Not Too Hot!

We grew hot peppers in the garden this year, and I whined about how hot they were here. They were really too hot for us, but Ryan has hung up a bunch to dry and we've given loads away to five or six people. I pickled a few, but that only reduced the heat a little bit. 

I read a silly article about soaking the peppers in Sprite to remove the heat, so I decided to give it a try. They conducted what sounded like a semi-scientific test, soaking peppers for an hour in plain soda water, soda water with lime juice, soda water with vinegar, and Sprite. There was no change in heat except for the Sprite-soaked peppers: "All the spiciness was gone. All of it. What was once a fiery chile now tasted like bell pepper." But I called the article silly because I tried a pepper after an hour in Sprite with no change. Then I tried it after four hours and overnight, again with no change. YMMV, but it didn't work for me - at all. 

But I did find something that worked enough to make them edible for me. Cowboy Candy! Vera had suggested this and I figured the four cups of sugar in the brine couldn't hurt. I didn't remove the seeds or veins from the peppers, just sliced them into rings, followed the recipe, and put them in the refrigerator. When I opened them yesterday after a couple of weeks, they smelled pretty good, so I spread plenty of cream cheese on a cracker just in case they were still really hot and cautiously tried one. 

Delicious! I ate three more crackers with peppers and that was about enough for me at one time. They had some heat but not enough to make my mouth burn. If there are still peppers on the plants when we go to the garden next week (and I hope there are), I just might make some more!