Great tip! I always dread removing my contacts in the evening after dealing with peppers without gloves. The burn is unbearable.

I burned my hands, 30 years ago, making salsa for the first time. My hands were on fire: I tried soaking them in ice water, milk, scrubbing with baking soda, lemon, assorted creams. We finally called the emergency room, and they sympathetically said, 'there's nothing you can do: it will wear off in 4-6 hours." That was no comfort. That week I got my canning manual from Bell Jars. In fine red print, on pg. 20, it said, 'Caution: wear rubber gloves when working with jalapeno peppers.' Today I am still deathly afraid of jalapenos. I won't go near one, without rubber gloves on. I slice, scoop the seeds out with a spoon, and continue on." Everybody: heed my warning: Wear rubber gloves, while cutting jalapenos!. --Momma Mary

Another tip I've heard is to coat your hands well in oil BEFORE you begin cutting. This keeps the capsaicin from penetrating into your hands, and it all washes away with soap and water.

I definitely always use gloves whenever chopping anything even remotely spicy.

I recently had a bit of an incident with a serrano pepper and the only thing that worked was soaking my hands in a bowl of vegetable oil for a good hour or two. (Thank you, BC nurseline!) Apparently alcohol also can work as a solvent but having my hands in a bowl of vodka didn't really do anything.

So good to know! Thank you for the tip! I recently burned my hand on a jalapeno and literally gave myself a blister on my finger--wish I would've known this then!

I wish I would've known this last week when I cut up a jalapeno for a quinoa, corn and cilantro salad. The burn went all the way into my fingernails. Ouch. I dont' cook with that many peppers but need to keep a box of surgical gloves on hand for when I do. Until then, I'll try the oil. Thank you.

Am I the only person who has never experienced this? I use jalepenos all the time; I cut, and often seed and de-membrane them without gloves, and have never had any ill effects. The same goes for other hot peppers.

Same here, @alicelost. I help my dad make homemade hot sauce with habaneros and scotch bonnets he grows in the backyard...it makes my nose run and throat itch, but my hands don't burn.

I have a bit of an awkward question along these lines. Despite washing my hand after dealing with peppers (ungloved), I have gone to the bathroom and let's just say, I regretted any and all contact made with more delicate parts.

Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with inadvertent pepper burn "down there?"

Obviously, a good ability to laugh at one's self's stupidity is needed, but any other thoughts?

I use a scrub made of sugar and enough olive oil to make it be a scrub. Sugar actually neutralizes the capsaicin -- in fact, that's what the Scoville (pepper hotness) scale is based on: how much sugar is required to neutralize a particular pepper. You can also use this if you've eaten a pepper that was unexpectedly hot -- dump a packet of sugar in your mouth and swish it around until the burn is gone.

calamine lotion! Cover your hands in it and let it dry, then wash it off with soap and water...works like a dream.

i always wear a latex glove on one hand when i handle hot peppers, have to mix ground meat or dough (just so it doesn't get under my nails - eek).

Oooh, I don't know about putting olive oil on your hands before cutting peppers- seems like a major slip hazard with the knife. :(

Oil helps. Another remedy (from my mom) is to make a paste with baking soda and a little dish soap, rub into the hands, then rinse with vinegar followed by water.

@alicelost I don't have any problems either! Although I wouldn't rub my eyes..

Milk is actually the best way to fix the problem. Casein binds with capsicum and neutralizes it. Other milk products also work.. yoghurt, sour cream, etc.. pick whatever you have on hand, preferably the cheapest thing :P

Once upon a fateful Independence Day, I stemmed and seeded 50 jalapenos with my bare hands, because I hadn't bothered to buy gloves. 24 hours later, my fingers finally stopped burning.

I buy gloves now.

I've never experienced this with jalanepnos, but my hands were burning for HOURS after using 1 little itty bitty thai chile pepper. i tried everything - milk, alcohol, baking soda, oil - nothing helped. so i wear gloves whenever i come near a chili pepper now!

This suggestion is not something I've tried - As a printmaker I get icky ink on some part of my hand or arm from time to time. Aside from alcohol-based solvents, the thing that removes the grime best is GOJO. Again, not something I've tested myself, but maybe worth a try?

I too learned the hard way that soap and water are useless. I knew not to touch my eyes but had no idea how badly my fingertips would burn. I'll keep this idea in the back of my mind in case I forget gloves - even though now I know better. I've also heard hold it by the stem while cutting so one's hand doesn't touch the cut flesh or seeds.

Will never forget the pain that came along after chopping 25 red thai chile peppers. Dealing with the pain for that long is tough but at least it eventually goes away. I heard Mylanta helps (dipping your hands in it.) I used water (Wrong.) milk (helped briefly.) and Gojo (an orange heavy duty degreaser...I think it helped a lot but it momentarily felt like rubbing sandpaper on my already burning hands. Dawn soap after that which worked very well.

