323741 Wed Sep 06 18:52:40 -0700 2006 6 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1857814 I love food cooked spicy with hot peppers. Check out my fantasy restaurant thread, btw. I don't have the highest tolerance on earth, I can't eat a spoonful of Insanity Sauce and laugh about it, but I like hot sauce on my food and my food cooked with peppers. But I don't like hot mustard at all, mustard made hot with horseradish. I like yellow mustard, I can barely stand Gulden's and premade sandwiches with Dijon require me to wipe most of it off with a napkin. I don't use horseradish and barely use wasabi on sushi (off topic: I was told that long ago wasabi was used on sushi to mask the flavor of fish that wasn't as fresh, particularly among the poorer classes in Japan, I have no idea if this is true, but it sounds like a cool story). My dad is the opposite. He won't eat my chili, even if I cook it mild. But he'll slather horseradish on gefilte fish. Does anyone else distinguish between these two types of hotness? Anyone love hot mustards and horseradish, but have no tolerance or get no enjoyment out of hot sauce, even a mild sauce like Tabasco? Wed Sep 06 18:52:40 -0700 2006 10914 PaulF 1 1857872 It's all a matter of personal taste (and sometimes of childhood food traumas). I happen to like hot chillis, hot horseradish, hot mustard. They're all delicious to me. But here's a curiosity: I like eggs and I like oil, but I DESPISE store-bought mayo. Why? Who knows. I'll eat my homemade version, but to me that's a wonderful emulsified sauce, not pimple pus like the store bought. Wed Sep 06 19:07:38 -0700 2006 1857814 16490 Bostonbob3 1 1857969 I find that peppers burn the tongue and throat, while mustards and horseradishes burn the sinuses. Also, pepper heat sticks around longer, while horseradish and mustard heat is more fleeting. I love them both, but they are definitely different types of burn. Wed Sep 06 19:34:16 -0700 2006 1857814 18993 squeaks 2 1858062 EXACTLY... The heat comes from different compounds, because Chile comes from an 'oil' that is why it lingers. In fact, a REALLY good dish with chile doesn't hit you until a few seconds AFTER the first taste... I've always loved Chile... it's only as an Adult that I've come to ADORE mustard and horseraddish... :) --Dommy! Wed Sep 06 19:56:42 -0700 2006 1857969 10659 Dommy 3 1858273 Oddly enough, I lost my taste for mustard as I got older. I grew up in Brooklyn eating in delis, putting Gulden's on hot dogs and knishes. I didn't even taste yellow mustard until I was in California as a young teen - give or take a year. Now, I don't eat spicy mustard, Dijon ... I just don't like it. There is a bitterness, almost an abrasiveness to it that ruins food for me. (To be accurate, there are some really mild Dijon sauces that I like). And I didn't eat food with chilis until I came west and now I love them. Weird. FWIW - My folks put that hot chinese mustard on everything in the Chinese restaurant we went to in Brooklyn every single Sunday until we moved. Even in their won ton soup. Nowadays, I put the red chili sauce that comes in a bottle on everything. Wed Sep 06 20:55:40 -0700 2006 1858062 10914 PaulF 1 1858033 The spicy heat in some foods is caused by the vanilloids- vanillin, eugenol, zingerone, and capsaicin. In chili peppers it is the capsaicinoids which cause the heat. Ginger has zingerone. Eugenol is in bay leaves, allspice, and cloves. In horseradish and mustard oil it is allyl isothiocyanate. Black pepper has piperine. Garlic / onions have allicin. All of these can be perceived as hot, but people are affected differently. Each indiviuals taste receptors function uniquely which is why you have "supertasters" who can't handle strong flavors and chiliheads who love heat. There are several chemicals which are percieved as bitter by some folks and which others can't even taste. Then you have things such as cilantro which some people love and others think tastes like soap. My mother loves ginger and likes horseradish and white pepper (but not black pepper which isn't as hot as the white), but hates hot peppers. I love them all. Wed Sep 06 19:48:48 -0700 2006 1857814 10732 JMF 2 1858251 Thanks for that info ... better than google! Wed Sep 06 20:49:34 -0700 2006 1858033 10914 PaulF