Last Updated on 22nd December 2021 by
I like a bit of spiciness to some dishes, especially Mexican foods and Cajun dishes. That heat that’s added by chilli pepper, jalapenos and other seasonings can take a dish that is simply decent and elevate it, making it more interesting. I’m a fan of adding the unexpected spiciness as well, putting a bit of heat into dishes that you might not expect it in to give them a bit of intrigue.
I know that there is always a risk of making food too spicy. If you are not used to eating spicy foods, it may not take much heat to make the food unpalatable. If you are not used to cooking with hot peppers and other spicy seasonings, it is easy to go overboard on them and not even realise it until you are biting into the dish. What what an unexpected experience that is!
Once you get used to cooking with some spicy seasonings, you will get better at judging how much should go into a dish and you will be able to control it better, but until then, you may have some unpleasant, unfortunate mistakes.
There is also the problem of cooking spicy food for other people. Each person has their own tolerance level for spiciness, and you don’t always know that that is. How to make food less spicy for guests and family members? How to get the spiciness under control so that the food is palatable and enjoyable? There is the risk that you will kill the flavour and overwhelm your food with spiciness. There must be a way to fix it, but how to make spicy food less spicy?
I want to share with you a few methods I use to get the heat under control in foods I make. These are tested and proven methods that anyone can use, and I will give you enough variety in heat control options so that you will be able to handle the spiciness in any kind of dish.
Pick the Right Sides
The simplest ways are sometimes the most effective ways, and the easiest way to deal with spicy food without diluting the flavour or messing up the dish and its carefully chosen ingredients is to choose out the right side dishes to go with it. So, if you have a spicy food that is too spicy, you can get it under control by choosing a bland or starchy food as a side. This counteracts the spiciness, and you can eat the two together to pleasant effect as the side dish handles the overpowering spiciness in an agreeable way.
This is why chips are served with salsa or spicy burritos have a bland tortilla shell with them. These are built-in ways to handle the spiciness of some of the ingredients, and you can do the same with your food.
Some dishes that are great at diluting spiciness when used as a side are breads, potatoes, root vegetables, and pasta. If you find that your main dish is too spicy, just pick out one of these sides to go with it and help deal with the heat level of your main course.
Add More Ingredients
Another simple way to make a food less spicy without changing the flavour too much is to add more of the non-spicy ingredients to that food. This is my favourite way how to make a food less spicy.
So, if you have a chili soup that is overly hot and spicy, you can simply add in more of the ingredients that aren’t spicy, like ground beef, beans, and even water. Be careful about adding in too many bland foods to your dish. You can kill the flavour, so watch that flavour balance as you try to dilute the spiciness.
Remember that you are not trying to remove the flavour of the dish but tone down the spiciness. There is a difference there, and you have to be careful about how all of your food’s different flavours interact with and balance out one another.
Add in Some Milk
How to make your food less spicy without adding a bunch of extra food? Milk is a great heat dispeller. Milk is excellent at getting rid of the heat in a food or toning it down, if used sparingly. Some soups and most anything that is cheesy can be toned down using milk.
Be careful about adding diary to anything that doesn’t have it already. Diary can drastically change the flavour and acidic balance of the food, but in appropriate situations, adding milk is a great way to control the heat.
Add in Some Sugar
This is one you have to be careful of, but introducing some extra sugar to a food can have an effect on the spiciness. The problem with using sugar as a spiciness diluter is that you can make your food too sweet and too sugary. If you don’t want the dish to turn into dessert, just add sugar sparingly. You probably won’t need a lot of added sugar to get the spiciness under control, so only add a little bit at a time and test it out before adding any more.
Add Some Acid
Did you know that many dishes call for acid as a way to counteract spicy chilies and other spicy foods? This is true of Thai foods in particular, which use lime and other kinds of citrus to help cover up the very spicy chilis used in the dish, and you can do the same thing. Adding some lemon zest, lime juice or some other acidic liquid to the food can tone down the spiciness a bit. This can make the food more palatable and give it an extra bit of flavour as well, so it’s win-win if you know what you are doing.
One acid that is easy to add to dishes and works in so many of them is ketchup. This is really useful if you are serving slightly spicy foods to kids. They typically don’t like spicy foods at all, but they tend to love ketchup. So, an easy solution for food that is too spicy for a kid is to smother it in ketchup. That may be a lot easier and simpler than trying to cook separate food for kids and adults. Knowing what you can add to tone down the spiciness can save you work and help you to get a spiciness level that you can handle.
What Not to Do
I want to end this guide in a note about something you should not do if you are looking for how to make Thai food less spicy or tone down the spiciness in your breakfast sausage. There are certain kinds of foods that enhance the spiciness of a dish. One of those is a hot drink. If you have some hot cocoa, tea, or coffee with your meal, that will increase the spiciness. I’m not sure if you have ever noticed this, but it is definitely something to watch out for.
