advice on making homemade chili liquor?

[antongarou]

I like making liquors, but now I'm a bit stumped: having bought really good chili peppers in a farmer's market(not sure of the variety- 5-7 cm pods with serious heat: 3 lent strong authority to 2 kg of stew) I want to make chili liquor, but my usual method of taking a 750cc bottle of 95% grain alcohol, adding a cup of water, 1kg sugar and 1kg fruit obviously won't work well here, even if I had 1kg of the peppers. Does anyone has advice to offer on how many peppers I put per a bottle of grain alcohol?Also, any ideas of what spices I should add other then a stick of cinnamon and a vanilla pod?

PS. a picture of one of the peppers in case someone manages to identify it:

[InkRose]

Looks rather like a "thai" type C. Annuum, but without good macro shots of the blossoms and if possible an overall shot of the plant that bore them, you can't really be sure. There are also one or two C. Chinenses that look quite a bit like that, Rawit comes first to mind. Could even be Goat's Weed (or as some friends call it, Goatse Weed, because it's approximately as enjoyable) if it's an Annuum.

[antongarou]

thanks!Does anyone know how hard are pepper plants to grow in a semi arid area with(usually) high humidity?I live in Israel, and what you said made me think of trying to germinate some of the seeds and grow my own pepper plants for self consumption.

[tylik]

Peppers love heat and light and will cheerfully perennialize (and turn into small shrubs) if the winters are warm. I suspect you'd have a good time of it.

InkRose, of course, has a bunch of the best varieties...

[Emma Bull]

My understanding is that the less rain pepper plants get (within survivable limits, of course), the hotter the fruit of the hot varieties. Mmmm, hot...

[InkRose]

I've heard Emma's idea before, but remain sceptical. For example Fatalii's plants are certainly never starved for nutrients, yet his Naga Morich tend to be insanely hot. Then again, Naga Morich is always insanely hot...

The biggest differences in my own plants have been between fruit grown outdoors vs. indoors, outdoors being hotter across the board.

I'd imagine Israel would be a great place for chiles, especially Chinenses and Frutescenses as well as most Annuums, as they tend to like it hot. Baccatums tend not to be very particular as long as there's water and nutrients, while Pubescenses seem to fare best with pronounced day-night variation especially in heat and fare very well in half shaded, cooler spots as well.

[antongarou]

All those names are just that much Latin to me  . Two important questions you might know the answers to:
1)would freezing have rendered the seeds sterile?Currently I froze all my peppers so the won't go bad as I go through them.

2)when would be a good time to germinate and plant them?

[InkRose]

1) If you froze them fresh, then they're almost certainly dead. Dried seeds can be frozen and thawed safely.

2) Depends on the length of the growing season as well as the effort you're willing to put into them. I start the slower species (pubes) in early december this year, followed by chinenses around christmas/new year's, baccatums mid-late january and annuums in mid-february. I have to grow them indoors until may/june, because night frosts will slow things down or at worst even kill seedlings.

Edit: damn Finnish autocorrect on the phone...

[tylik]

I've heard Emma's idea before, but remain sceptical. For example Fatalii's plants are certainly never starved for nutrients, yet his Naga Morich tend to be insanely hot. Then again, Naga Morich is always insanely hot...

*laughs*

As a biologist, generally speaking capsaicin will be increased if the plant is stressed - and heat is only one kind of stress. This applies to many of the flavorful compounds in plants, as many of them are produced as a defence against predators. (And is why herbs are often more flavorful if they're grown in relatively poor soil. Which doesn't stop me from treating my basil is care and consideration...)

Now, this doesn't guarantee that varieties that have been specifically bred to be hot will be less hot when treated kindly...

[antongarou]

OK, the chili liquor is almost done. my main problem now is that I left the peppers in for a bit too long(they're now out) and it got somewhat hotter then I intended: is there any way to moderate the heat without diluting the taste of the other spices too much?

[eschatonic]

I think you could put a little (a little!) sugar in to cut the capsaicin, but I don't know what effect that will have on the other spices.

[antongarou]

It already has sugar in it(formula was 375CC 95% alcohol, 375CC water, 125g sugar, 2 peppers, cinnamon, vanilla and a clove), so I'm not sure how more sugar will affect the taste.

[Lioness]

How are you planning to use it? Drink it neat, or mix it with other things, or something else?

[Emma Bull]

I second the Lioness's question. The canonical heat-cutter for capsaicin is dairy fat; adding your finished product to hot chocolate or layering it with cream in a shot glass might be all it needs.

[antongarou]

I would like to drink it neat. I don't like most cocktails, and milk I will drink neat or not at all(mostly the latter). Although the hot chocolate idea sounds good:)