Habanero oil

Submitted by Beowulfs_Ghost

This is a great way to enjoy the heat and unique flavor of habaneros. This process will work with any kind of pepper because capsaicin, the chemical that gives pepper it's heat, is oil soluble. That is why milk, which contains fat, will wash away a pepper's heat, while water won't.

Tools

 * A knife suitable for dicing
 * A cutting board
 * 2 glass containers that can stand 250F, like "pyrex" or canning jars
 * 1 cast iron skillet or a backing sheet
 * An oven thermometer
 * A probe thermometer
 * 1 coffee filter and a funnel or small strainer to hold it
 * water and oil proof gloves

The glass container should be of tall and narrow. I use 1 qt mason jars, but any jar that can be pasteurized will work.

The gloves are important unless you have a high tolerance for capsaicin. Scratching your nose or rubbing you eyes after cutting up a lot of hot pepper will result in a burning sensation that will last for hours. Because capsaicin is hydrophobic, simply washing your hands might not get it off.

Ingredients

 * 1/2 lb of habanero peppers
 * At least 2 cups of oil

I like to use peanut oil, because it has very little flavor on its own, and it has a high smoke point. Any oil can be used though.

A half pound of peppers to 2 cups of oil will make a pretty strong batch of habanero oil. Just remember that it's easier to thin strong oil then to spice up weak oil.

Directions
Since fresh peppers aren't always available you can use dried. In my opinion, fresh peppers impart more of the pepper's flavor to the oil. The down side to using fresh peppers is that it will take longer, often 3 or 4 hours depending on how many peppers you are using and their water content.

Rinse and dry the peppers, and remove the stems. Put on the gloves and chop the peppers, seeds and all, in to small pieces. You can use a food processor, but be sure to clean it throughly afterwards, or the next things you process will be spicy.

Put the chopped up peppers into the oven safe jar, and add enough oil to cover them with about a half inch of extra oil on top. Put the jar in the skillet or backing sheet and put it into the oven with the oven thermometer. The reason for putting the in the skillet is to protect it from the direct heat of the heating elements, and to catch the oil if the jar cracks. Set the oven to bake between 200F and 250F. Do not preheat, because the thermal shock may crack the glass. Use the oven thermometer to make sure the oven doesn't go above 250F or the peppers will burn, but you want it hot enough that the water in the peppers boils out. Use the probe thermometer to make sure the oil gets up to at least 180F to kill anything that may have been living on the peppers.

As the water boils out of the habaneros, the oil will start to turn orange in color. It will take several hours to boil out the water. You want to check it at least every 45 minutes to see if the boiling has slowed, to stir the peppers, and to scoop out any burnt stuff that has floated to the top. The burnt material will leave a burnt flavor to the oil, so remove it as soon as possible.

Once the peppers have lost their color and start to brown, turn the oven off even if it is still boiling, open the oven door, but let the oil cool down in the oven. Just as putting cold glass into a hot oven can crack it, put a hot jar on a cold counter top can crack it. Once the jar is cool enough to handle, remove it from the oven, and pour the oil through the coffee filter into another jar to remove the peppers. At this point, you can thin the habanero oil by adding more of the base oil, pouring it through the peppers in the coffee filter.

Storage & Use
Since there will still be water in the oil, it should be stored in the refrigerator. I put a small amount in the fridge and the rest in the freezer, because even in the cool and dark of the fridge, it will loose it's flavor over time and eventual get rancid.

It can be added by itself as a condiment, or it can be used to cook with. Just remember that the longer and hotter it is cook, the more it's flavor and some of it's heat will be lost. I like to add a little to ramen or use a little in a stir fry. It can be added to the fat in dough recipes to make habanero chocolate chip cookies.

Always be careful when handling the habanero oil. While you may not feel it on your finger tips, there are more sensitive parts of your body that will react to the capsaicin if your oil coated finger tips touch them. Be especially careful if you wear contacts.

--Beowulfs Ghost 01:12, 7 August 2007 (CDT)