[NOTE: this post, describing an accident involving jalapeno peppers, has attracted a huge number of comments. See below. And please add your own thoughts as we seek a cure for this strange affliction!]
I received the following email from a good friend who I’ll call CD. He lives in the Washington, DC area. He sends along this cautionary tale about a cooking experience gone horribly wrong. His story is by turns frightening and hilarious. Enjoy.
Dude, I got a great story for you that I’ll try to relay in this message. Friday night S and I went over to J and C’s. I was going to help C prepare for a catering gig he had on Saturday. So we get there and start boozing and hanging out. We eat dinner and then begin the process of prepping for the catering gig.
Well, one step in the catering cooking process was to roast a 5-pound bag of jalapeno peppers on the grill and then remove the skins and de-seed them. Like what you’d do with a roasted red pepper. Well, at about 10:30pm I belly up to the table outside with all the peppers and start going to town. An hour later, I had peeled all 5 pounds worth….the catch is that I did it with no gloves.
At about mid-night S and I leave and I start complaining that my hands are burning. Not terribly, but a bit of fire. An hour later, we are back at S’s and it really sets in. Pain like I have never felt. Unbelievable, extreme, terrible, super harsh burning pain in both hands and even a little ways up both arms. It was like I had burnt both hands in a fire.
Now, I have to set the time frame so you can get the full affect of how long this pain lasted….it was at about 1am Saturday morning when I really began to realize i was in some trouble. At about 2:30am I woke S up and said I needed help (she had been asleep for about an hour). She got on the Internet and looked up how to stop jalapeno burn. She called two emergency rooms and even a number of “ask the nurse” hotlines. Nothing. At about 3:30am I was in so much pain i was rolling around on the floor almost yelling. By that time I had dipped both hands in milk, olive oil, vegetable oil, yogurt, oatmeal, water with baking soda, a bleach water mix, aloe and even mineral oil. Nothing helped.
At one point, I had both hands covered in aloe, a wet wash cloth on each and my hands in two huge bags that were filled with ice and water. That did not even help. at about 5am S calls my doctor at his emergency number. He says to get in the car and go to the emergency rooms at GW. So, we get in the car and I ride with my hands out the window to let the wind somewhat cool them down.
I check in with the front desk and am taken back to some ER room at about 6am. Now, realize that I am SO embarrassed at this point. Everyone in there is looking at me like I am a freak. They even wrote on the ER board where they identify what is ailing a patient “CD, jalapeno hands.” It was funny as hell.
Once I am in my little holding room they give me a shot a morphine, which by the way does nothing to ease the pain. Damn good high, but nothing for the pain. After the morphine they give me a shot of something stronger which also does nothing for the pain. I even got a shot of straight benedryl because they thought I might be having an allergic reaction. Needless to say, nothing works for the pain. They debated admitting me at one point. They also talked about putting me on some IV of pain killers.
Finally, after being there for about 3 hours, they tell me to go home and basically just wait out the pain. They did give me a prescription for some really strong pain killers.
Well, to get to the end….the pain finally lessoned to where I could take it on Saturday night at about 6pm. I was basically in a living hell for like 18 hours. Even today (Monday morning) I still feel a burning in both hands. If I scratch any part of my body, it immediately starts to burn. I can just bump into something and even that little bit of contact sets off a slight burn. And get this, my feet have this low grade burn from walking on them. That’s how much of the jalapeno oil got into my body.
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I’ve never experienced anything so painful as when I mistakenly carved out the seeds and membranes of 3 serrano peppers with my fingers. I suffered overnight, holding onto ice cubes constantly. I fond the remedy after trying everything in the house. Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula, balm. Coated my hands with it and 20 minutes after it gets absorbed by your skin, RELIEF! I guarantee it works.
Okay, I don’t know if this has already been posted. Honestly, I didnt’ want to weed through all the comments. I was looking for a cure for a friend. I do, however, have a little advice. The best advice I can give is prevention. If you will cut and de-seed your peppers under cold, running water, it helps to close up your pores and prevent the oils from absorbing into the skin. If you are still affected by the oils, try wearing gloves while cutting your peppers. Also, if the fumes seem to overwhelm you, put a bandana or other cloth over your mouth and nose while cutting peppers. Hope this helps.
Cocoa butter works wonderfully, thank you Gene, i tried everything.
I will never formally admit this, but it worked.
