Big mistake

Can't believe I made this big mistake today. I had a huge Jamaican chilli bush absolutely covered in chillies, picked roughly 5kg of fruit, most prolific plant ever! Thought I'd make some chilli jam, so I started trimming the tops off, not wearing gloves. After 20 mins or so, started getting the tingles, that was 6pm. Washed my hands, twice. By 7pm the heat on my hands was increasing! Washed hands in soapy water again. By 9pm I'm not happy, so google possible better help. Tried olive oil, didn't work. Tried paste of baking powder and water, didn't work. The only relief I got was ice cubes in a bowl of milk, pure bliss. Started writing this blog and now need to go back to fridge and find more cold milk and throw in a few ice cubes! Message to self, always wear gloves when handling chillies!

Any better ideas?

Comments

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,391 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Not sure if it will help your fingers but when my nephew put ghost pepper sauce on some chicken wings we found that tomatoes stopped the pain much better than milk.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jodienancarrow

    pepper pain is deep into the nerve endings. They say oil is needed to help with the burn, if done in time. Ask me how I know.

    The ER doesn't know either. At least they didn't know when I need the answer. the serach thing about 5 years ago when I processed a huge amount jalo's only resulted in a guy who had the same horrible experienc as I did said you had to ride it out because no one knew.

    I will say that recently I found an article that said 'mustard' and I think I tried that and it did work some, but like you I used a big ice pack on and off (milk didn't do a thing for me), and all it did was beat into my brain that I would never process peppers again without GOOD gloves. The pain lasted for hours before finally subsiding.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    Been there many times! Be careful with tobacco, too.... either way, be especially careful in the bathroom.... ;-p

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    @silvertipgrizz the chilli burn lasted a good 6hrs, finally got to bed at midnight ! Still tingley the next morning. I'm rethinking my chilli relish making, I don't want to hurt anyone by gifting jars of my relish! Could lose some friends.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Strangely, the skin on our tongues can usually survive the encounter with chili peppers. However, if these peppers are extra hot, you may want to add some milder peppers to tone done your relish. Also add a warning label to the jar! Those labels act as a challenge for some people.

  • Leslie Carl
    Leslie Carl Posts: 255 ✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2020

    I use cayenne pepper quite a bit, but had never had fresh peppers until a friend gave me a whole bunch of jalapenos they couldn't use. It was the first time I had cut up a lot of jalapenos to freeze them, so I didn't think of using gloves. I did the whole bunch of them before noticing my hands were burning. I had to hold ice cubes wrapped in a washcloth, in both my hands all night to keep the burning tolerable! They were lightly burning most of the next day before cooling down. Needless to say, you don't ever make that kind of a mistake more than once. 🙂

    Since then, I haven't had another incident but have learned that tomato juice works really well because of the acids in it.

    In doing a quick search, I found this link; https://drpeggymalone.com/ease-burn-jalapeno-hands/

    The gal explains what she did with hot water, soap, and olive oil that was able to give her relief and why it worked.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jodienancarrow

    You could always place a 'skull and crossbones' on the jar and save the hotter ones for the ones who love and can tolerate it.

    I like my heat just enough that I know it is on the WARM side, but not so much that the flavor is squashed under the heat.

    +

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jodienancarrow It occurs to me that the really hot stuff would be a good treatment for sinus congestion.

  • seeker.nancy - Central Texas
    seeker.nancy - Central Texas Posts: 795 ✭✭✭✭

    In my experience it is best to put oil on right away. Rub it in then wash with Dawn dish soap (it cuts the oil). The hot components are mostly oil based in nature. When cutting them up try to keep the juice off your hands but definitely use gloves if you are processing a lot of them. Also change out the gloves after a bit because the pepper juice eats through them in maybe 20 minutes. Just look at your fingers and if the gloves are starting to stick to them it's time to remove them, wash with Dawn and put on a new pair. I don't remember anything other than cold wash cloths if it's already been some time. Sorry you had this experience; it can be a cruel teacher.

  • tammyrichardsmt9
    tammyrichardsmt9 Posts: 109 ✭✭✭

    We always use milk. I am stubborn and only use gloves if the peppers are hotter than jalapenos.