Kitchen Myths

Facts and fiction about food and cooking, by Peter Aitken

Remove the seeds from hot peppers to reduce the heat

1 Comment Posted by on March 30, 2011

False, but true in a way. The heat in hot peppers comes from a chemical called capsaicin, and most of the capsaicin is contained in the pith, the white material that holds the seeds in place. The seeds actually contain very little. So, you could remove just the seeds from a pepper and affect the heat not at all, but because most people remove the pith along with the seeds, they get the desired result. Although, hot peppers are supposed to be hot, so why would you do this? Another mystery!

Ingredients

One response to “Remove the seeds from hot peppers to reduce the heat”

  1. Hans Striggenheimer December 4, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    Has there been any research on the frequency of pant-crapping per pepper? I can eat pretty hot peppers–up to habenero–with relative ease. But, once I get to 2 or more per day, I start to drop “solids” out of my bottom, and it is becoming quite embarrassing. I’ve searched, but to no avail; I guess I will just stick to one pepper a day.

    Cheers,
    Hans Striggenheimer

    Reply

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