Is real BBQ too hot for your woman?


 
Kevin, you say you dont like cayenne because it is flavorless, thats funny to me because that is exactly why I like it. I am tasting the same foods as my family but get to sweat at the same time. Now if I was cooking just for myself, it would be different.
 
I think cayenne is excellent for adding heat. As for chile flavor, not so much, especially for long-cooked items. The heat holds but its flavor dissipates, imo. Too, relatively little is used in proportion to the other ingredients. If heat is what is sought it's a good choice, and I use it myself when heat alone is what I seek to increaase. But, often, I'm looking for heat and chile flavor and for that I select chilies with both. If, as in your case, the desire is to taste virtually the same foods as the others you are cooking for, then adding heat via cayenne for your portion is a good way to go. Virtually the only difference will be the heat level.
 
I am trying to get my wife to enjoy spicy food but her whole family eats bland food. I was raised eating peppers, hot sauce and my kids are being trained accordingly.
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i have different rubs for different meats some not as spicy as others but my wife doesnt seem to mind. the warmest rub i have is called Full Throttle BBQ Rub made in webster NY
 
I was raised on utterly bland food. Many of the country people I cook for near me were raised similarly--but I'm gradually changing that. A friend's twin boys--who were about 10 when I started cooking for them, now 15--raised on bland food, now grow a variety of chilies for themselves and for me. It's taken a bit longer to bring their mother along (who shunned even tiny amounts of black pepper, originally), but who has come along fairly well, and now enjoys more spicier foods than she ever imagined.

It's not that heat is the be-all end-all of course. But, as you know, Dale, heat can offer just the right contrast or complement to smoke and sweet, either sweet as in sugar or sweet as in the 'sweet' spices. And it expands the cuisine possibilities (and choices) for the diner.
 
Originally posted by Chad McGrath:
Hey John - when you make your NC Eastern Sauce, do you simmer or just mix everything together at room temp?
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Just at room temp. Mix it all together and let it sit for a while to let the flavors blend, overnight is good if you have the time, but definitely not necessary. Refrigerated, it will last a long time.
 
My Wife doesn't like spicey either but when it comes to Q she good with it. I usually try to find a rub that has both spice and sweet and that makes everybody happy.
 
My wife is exactly the same. No matter what rub I use, it's too spicy. I'll admit, a lot of them have a kick, between black pepper, cayenne, etc. But I've made sweeter rubs and they're still too hot for her. I've taken care of that by making sweet sauces, and she uses them. Problem solved!
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I find that one's tolerance for spicy foods increases with repetition. For a while I cut back on the heat and now Jack has little tolerance for it. Now I have to start all over again.

We occasionally have some very good spicy and brothy turnip greens at a local taqueria and they are just not right if my eyes don't water a little bit when eating them. A sniffly nose is also a good sign. This chef favors chiles de arbol in much of his cooking.

Rita
 
My wife likes more heat than I do. I have no tolerance for hot spices. When I cook I use sweet spices with the smallest pinch of heat. For this thread Real BBQ is too hot for me.
 
Whenever I serve BBQ, my wife usually makes a comment like "Can't we have a meal that doesn't taste like it's been dragged through the fireplace?"

Al
 
Al, I know what you mean. I have found out over the last few years that nobody has the same taste. Some people are real sensitive to smoke flavor. My daughter wont hardly eat bbq anymore. I might have ruined her. I can get tired of it myself, but after a couple weeks, my senses come back.
 
Originally posted by Dale Perry:
Al, I know what you mean. I have found out over the last few years that nobody has the same taste. Some people are real sensitive to smoke flavor. My daughter wont hardly eat bbq anymore. I might have ruined her. I can get tired of it myself, but after a couple weeks, my senses come back.
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And this is one of the main reasons that when have friends over for a BBQ or do a BBQ at a friends house I do a variety of dishes on several BBQs to cater for the different tastes. I try to make the dishes distinctive so that there is a marked difference in flavours, I now always include plain sausages as I found that this is one thing that everyone enjoys off the BBQ.

Regards
 
I found out when I first started Q'n and making my own rubs from recipes, that they were too Hot/Spicy for my wife and young kids. I had to go for the sweet rubs or just plain old salt and pepper. It took awhile but now I can sneek the heat on them and they don't comlain.
 
I sorry just sitting here smiling. One of our biggest cooking class customer bases is wives buying classes for husbands. They want to eat BBQ that is not over smoked and over spiced.

Our solution at the restaurant is to serve everything dry rubbed. Then folks can eat it plain or add sauce from sweet to Habanero hot.

I'm with Kevin I'm not a cayenne fan, much prefer Chipotle powder.
 
I think it's common for men to like food hotter than women. Try cutting down on the pepper, cayenne, paprika, and anything else with any kind of burn to it. And use a sweet sauce.
 
Originally posted by Bob H.: It was those crazy Texans who introduced the heat, but they live in a "whole nuther country" anyway. They learned about the heat from their Mexican neighbors.
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Bob...respectfully, this in not necessarily true. Growing up in Texas, some of my Hispanic friends would ask 'why do you guys like your food so spicy?'

Much of traditional Mexican cuisine comes from French cooking in the more affluent central region of Mexico and has no resemblance to the much more familiar and much later developing Tex-Mex which has it origins in northern Mexico and south Texas. I'm not sure that any of us would recognize traditional Mexican food. However, Tex-Mex is a product of what the Chili Queens sold in their stands (primarily enchiladas) in San Antonio around the 1920-1930's. A short time later, restaurants began serving similar items as 'traditional Mexican food'.

Although, not authentic, we should all thank these establishments, because without them we would not have tacos, enchiladas, nachos, chile relleno, fajitas or even margaritas.

There are many books on this subject. IMO, Robb Walsh has the most interesting with 'The Tex-Mex Cookbook' while Diana Kennedy's 'The Cuisines of Mexico' demonstrates true Mexican cuisine (although she bashes Tex-Mex, so I have trouble getting over that).

My apologies for rambling..I just love Tex-Mex!
 
Wow, a tex-mex expert in Hancock! Couldn't you get an farther away?
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I am trying my first couple of recipes (Mr. Brown) this weekend, so we will see how the wife reacts.
 
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