I peed on my hand, soaked it in plain cold yogurt and wiped it off, not rinse. im gross, i know, but my hands dont hurt
So… I found this Stuffed Chicken with Jalapeno’s and crm. cheese recipie and made it tonight for din din. Sounds good hey? Well I dont know if it was good or not because my hands have been soaking in milk for hours!!!! Yep, I didn’t use gloves. First time with jalapeno’s! While my food was in the oven my hands started to burn. I looked online quickly on how to stop the burning and the milk was the first thing I read, so i tried it. while my hands were in there it was good but taking them out it burned. Tried the soap and hot water.. nothin. so as im typing this i have an over abundance of alo vera on my hands which seems to be calming the pain. nice thing is since your hands are wet you can blow on them to cool them even more. I know sounds silly but…. Im not peeing on my hands
The quickest cure I’ve found is to take some type of oil, vegetable, baby, etc. and rub on your hands for about 15 minutes….I used this because I read on another post that the capsacium is oil soluble….as I rubbed the oil into my hands it turned white and I rinsed my hands with the hottest water I could stand…I rinsed and reoiled my hands for about 15 to 20 minutes and could feel the heat and sting leaving my hands….this worked very well for me….you can tell when you’ve gotten most of the capsacium out of your hands as the oil you are “washing” your hands with will eventually be the normal color…Hope this helps, it sure did for me….
Newley – I love that my story has attracted so much attention. 5 years later it’s still a funny read and it makes me laugh to look back at that night.
Great stuff.
CDaw
Absolutely, Chris! It’s amazing that your agonizing experience has attracted thousands of readers and over 250 comments. You should harm yourself in kitchen accidents for our entertainment more often!
I only cut one JA, but boy was it potent! Started feeling the tingles in my cuticles and fingers withing 30 minutes. I used baking soda and water, as well as sanitizer, which both helped a bit. I found that I also got relief using Technu…It’s a wash for poison ivy and oak. I suspect it removes the JA oils just like the poison oak oils. I’m lucky to have had it at home – as an avid hiker in northern CA it’s definitely an essential! If you can find it, I’d suggest it! Using it as soon as possible is probably best, though
I just made some guacamole dip, I used one Jalepeno pepper, so I figured I would be good and didn’t bother with gloves. WRONG, my figers are burning a little along with the side of my cheek that I touched. But all this is nothing in comparison with my lips, I’m not sure if I licked my fingers or what by my lips are on fire, I’ve been sucking on ice cubes and sticking my lips to my frosted beer trying to keep them cool. I drank a small glass of milk but everything has been temporary relief? I saw the post about rubbing alcohol, I’m still not sure if that is a bad joke or not? I think I plan to wait it out and just walk around with purple lips until the swelling goes down. If this is happening to my lips, I can’t imagine what my cornhole will feel like.
ALl I can say is Penetin and baby powder worked wonders for me!!!!
Okay, so I’ve dealt with jalepano peppers before and never had a problem. Had never done much research, so wasn’t aware that I needed to wear gloves when cutting.
Today, OMG!!! I cut ONE, just ONE jalepano pepper and a couple hours later my left hand was BURNING!!! Since I was holding the knife with my right.
Remedies are going to very based on each individual person’s chemistry, but for me, baking soda mixed with water is a HUGE relief and is helping greatly. The idea is, after all, to neutralize the acid. Baking soda does that. But, if you’ve dealt with a lot more than one pepper, it might not work as well.
Plus, make sure you drink lots of water or OJ to help neutralize the acid from within as well.
So far so good for me. Considering the fact that I cut the jalepano about 11am this morning and my hand didn’t really start burning until I got in the shower at like 4:30/5:00ish pm this evening, I figure I’ve been doing pretty good over some of the stories I’ve read. It’s 7:30ish pm now, so only a couple of hours of pain so far and with the baking soda paste helping, I should be in good shape when I go to bed tonight. ::Crosses fingers::
OMG child birth did not last as long!!!!!!!! I tried all the remedies. I tried oil, vinigar, and OMG my hands hurt so badly I can not remember everything I have tried. I also tried the sunburn stuff….aloe, solarcane. vinigar, WTF nothing is working. I took benedryl, drinking, everything………..NOTHING WORKS!…..I ran my hands under cold water, it works for a while…off and on. Than the ice thing, ice in a plastic bag rubbing my hands for a while…..that is the only thing that has worked for me
I cut about 30 jalapenos in half and filled them with cream cheese and wrapped them in bacon. I began at 5pm and it is now 9:30pm. I have tried everything listed except pee and my hands are still on fire. I scrubbed them with sugar and that seemed to work but as I now am typing the pain is coming back and the relief was only for about five minutes. I’ve never had them burn this bad after cutting jalapenos but the batch I got this time were really hot. This really sucks.
