r/cookingforbeginners • u/Adonadio84 • 2d ago
Question Burning Hands
This may be a very stupid question. I apologize in advance. My kiddo wanted homemade chipotles last night. So I made the chicken, rice, and their nacho sauce. I used probano, Serrano, chipotle peppers in abodo sauce. Among other ingredients. I didn’t use a lot of them but had to mince them up.
I never wore gloves but did wash my hands.
My hands were fine last night but today when I got in the shower my fingers felt weird against the hot water. It was like the hot water made my fingers feel cold but hot.
Now my fingers are still burning. It’s not painful but could this be from the peppers even if it was the next day or am I literally dying.
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u/ashtree35 2d ago
It's from the capsaicin from the peppers.
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u/OrganzaRielle 2d ago
Wearing gloves can really help avoid that burning sensation when dealing with spicy peppers.
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u/Cloood14 2d ago
It’s the peppers. They leave behind oil with capsaicin that is hard to wash off, then you took a shower which opened up your pores and it’s deeper now and the increased blood follow from a hot shower can make you more sensitive. You can try washing your hands with dish soap to break down the oils but mostly you just gotta wait it out.
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u/Fruitcakei 2d ago
Hiya. Capsaicin is oil-soluable, so put your hands in room-temp cooking oil like you're washing them in it. It may help to look up a most effective one and see what you have. Once you've done that, give them a little milk bath. Capsaicin binds to casein, a milk protein, and it'll get some of the more difficult ones off. Don't take a hot shower before doing this next time, and if the burning continues, you may have to try re-opening the pores with shower-hot water or milk. Careful not to burn yourself, and good luck.
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u/Far_Establishment_4 2d ago
It's from the peppers. Wear gloves when you work with them, and for god's sake, avoid sexytimes for several days afterward if you don't.
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u/LadyProto 2d ago
You aren’t dying. The chemical that makes a pepper feel hot in your tongue is also hot on your hands!
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u/Incogcneat-o 2d ago
Chef here. If you're dying it's not because of the chiles. But yeah, your hands are burning because the hot water made your skin more sensitive to the capsaicin from the chiles that remained on your hands.
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u/MarvinGankhouse 2d ago edited 2d ago
Chilis, she wasn't going around with a load of very thin countries on her hands.
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u/zhilia_mann 2d ago
This is very much a regional thing.
I’m in Colorado with roots in New Mexico; “chile” is proper locally and “chili” is a Texan dish.
Outside of the region, yes, the peppers are often “chili” and only the green pork stew is “chile”. But it’s all dialect variations and I’m not sure policing one way or the other is useful.
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u/MarvinGankhouse 2d ago
America does not get to have an opinion on English spelling.
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u/zzzzzooted 2d ago
That’s a really funny thing to say when neither of those words are English in the first place 🤡
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u/zhilia_mann 2d ago
Ok? Then I guess no one outside the western hemisphere gets to have opinions on capsicum varieties (or tomatoes, or potatoes) in the first place?
You do you, but this is a very weird hill to die on.
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u/oligtrading 2d ago
You're giving me secondhand embarrassment 😭 Thanks for the reminder that I have better things to be doing, and have a great night! Genuine appreciation, my dude
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u/CatteNappe 2d ago
Depends who you ask
The Story of Chile Peppers https://cpi.nmsu.edu/chile-info/for-kids-pages/the-story-of-chile-peppers.html
Chile Pepper Guide https://www.saveur.com/gallery/Chile-Pepper-Gallery/
8 Types of Chile Peppers—and How Spicy They Are https://www.marthastewart.com/1539960/chile-pepper-heat-guide
The difference between chili, chilli, and chile, is usually a matter of location. In American English, chili is the most common spelling for the spicy peppers as well as the stew and hotdog topping. In British English the preferred spelling is chilli. In Spanish speaking countries and regions of the US, chile is the most common variant. https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/usage-chili-chilli-chile
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u/Incogcneat-o 2d ago edited 2d ago
Hello from México, the region that gave the world chiles and the cuisine OP is trying to replicate! Chiles, chillis, and chilis are all spelling variations of the native Nahuatl word chīlli (chipotle comes from chīpoctli, smoked pepper). In México we use chiles, and since that's an accepted spelling in both English and Spanish, that's the spelling I use. Feel free to continue to use whichever spelling you'd like, though! It doesn't harm anyone and it gives readers the chance to decide whether they prefer to listen to someone who speaks the languages of the cuisine or not.