This JUST happened to me a week ago. I searched all over the internet and dunked my hands in almost everything. The burn went deep under my fingernails and intensified in waves. Vegetable oil helped me get the capcasin off my fingers, but the cure for the pain, aside from two aspirin, was SOUR CREAM. I was grateful to have a little tub of cold sour cream in the fridge. I dunked my flaming fingers in there and felt immediate relief.

@jwink- this happened to my boyfriend. i still laugh when i think about it!

It's strange how some jalepenos won't do anything, but about once a year, I'll get one that is AWFUL and burns forever. I tried milk, baking soda, dish soap, rubbing alcohol, and vinegar, but not oil! I feel like gloves are unecessary so much of the time, but I'll remember the oil trick for the rare occasion.

This is a good tip to keep in mind when I'm working with hot peppers, but I agree with alicelost: I've never had this happen with jalepenos. I'm shocked people seem to find so many of them hot enough to do this, they are my go-to whimpy pepper.

Fels-Naptha Soap to the rescue. This soap is harsh to the skin, and maker Dial Corporation emphatically does not endorse using it on skin, but generations of mothers have used it anyway. The soap will emulsify the caustic oil molecules, which allows them to be washed away. You need to generously apply lotion afterward, because it strips the natural oils off your skin while it is removing the caustic oils.

I have used it to treat poison ivy, for the same reason it would work on hot pepper oils: it breaks up the oil.

But I use it every week to treat the collars of my husband's shirts. Fels-Naptha takes out the dirt/sweat stains better than anything I have ever used, and it doesn't leave a residual odor behind (which my husband hates).

Fels-Naptha is not easy to find. I buy it at my nearby Ace Hardware store (in the Texas Hill Country). I usually buy 4 or 5 bars at a time because I'm scared they'll stop ordering it.

Olive oil or any kind of oil for that matter never helps me with this. I heard mineral oil was best for breaking down the oils from the pepper, didn't help much either. I just wash really well with soap and water and pay my penance.

Oh and as happyhappy mentioned, GOJO is a miracle. It really gets anything under the sun off your hands (and smells good!) When I was in college (art school) we had it instead of soap at every sink. Still the only thing that will completely get oil paints, car grease, lard, whatever off your hands in one wash.

@Sara Galley
No it's not.
It's based on the "heat" detectable by humans (usually a group of 5 or 6) in a solution of capsaicin and sugar water

I don't know if it's the vinegar or what but yellow mustard (mouth/lips/hands/etc,well etc is up to you) will do the trick.

I've found good honey works great for minor kitchen burns, I wonder if it would also help for 'pepper' burns.

I've never had burn from Jalapeno or other hot pepper. I'm in a habit of washing my hand with used coffee grains from the morning after cutting peppers, garlic, or onions. I don't know when or why I started doing this but it works especially well at taking garlic smell off my hands.

My grandmother taught me this trick when I was a kid. Any oil will do.

this has never happened to me with jalapenos or serranos but it has happened with those little thai peppers. i tried all of the suggested cures, but eventually, i gave up and instead of soaking my hands in vodka, drank enough of it to dull the pain and fall asleep.

I think it must be possible to build up a tolerance or immunity to this. I cut jalapenos and other peppers at least three times a week, it seems, and I've never worn gloves and never had a problem. In fact, I never knew that one could have a reaction to peppers until a food blogger mentioned it in one of her posts. It's very interesting to see so many with a similar problem.

Egg whites also work very well. I learned this from a kind Sri Lankan lady, who gave me two bowls of egg whites, one to soak each hand, after I burned them on chili peppers. The pain, which was quite intense, began to lessen immediately, and other than a little tingling, was completely gone within a fairly short time. When my daughter was five, she got jalapeños on her face. Since soaking her face was not exactly practical, I used a brush and painted her face with the egg whites. Again, the relief began immediately. I was very glad that day that I had had my own experience and knew what to do!

@phanmo -- really, we're saying the same thing in a slightly different way. Yes, the test is done by finding the point at which a panel of humans can no longer detect the heat of the pepper in a solution of sugar water; they taste it, and if they can still detect the heat, then it's diluted again with more sugar water, and so on. It's still the ratio of pepper to sugar that's ultimately what's being measured.

First time I made salsa I went to the bathroom after cutting all the peppers and everything. I was sure to wash my hands a couple times before I went, but I still ended with a burning feeling all over down south. I will never forget my gloves again.

Came for Alton Brown's recommendation of a bleach solution. Disappointed so far.