If you are eating something spicy with your meal and you are concerned about it being too spicy, then drink something cold or room temperature with your meal. Drinking something hot will bring out that spiciness even more and enhance it, so do not drink anything hot with a meal that is already too spicy for you.
So, you got a little overconfident and went with extra-hot buffalo sauce for your wings, added too many jalapenos to your nachos or were way too generous with the cayenne pepper while cooking dinner. Or maybe you just had no idea those peanuts were even going to be spicy.
Whether on purpose or not, we've probably all bit off more than we could chew, at least a time or two, when it comes to spicy foods.
So is there anything you can do to help cool down your mouth after eating spicy food? Or was your fate sealed with that first bite?
As it turns out, soothing that fire in your mouth starts with understanding the science behind the burn — since it can help you understand what to reach for (and what to avoid) as soon as that burn hits.
What spicy food does to your body
You already know that when your mouth is on fire, it's not really on fire. It just feels like it is. But why?
While the two may seem unrelated, the burning sensation you feel when eating something spicy is similar to the burning pain you experience when you accidentally touch a hot pan. In response to each, temperature-sensitive pain receptors are triggered — immediately screaming, "This is HOT!" to your brain.
Sensing your skin or mouth is in danger, your brain sends back sensations of pain, hoping to encourage you to stop doing whatever it is you're doing.
In the case of the hot pan, this pain serves an important purpose — it triggers an immediate reflex to remove your hand before it burns.
In the case of a hot pepper that's not even actually hot, so to speak, the reason is less obvious.
Hot peppers contain an alkaline, oil-based molecule called capsaicin, which sneakily triggers the temperature-sensitive pain receptors in your mouth even though the molecule itself doesn't produce heat or cause any real damage (unless you really overdo it).
Once capsaicin triggers these pain receptors, your brain is tricked into thinking your mouth is in danger — cue the burning pain meant to encourage you to stop eating whatever spicy thing you're eating.
These pain receptors in your mouth can adjust to the capsaicin's trickery, though. If you overstimulate these temperature-sensitive receptors by eating spicy food often enough, they're more likely to become desensitized to capsaicin. This is why people who eat spicy food frequently are able to handle it better than those who don't — the "burning pain" is dulled for them.
For those who don't eat spicy food often, the burning sensation is either too much, and you stop eating it altogether, or you try to dull the burn by reaching for something you think might help cool your mouth down.
What helps cool your mouth from spicy food?
So, you ate the hot wings, and now here you are: Frantically searching the internet for some sort of spicy food hack — literally anything to put out the fire spreading through your mouth and keep you from sweating bullets. (Related: Why We Sweat When We're Hot, as Well as When We're Not)
Armed with your new knowledge about the science of capsaicin, here are the do's and dont's of cooling your mouth down after eating spicy food:
DO reach for some dairy. Many milk-based products contain a protein called casein, which can help break down those capsaicin tricksters. Think of casein as a detergent — attracting, surrounding and helping wash away the oil-based capsaicin molecules floating around your mouth, similar to how soap washes away grease. The catch here is that the dairy product you choose must contain casein to have any chance of cooling your mouth down. Good examples of milk products that contain casein include cow's milk (not almond, coconut or soy milk), yogurt, cottage cheese or sour cream.
DO drink something acidic. For those who need or want to avoid dairy, don't fret! You've got an option, too: acid. Remember how we said capsaicin is an alkaline molecule? Balancing it with an acid can help neutralize the molecule's activity. This means drinking or eating something acidic — such as lemonade, limeade, orange juice or a tomato-based food item or drink — may also help cool your mouth down. (Milk is also acidic, by the way.)
DO down some carbs. Starches are filling for a few reasons, one of which being that they typically come with a lot of physical volume. The volume that a starchy food brings can also be advantageous while eating spicy foods since it can help act as a physical barrier between capsaicin and your mouth. To put some starch between this sneaky molecule and your pain receptors, try eating a piece of bread, some rice or a tortilla.
DON'T assume a glass of water will be your salvation. If you take nothing else away, leave with this: Because capsaicin is oil-based, drinking water will basically just spread this molecule around your mouth — setting off even more of your pain receptors. Oops! To help cool your mouth down, skip the glass of water and try one of the options above instead.
DON'T expect alcohol to dull the pain. You've seen the old war movies. Before closing an open wound, one soldier pours alcohol on the wound to disinfect it. The wounded soldier then chugs what's left in the flask. People have been using alcohol to dull pain for a long time. But, just know that the amount of alcohol it takes to effectively reduce pain way exceeds the guidelines for moderate alcohol use. Plus, a lot of alcoholic beverages are really more water than they are alcohol, and, well...see above.
Now that you know the do's and dont's of cooling your mouth down after eating spicy food, maybe you won't need to hold back on the jalapenos and cayenne pepper as often.
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