I did the same thing last wknd. I cut and deseeded 20 jalapenos, filled them with chicken and cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. It was my first experience with them, ( no gloves) and I will NEVER forget it! During the cutting, they had me coughing, and about 20 minutes later my hands were burning horribly. I thought I could even feel it in my arms. I tried all kinds of crazy things…. someone said to try vinegar, but there was none in the house so I smeared my hands in pickle relish. Since it had been in the fridge it felt good until it warmed up. Then I tried butter, mustard, sugar, and pickle juice. They all provided a little relief while they were cold. I tried toothpaste, I thought that helped, but only for a few minutes, then it burned again. The only thing that really really killed the burn was keeping my hands in a cooler full of ice water. Everytime I took them out, it was agony again. My fiance learned how to take out my contacts…lol. I couldnt sleep for many many hours that night, and I kept a cup of ice water by the bed to dunk my hands in. Eventually the pain went away in my right hand, and i fell asleep with my left in the cup of water. The next day, my hands felt normal again, except the finger tips in my left hand still burned a tiny bit. The pain lasted for about 10-12 hrs. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!
I made the same recipe. started at five and here i am now 2 am and still in pain! in one hand!!!!! im sitting here ice bag in hand, trying to freaking find SOMETHING to do about it..
I tried rubbing alcohol first, which didn’t stop the burning for more than a few minutes, but I imagine it served to get any remaining oil completely off of my skin. Problem after that was all of the oil that had already been absorbed.
Next I tried baking soda paste. Just mix in a bit of water and smear the paste all over the parts that burn. Let it dry for 10 min or so and then scrub it off. This reduced the pain somewhat, but it was still there.
Next I tried milk. I didn’t have any 2% or whole milk so I actually used half and half. After about 10 min of soaking, the pain was the least it had been since my whole ordeal started, but it would still come back if I didn’t continually soak my hand in it.
The whole time I’d been trying all of these remedies, of course, I’d also been searching the web for various solutions. What struck me the most was the idea of running your hands under HOT water to open up the pores and let the oil get out. So here is what ultimately ELIMINATED my pain:
1) Run your hands under HOT water. As hot as you can withstand. I know it hurts, but it’s for the best.
2) Use some kind of grease-fighting dish soap. I had Method dish soap but some other posters have claimed good results with Dawn.
3) Run your hands under HOT water again. If you can make it hotter than before, the hotter the better.
4) Put your hands in warm milk. Don’t use cold milk as it will close your pores up again and you want the milk to get in there and neutralize the oil. It might be worth noting that I used half-and-half since I only keep skim milk in the house.
This completely stopped my pain. I hope it works for other people too.
I tried the milk and hot water, it worked so far i also put aquafor on it after. Thanks for the help.
I tried the “running ur hand through hot water with soap”, works much better, because u are opening up the pores, and cleaning it out, try it.
Cortiad, intensive therapy cream… caked on, in front of a fan, seems to be working now after about 26 hours…. I got relief with a bag of ice, but it didn’t end it at all… I as well chopped and deseeded about a pound, spooned the seeds out with my right hand, held with my left- my left has been on FIRE for the last 24 hours, now getting a LITTLE bit better… YUMMY jalapeno sauce though, but I will never do it without gloves again, never, never, never! Typing with my right hand now, seriously, anything I touch brings it right back…. I don’t know why I was not thinking and realizing the gloves, but I will next time, I am never letting this happen again, lesson learned.
okay, i cut about 20 jalapenos last night then made a huge mistake and took a hot shower…..I was in pain the worse pain ever my hands were on fire and i most have touched my lips because they were burning too…this went on for hrs and I tried everything, baking soda, milk, vegetable oil. the list goes on but nothing worked I finally just got a very ice cold bowl of water next to the bed and just put my hands in it for awhile ….i would then fall asleep to wake up again with horrible pain so i would just repeat, put my hands back in the water…….this went on from 1am to 7am finally so exhausted i feel into a deep sleep. my hands still have some pain but I can live with it
Never again will I touch a jalapeno again, lol….
Living in Texas and eating peppers most of my life, I have learned to handle them ONLY with gloves on.
I love the taste but sometimes can’t take the heat.
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