Wikipedia says bleach is "ineffective" at removing capsaicin, but the sentence involved has a big "[citation needed]" tag, meaning it's just in there without proof. Many other authorities, including AB, point out that chlorine bleach reacts to turn the capsaicin into a salt that is then water-soluble. The stronger the burn, the stronger your bleach solution may need to be, but I just spray my hands with the dilute bleach solution I keep for sanitizing the counters after cutting peppers, then wash with soap and water, and I've never had any trouble afterward touching my eyes, etc.

Wikipedia would discount this as anecdotal, so if you've had trouble in the past, rubber gloves are probably your safest bet.

Milk based foods help me. I had this same problem once, and luckily I had a cup of plain yogurt in my fridge. I covered my hands in the yogurt and held them over the kitchen sink before washing them off a few minutes later. I figure if milk helps stop the burn inside your mouth, it's gotta help outside too, right?

I made the mistake of chopping up a jalapneo last Saturday morning, BEFORE I put in my contacts for the day. I immediately scrubbed my hands with baking soda, and it must have done the trick because I was able to put the contacts in with no burning. I'll have to remember that for next time-- I worry I'm giving myself permanent eye damage by dealing with my contacts after handling hot peppers.

I found that lemon juice works for me. I just pour it on my hands and let it sit on them until the burn goes away; usually just a minute or two. I've used the lemon juice on my face too by soaking a paper towel with it and then resting it on my face (be careful not to get it in your eyes).

In college, I had a prep-cook job where I made salsa by hand for 2 hours every day. I sometimes wore gloves...but they are a real PITA when you are trying to move through tasks quickly. When I started that job, a fellow cook instructed me to douse my hands with (full fat content) milk while rubbing stainless steel (a handful of those ball-bearing pie weights worked well--but often I just grabbed a few pieces of stainless tableware). Something about the combination of fat and contact with stainless seems to quickly breakdown the pepper/onion oils? Not sure about the science--but I never had an issue with lingering burning. I continue this practice to this day...

I know I'm coming a few days late to this, but I'm not seeing it so I have to add another alternative: Preparation H. I've never had this problem because, like some other posters, I don't have much of a problem with peppers and I've never been unfortunate enough to have pepper juice seep into a papercut or some other non-visible injury... but my mom accidentally nicked herself with a jalapeno-laden knife and after trying everything she found an internet suggestion for Preparation H. She said it worked like a charm.

Panacea Ointment is da bomb! If you have never tried it, please order some. I am in no way affiliated with this web site but after several 'burns' in the kitchen this is what I use all the time. Burns from oil, boiling water, sunburns, chili burns. Your kitchen should NOT be without this. I recently poured boiling water over my fingers and was in crying pain. 15 minutes after slathering PO on my burns the pain was gone. My mil got boiling oil spilled all over her arm and shoulders but she was quickly out of pain with panacea ointment. I'm not sure why this cannot be bought in stores! It is a life saver. http://www.1-800homeopathy.com/panacea-ointment.html

Onions work as well. I discovered this the hard way after a chili burn that wouldn't go away with oil, yogurt, soap or anything else I tried. But the peach chutney I was making was scary hot as well, so I decided to throw in a few more peaches and a couple of onions. As I chopped the onions my hands magically stopped burning.

I haven't burnt my hands on peppers yet, but I have rubbed my eyes with hands that still had pepper residue on them, despite having been washed with soap & water.. I've found that using yogurt on my hands and letting it sit for a moment before rinsing definitely helps. No more burnt eyes!

I *always* wear gloves (I've got cheap Irish skin, what can I say?). But, the reason I wear gloves is from an unforgettable jalapeno burn when I was 16: what finally worked was making a paste baking soda and letting that sit on my fingertips for about 30 minutes. Draws out the capsacian.

For the commenter with the burn in "special" areas: an Epsom salt bath should do the same thing.

I've also heard that lemon juice will remove the last vestiges of spice from your fingertips, in aid of contact lens removal.

Vodka!

I was chopping jalapenos & (I thought) washed my hands very thoroughly. Then, I itched my nose. The capsaicin got inside my nose & it was like a fiery hell. I tried milk, running water, ice... All no good. Then, I heard that vodka would help, so I put some on a Q-tip & rubbed it on the burn. Like magic, the burning stopped & all was better.

Hooray for always keeping the liquor cabinet stocked!

Vodka works, also vinegar. Put a little pool of vinegar in your hand and add some liquid soap. Work it into a lather and wash your hands thoroughly. Repeat. Should take care of it. Also, for those too lazy to put on rubber gloves (raises ungloved hand), try cutting with a knife and fork.

Btw, when a jalapeno has those little straw colored lines in it, it means it will be especially spicy.

Peppers have never burned my fingers, but I have totally then had issues with my contacts that evening, even after scrubbing my hands.