Cayenne, heat and stuff... (was Re: [Sca-cooks] some haggis recipes

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Gorgeous Muiredach:
>You know, I think cayenne pepper is (mostly) boring...  I don't see the
>point in increasing heat in a dish without increasing flavours as well.  A
>hot dish is just a vehicle to bring out a new palette of flavours to play
>with.  Brings out a range of flavours that you can't usualy get without the
>heat.  But heat alone is...  Well....  borrrring.  In my, perhaps not so
>humble opinion...

I can buy that. What I most especially hate are the "hot" chili
sauces that contain processed capsacine as an ingredient (and then,
generally, aren't even all that hot, even then).

Recently, though, I was surprised by the flavor of ordinary cayenne,
which I bought a month or two ago in the cheapo Badia brand
herb/spice section of the supermarket, which is next to, but not
really part of, the section that stocks the regular Lowry's,
McCormick, or even store brand spices. This seems to be a nod to the
Latinos in the neighborhood (they sell very inexpensive little
packets of things like dried shrimp, and dried cilantro), as well as
a lot of the more standard Euro-American spice battery, cinnamon and
such, at much more reasonable prices. Sometimes they skimp on the
packaging (as I say, a lot of their stuff is simply in little
cellophane packets), but their product turnover seems to be
sufficiently high that everything is extremely fresh.

I think I got a supply of fairly fresh cayenne, and it actually had a
mild but clear paprika flavor, "higher" or clearer, and less musky in
flavor than paprika, but it was there, in addition to the heat. It
makes a big difference in my cayenne usage. Similarly, I've found
that I can get a brand of hot sauce from California called Tipatio
which I find much more complex and flavorful than, say, Tobasco.

>>Adamantius, who sprinkled a bit of cayenne on veal sweetbreads a
>>few hours ago
>
>I used cayenne pepper this afternoon too, but it was all over my bonsai
>soil, so toads wouldn't go dig in there to seek humidity in the heat of the
>day!
>
>Sweetbreads... Now I'm hungry...

I think I was inspired by the "blackened" thread, so these were sort
of herb/spice crusted, then sauteed crisp on the outside. The more
sweetbreads I encounter, the more I realize that the simpler
presentations are the best. With the possible exception of the
sweetbread fricassee with lobster I once had at the Clark-Cooke house
in Newport, RI...

>Talking of hungry, regarding my blazon-in-progress someone gave me the
>feedback that it was a bad idea to put "dog" and "cooking" on the same
>badge, unless I'm Korean......................

Some people have no sense of humor, and no taste, either.

Arf!

Adamantius

--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER