Hacker News Reader

Comment by civilitty | Hacker News Reader

> I’ve also thought about doing a really low and slow extraction, say by using a sous vide machine. You do run into food safety issues, since the chilies can contain botulism.

Sous vide was my first thought, since that avoids the evaporation and oxidation that decreases the intensity of the low and slow method. However I don't think botulism is any more of a concern here than any other sous vide dish and high heat doesn't kill botulism spores so it doesn't really matter how you cook the chilis.

Just keep it above 140F while infusing and keep it out of the <130F danger zone past a few hours. Quickly cool it below 45F using an ice bath after infusing if you're paranoid or cooking for someone that might be immunocompromised.

View on HN

I did sous vide chilli oil by placing the oil and chillies in glass canning jars in the water bath. I let them rip for about 90 minutes at ~88°C/190°F and the results were pretty good. I like the roasty/mildly bitter results from flash heating, but this was quite smooth and pleasant.

I think some purists would think it tastes weird. It's a very "clean" chilli flavour. I think it would have been a lot better with more aromatics, and when I'm done with this oil I'll likely give that a shot.

Have you tried blending it with a hot flash oil? My suspicion is that the two would be better than the sum of their parts.

I haven’t, but I wondered the same thing! Something else I’ve considered is letting the sous vide system run another hour or two, just to see what happens to the flavour. I guess I should give both a shot one of these days.

Yeah I might give it a shot (although I gave away my sous vide machine). But low and slow isn't always better for extraction. Coffee for instance extracts more with a fast infusion versus cold brew.

Coffee extraction usually happens in a closed vessel where the volatiles aren’t as exposed to air and can’t as easily evaporate. The advantage of sous vide isn’t just the cooking temperature but the fact that the ingredients are completely sealed. It has a significant impact on many ingredients like chicken or carrots, which can stew in their own juices instead of reducing.

That’s not necessarily true. A clever dripper does open air infusion and works great. Ditto with pour overs. But perhaps with oil more volatile aroma compounds are released? Either way the only solution is to try it!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com