Discussion
For a while, I was under the impression that all spiciness, or burning sensation in food flavoring, would come from capsaicin, the compound that causes it in chili peppers. Then I realized that Sichuan peppers are a quite different kind of heat. Wasabi (horseradish) is different yet again.
How many hot-flavored compounds are there? At least five!
Kalsec: "The Elements of Heat"
@clacke There are additional spicy compounds ... but let's stick with the ones that aren't toxic nightmares.
@clacke Indeed, Sichuan peppers activate nerve endings in the lips and gums, which you can test by eating Sichuan food soon after having gum surgery, though you would be very much better off just taking my word for it instead.
@clacke @temptoetiam BTW sichuan peppers are not peppers, but from the same family as citrus 😁
@clacke Dang I knew about all these except for Szechuan pepper. I have been avoiding szechuan cuisine as I've been told peanuts are everywhere and I'm allergic, and I don't think I've ever actually had Szechuan pepper 😮
Definitely have to get some now though, it's gonna be *wild* tasting a whole new compound that I didn't even know about as a fully-grown adult
@clacke
super insteresting !
Will go to bed less stupid.
Thanks !
@clacke I have a friend who is extremely sensitive to anything spicy, but she found sichuan pepper pleasant. We both experience it as some sensation different from spicy.
@clacke Don’t forget the synergies with pyrazines that can amplify “the heat” and add their own nuttiness & umami components.
I think they supply the starting materials as well as the enzymatic machinery.
I knew the allium stuff was sulfur-based si was surprised to see sulfur in only one of the five things in your lead toot.
@idlestate Oh, you actually looked at the molecules. 😅
Now that you mentioned it, I looked at them too, and that is indeed surprising. These are all so very different in both composition and structure, and yet we perceive the end result as simillar.
@clacke I knew wasabi was different--from the time I thought a bowl of it was guacamole and ate a bunch at once. It's a different experience of spiciness; you feel it in your sinuses, and it passes quickly.
Come to think of it, I've had an accidental experience with Szechuan petters, too, eating Chinese food on a date in the dark at a drive-in movie. They were just in there to contribute flavor, not really to be directly eaten. That stuff just keeps burning, waaaay longer than chili peppers.