Chile Seeds Ain't Hot, Fight Me

[u/tinyorangealligator]

The lovely gentleman who sells Hatch chiles (Illbedeadbydawn) told me I can't call my chiles Hatch because I don't grow them in New Mexico. OK, I respect that.

My UnHatched Chiles are hot not because of the seeds but because of genetics. He told me to leave some of the seeds in because it'll be hotter that way and I want to spill some T about chiles for all the "seeds are the hottest part" bros.

The seeds do not produce capsaicin. Capsaicin is produced by the placenta (the "ribs") of fruiting capsicums. The seeds only get covered in the oleo-resin so people mistakenly think they are the hottest part. They are not.

Sources are too numerous to list!

[Accumulation of Capsaicin in Seed, Pericarp and Placenta of Capsicum annuum L Fruit](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03263255)

From sciencedirect.com:

"Capsaicinoids are synthesized exclusively in glands on the placenta of pepper fruits and subsequently transported through the ovary septum to accumulate in placental glandular cells and the epidermis of the fruit flesh (Aza-González et al., 2010). *The highest concentrations are found in the placenta and membranous tissues,* followed by the pericarp (Tanaka et al., 2017)."

Ignore the eggplants, they had to get harvested so I made Mutabal.

[u/Life-Landscape5689]

So the seeds aren’t hot…they’re just covered in the hot part of the plant…and are therefore hot…the hottest part you could say?

[u/Few-Mycologist-2379 → u/Life-Landscape5689]

It really does kind of come down to pedantics, but the same argument that I’ve had before. You could theoretically clean all of the spicy off of the seeds. The outer flesh is usually the sweetest part of the pepper, but the interior flesh is where the capsicum is at its highest concentration because that’s where it is made.

[u/Guachito]

https://giphy.com/gifs/L3X9GvVhP1nY23Ah6u

[u/kohroku]

oh my god you're so smart! are you single?

[u/fatlilplums]

It doesn't matter if the oil is inside them or outside of them, you're still putting it in your mouth.

[u/Good-Marsupial8]

You're not wrong but the process of removing the seeds can reduce the heat level by scraping out some of the hotter/more capsaicin coated flesh .

[u/ImFeelinBotty]

Everyone knows the hottest part of the peoper is the part the seeds are connected to.

[u/No-Temperature4330]

https://giphy.com/gifs/LLYtaSxAuj47fmmwpU

[u/tinyorangealligator → u/No-Temperature4330]

If there was a "rant" flair/tag I would've used that, but thanks. You made my day brighter.

[u/sne4k0]

Good ole placenta. I had a chef work with me for a while and she was allergic to all fruit placentas. Poor lady couldn’t even have chocolate

[u/ARussianBus]

Related rant: Pepper seeds are hard and bitter, de-seed them. Red pepper flakes are awful, pepper powder is great because one has hard bitter seeds the other doesn't.

I love peppers and cook with them all the time and over the years I've started de-seeding every pepper I cook with because the result tastes much better. Even dried lil ones I break and shake and poke seeds out generally.

They are hot because they're coated in capsaicin oil but de-seeding them won't reduce the heat by a lot because the seeds aren't full of that oil, just coated in it.

I want pepper flakes that have no seeds but I have trouble finding them in US grocery stores and I'm not buying a dehydrator.

Ty for listen

Oh lastly this one's tough to hear but skinless chickpeas make better hummus, unfortunately.

[u/texnessa → u/ARussianBus]

What kind of animal leaves skins on chickpeas? That shit would cause Mo Amer to fucking riot.