Tag Archives: food

Hot Sauce Trivia

Hot sauces are excellent in sauces and stir-fry’s, make quick and handy marinades before grilling food, and are always welcome condiments on the table.
Research has proven that adding hot sauces to your foods can help your body burn calories faster (up to 45 calories more per meal than if you eat bland dishes).
When people eat hotter sauces, they experience pain in their mouths and throats. The nervous system reacts to the pain by releasing morphine-like endorphins. Endorphins create a sense of euphoria similar to the “runner’s high” that some people get from exercise. People who regularly eat hot sauces and chiles will find that they develop a tolerance to the heat and will have to eat increasingly hotter sauces to get the high.
Hot sauces are North American’s favorite way to turn up the heat and add some extra flavor and spice to their food. Most hot sauces are a blend of chiles, vinegar and salt, but many are variations that may also contain ingredients such as carrots, onion and papaya.
By adding lots of flavor to food with hot sauces, chiles and spices, you can reduce the amount of fat, oil and salt in your diet.
The stinking “rose”, otherwise known as garlic and a common ingredient in hot sauces, is an excellent antioxidant that can help reduce free radicals that exist in the human body. Garlic reduces cholesterol, clears arteries and helps maintain healthy blood circulation.The true hot sauce collector and aficionado looks for several qualities when evaluating a new sauce: appearance, originality, aroma, heat and flavor. Why not invite friends over for a hot sauce tasting party with evaluation forms for the sauces you’ll be trying? Try each sauce on unsalted crackers or tortilla chips and have some fun.
Half the fun of collecting hot sauces is laughing at the names that their creators give them. The names are as original as the sauces themselves and range from reference to fire and explosion, animals, religious, crime and punishment, controversial, erotic, naughty, mental health, and western themes. The names and labels make us laugh and represent much of the fun that enjoying hot sauces bring us.

Hot and Spicy Mood Lifter

We all know someone who loves their spicy food. Well, as it turns out, there is some science behind the love of hot flavors. Capsaicin, the chemical that produces the heat in chiles and peppers, increases the release of feel-good endorphins when the spice hits the tongue, according to Dr. Paul Rozin, Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Endorphins are known for their ability to reduce stress, relieve depression, and significantly raise the spirits. So, if you need an emotional lift, add some hot sauce or cayenne pepper to your next meal.

Hot and Healthy!

Linda in Chiles, Newsletter

Millions of people from many cultures from around the world enjoy the flavor and fire of hot foods. After all, chiles are the second most common spices in the world, following salt. Few people, however, realize the many health benefits that chile peppers offer.

A substance called capsaicin causes the heat of chiles and peppers and has been used medicinally for centuries. Capsaicin has been associated with many cures that include lowering blood pressure, reducing cholesterol and warding off strokes and heart attacks, speeding up metabolism, treating colds and fevers, preventing cancer and pain control. …

Welcome To Cooking With Fire

Linda in Site News

The brand “cooking with fire” reflects our commitment to doing things that ignite burning desire and to live life with passion and purpose. Linda Matthie, author and publisher, wrote the series of cookbooks featured on this site to share her burning desire for healthy, fiery foods of the world and is dedicated to sharing her passion for fiery fare and creating fabulous, fun and flavorful food characterized by healthy and light recipes.

In addition to our national best selling cookbooks, The Fire ‘n’ Ice Cookbook, Light the Fire and The Hot Sauce Bottle Cookbook, we are proud to present music that will add atmosphere while you’re enjoying our healthy and fiery foods of the world. We invite you to explore, indulge and enjoy!

Cheers!