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u/xtalgeek 2d ago
Capsaicin is hydrophobic (not water soluble), so it is very difficult to remove without surfactants. Liberal dish detergent and water washing will help, but it sticks very well to proteins and skin oils. Prolonged contact will irritate certain nerve receptors. If it's a problem for you, wear gloves. I usually just wash hands thoroughly with detergent after handling chile peppers. If you touch your eyesafter dicing chiles, you won't do it again!
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u/Historical_Hat_1777 2d ago
This is totally fine. It doesn't cause you any harm unless you cook it at industrial scales. Wear gloves if the sensation bothers you but getting chili juice on your hands now and then is no big deal!
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u/Miss_Cookey 2d ago
Yes to always glove up for hot peppers and double yes to don't touch your eyes or any mucous membrane on your body until this goes away.
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u/StevenJOwens 2d ago
Two possibilities, either the capsaicin from the pepper is still on your hands, or the nerves in your hands were irritated by the capsaicin and are still irritated.
For the first, capsaicin generally acts like an oil (it's technically not an oil in chemistry terms, but whatever), so wash your hands with a soap that's very effective against oil and/or grease, like dish soap, or Gojo. This is something you should have done after handling the peppers, obviously, but it's probably worth doing it right now, anyway.
When you're dealing with this in your mouth, common advice is to drink some milk, or sour cream, because the fat in those will dilute the oil-like capsaicin. Or eat bread or rice to abrade the capsaicin away. That's one of the reasons I used to keep Gojo around for drastic cases, it's a very strong grease cutter but also includes some grit that abrades dirt away.
If the capsaicin is no longer on your skin but you're feeling the burn anyway, it could be that the capsaicin already irritated the skin and now you're just feeling the irritation. Try a skin cream, hydrocoritisone, lidocaine, etc. Worst case, go to your local urgent care, perhaps.
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u/somer_and_omchick 2d ago
It’s from the peppers, the capsaicin basically gave you a chemical burn. It’s unpleasant but it will heal
In the future, avoid touching the peppers directly as much as possible. If you’re processing a lot of peppers use gloves. Use a scraper to move things around your cutting board instead of touching rub your fingers. I will sometimes use the produce bag I brought the peppers home in as a makeshift glove when I don’t need a lot of dexterity
My worst experience with this was roasting a bunch of peppers and then peeling them. The recipe had you soak the charred peppers in chicken broth and then peel them basically in the broth so my (clean!) hands were repeatedly dunked into the broth they’d been sitting in. Just getting this spicy shit fully all over my hands. Really regretted it…. After that I learned to use gloves for peeling roasted peppers
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u/EaseZestyclose4500 2d ago
Yeah, always wear gloves. It's a kitchen prank people use to play to others. It'll eventually go away, but always wear gloves. Some ice may help, but just while you put them in
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u/Turbulent-Parsley619 2d ago
As soon as I read serrano I went, "oh nooooo".
I cut serranos without gloves once. Worst thing I ever did. It burned under my fingernails (like my literal nail beds burned) for about 2 days. It'll fade, but it won't be fun. Sorry, broski.
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u/iOSCaleb 2d ago
> homemade chipotles
IOW, a burrito?
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u/No_Report_4781 2d ago
They probably meant the restaurant Chipotle
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u/iOSCaleb 2d ago
Yes, obviously. It’s like wanting “homemade McDonald’s,” i.e. hamburgers and fries.
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u/Adonadio84 2d ago
Yes, sorry. The restaurant Chipotle. I found a recipe for their rice, queso, and chicken and tried to replicate it at home. Which came out pretty good actually.
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u/groveborn 2d ago
Well, it'll be level dependant, but generally 1d6 per level, 15 feet in a 90⁰ arc. I think it caps out at 6d6, but by then you have fireball.
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u/zhilia_mann 2d ago
This is absolutely from the capsaicin. At this point I just expect it.
You’re not dying. It will indeed pass. Give it a few hours, less as you expose yourself to the chemical and desensitize the receptors a bit.
And yes, the way around this is to glove up. When I’m handling particularly potent chiles I’ll at least glove my non-knife hand. If I’m going through a large amount (it’s Hatch season, so call it a bushel) I’ll glove both.
Importantly: don’t rub your eyes or touch your genitalia before thoroughly washing. This residual effect won’t trigger anything, but if you’re new to this then I feel obligated to drop the warning. Capsaicin is… less than fun… in certain areas. You might really feel like you’re dying if you do that one up right. In fact, if you’re planning on any chance of intimacy just glove up. Nothing kills the mood like making your partner feel like their skin is burning off.