This is one of those do-what-I-say-not-as-I-do lessons. A few years ago I made some spicy guacamole by grating jalapeno peppers into my mixture - bare handed. Turns out my hands felt like they were burning for hours afterwards. I tried everything from soaking them in alcohol to milk. Milk seems to have the most cooling effect, fyi.
This past weekend when I was making harissa I barely touched the chili peppers I was working with but I swear the skin on my hands has memory burn or something because they started to sting a little bit. A few hours after making the harissa I washed my face & smoothed on some moisturizer. To my surprise there were still chili oils in my fingers & now on my face which was burning. I quickly swabbed my face with cotton pads soaked in milk & the burning slowly went away. The moral of this story is - wear gloves when working with peppers. Oh & don't dare touch your eyes if you haven't - ouch!
Get more of my better home cooking basics here.
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