-fire (3473)

Wow can't wait to try it!

Size matters, I suppose. Now they got one some where in the 1.5 million on the Scoville range?
http://www.sdreader.com/php/ma_show.php?id=090700A
My favorite chili story is when I lived in the Philippines. My town was on the beach, and there were some beer places right on the water where it was quite pleasant to have some brews and snacks and watch the sun go down. A few of us were there, and some California surfer dude and his girlfriend passed by, and we had them join in. Part of the snacks routine -- bbq fish and stuff -- included a dipping sauce of vinegar, salt, and chilis. The Philippine labuyao chilis average maybe 200,000-300,00 on the Scoville scale -- only about 3/4 inches long, but in any case, up there with Habaneros. You mix the vinegar, salt and chili to taste. Anyway, the surfer dude says, "In California, I eat japapenos strait. I bet I can eat this little thing here no problem." And pops it in his mouth and procedes to chew. It weren't no Jalapeno.

Using capsaicin to add heat to food is like killing a flea with a sledgehammer; and you will be the flea. It is extememly potent.

An alternative may be Dave's Insanity Sauce. It may add some flavor but it is so potent that you will use very little therefore minimizing the flavor addition.

Good luck.

Red pepper flakes are the traditional "heat" for pasta dishes like diavalo (sp?), so any added flavor would work well with the tomato sauce. But "Red Savina Mash" from chili pepper shops is so hot, you wouldn't have to add much to add flavor.

I ended up purchasing Dave’s Insanity Sauce from Fire Girl. I’ve used it in salsa, fajitas and chili all with great results. Everyone comments on how great the heat is, but they can still taste the flavor of the food. It doesn’t burn your mouth but your head just starts to heat up. I put 6 drops in a pan of fajitas and the top of my head started to sweat, I’d go 3 next time. I’ll definitely be trying a few of their other items.

hello all,
I've used red pepper flakes, but perhaps you could use some hot sauce mixed with the spaghetti sauce. I, also, make my sauce to taste, make my noodles, and then mix them both in a skillet and fry them together at a medium heat. I don't burn the sauce or make the noodles like dried worms, but there is something in frying them that blends the sauce into the noodles. I doubt if many people would like this, because it changes the noodles, but I love it.
take care,
Fieldthistle

Theedge:
Sounds like your making a fra diavola sauce (?) which, as suggested above, includes a full teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes.
Put it right in when you begin cooking the tomatoes (1 tsp per 3 cups of whole or crushed tomatoes with the juice).

You can choose to use hot pepper infused olive oil too.

Habs add a citrus element in addition to the heat...red sauce w/ citrus?