apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Yeh, all those are good in theory, but the only one that worked for me and I only had a little tiny pepper burn on my index finger was baking soda paste; you have to rub that in a few times until it's gone, but eventually it did go away. Gloves next time for sure.

Just, whatever you do, don't touch your eyes. Trust me on this.

Wish I had know some of these tips two nights ago after cutting jalapenos! My fingertips still feel the burn, not to mention the burning sensation every time I touch my eye...

Huh. I must be one of the luckies. I've never had this issue and it never even occurred to me that others did.

Maalox. I actually had to call poison control one night because I couldn't sleep due to the pain in my hands. It's not perfect, but it works much better than anything listed above (I've tried them all). Lemon juice also helps at getting some of the oil off of your hands, but don't rub!

Hmm. I'm with e.scott. Interesting.

Someone just gave me this tip the other day and it works well - wash your hands with vegetable oil, then with soap and water. The reactive oils in the peppers dissolve in the vegetable oil, so get drawn out of your hands. Then you wash away the oil. It is not perfect but it does reduce the heat quite significantly.

I just washed my hands really well and put lotion on them. The lotion definitely helped to calm the fires.

And I slept with my contacts in.

Next time, just put baggies over your hands if you are out of latex gloves. It's not worth the risk!

i never use gloves and the only time i ever had issue was when i finely diced about a dozen scotch bonnets...

go figure!

Alton Brown said in a somewhat recent episode of "Good Eats" that the weak bleach solution he recommends for cleaning counters dissolves the capsaicin and lets you wash the remnants off normally:

"By the way, capsaicin, the fiery compound in chilies, will stick to your fingers for hours turning your hands into chemical weapons. You can prevent this by wearing vinyl or latex gloves. Or you can occasionally dip your fingers in a 5 to 1 solution of water and bleach while you're working. The bleach will turn the capsaicin into a water-soluble salt that will then rinse away. Pretty cool, huh?"

http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season11/knives/american_slicer_tran.htm

I once was cutting a scotch bonnet and somehow a drop jumped up and landed on the back of my next! I started sweating immediately and it spread all the way down my back...

Those things are so dangerous, why must they taste so good.

These are great ideas. I don't get burned as bad as some of the posters but it is enough to make me take notice. I'm particularly more cognizant of this now that I am at the diaper changing stage of my life.

I've had good luck with baking soda as well.

The skin on my hands doesn't react when I cut hot peppers, but I do wash my hands with baking soda afterward. There's nothing worse then touching your eye after chopping peppers! I find baking soda neutralizes the effect completely.

Learned this one the hard way when I got some capsaicin in my eyes when cooking (had to go to an emergency optometrist the next day for chemical burns!): COLD vegetable oil. Douse a paper towel in vegetable oil and throw it in the ice tray/freezer for a few minutes. When I burnt myself, we had 2 rotating, so that whenever the one I had over my face warmed up, we'd switch it out with a fresh cold on. But really--just wear gloves, and save yourself the pain. : )

I think people recommend milk because the lipophilic casein in it has a detergent-like effect on the capsaicin in the chili oil.

I don't normally feel like my hands are burning, but I have hard time getting the oils off my hands with dish soap. Recently I have poured olive oil or whatever oil is there on my hands and then washing it off. Works like a charm.

Milk (not skim, though) works when you're eating hot things, but I'm not sure it would do the same for your skin... I've used rubbing alcohol after cutting some really hot peppers without gloves, but it didn't help for long--I had to do it several times, and my hands were still smarting in the morning. Glad the peppers with less heat (and which I use regularly) don't bother me.

I remember one morning Mom was making salsa and she scratched her lip after cutting a variety of peppers--and her whole mouth looked clownish (and burned) for the rest of the day.