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Comment by not_your_vase | Hacker News Reader

Makes me remember the time when I got like 2 kg of hot pepper. I cut it up small barehand (being very careful not to cut myself), and cooked some stew of it.

I gotta say, that was one of the best stews of my life. Also, after most of the burning went away about 8 hours later, it took only 3 extra days till I could use my hands again.

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Use oil on your hands before dealing with hot peppers. This is second nature in places that use a lot of spice.

This is the first time I’ve heard of this “one weird trick”, as someone whose culture is known for cooking with lots of spices. Oil has a tendency to soak up capsaicin, and its even harder to wash off the skin than just…not oiling your hands. We just wash our hands after handling chilies. Never had a problem

cough cough

Gloves anyone ?

cough cough extremely weak immune system with multiple allergies anyone

Wouldn't that be reason to use gloves too?

Unless you're allergic to gloves, I guess.

Allergies are the result of an overactive immune system, which does not mean it’s weak. It can be quite the opposite, unless you constantly trigger them obviously.

Soap and warm water works perfectly for getting oil off your hands, no?

That usually leaves a microscopic layer of the oil, enough to cause pain. You want a solvent as well, like D-limonine ("orange" hand cleaners have this).

And with that we are back to limes. I love when we find cyclical comments

You saturate your skin with oil so that it won't suck up the capsaicin into your natural skin oils instead. Then you wash it off more easily.

I am never able to just "wash my hands" after the good peppers without additional precautions like oil or gloves. Jalapenos? Sure washing takes care of it. Habaneros and significantly hotter to the far end like Carolina Reapers? Yea, gonna have to be increasingly careful.

Generally, it's not the hands that are the problem, it's when you touch your eyes...or other body parts that the capsaicin transfers to that makes things unpleasant.

I got habanero peppers over my hands once (was dumb and didn't wear gloves) and the only thing that helped was quickly rinsing with bleach. Problem was solved.

Carolina Reaper here, my hands were burning for 3 days since the capsaicin was absorbed into my skin.

I made the same mistake once. The only thing that helped against this burning sensation was washing my hands with benzine cleaning solvent. I reckon Schnaps would also have helped.

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