The Bookworm Sez: 'Hot Sauce Nation' a spicy read

The Bookworm Sez: ‘Hot Sauce Nation’ a spicy read

All the things you love will be on your table this holiday.

Steaming mashed potatoes with a dollop of butter. Turkey or ham, fresh from the oven. Green bean casserole, waiting for the toasted onions. Everything you love, piping hot and, with “Hot Sauce Nation” by Denver Nicks (c.2017, Chicago Review Press, $17.99, 198 pages), you can turn up the heat even more.

Picture in your mind the first time someone ate a chili.

Denver Nicks imagines it was a cave-teenager who ate the berry, perhaps figuring that if birds could consume chilies, they were safe for anyone to eat. Red-faced, eyes watering, mouth afire, he must’ve turned to his cave-teen buddy who, of course, couldn’t wait to eat one, too.

Truly, we love our hot stuff; its sales outdo that of every other condiment these days. We’ve loved it at least since 6000 BCE, which is when chili bits were left behind in a grave. We’ve loved it since Columbus brought chilies to the Old World, thinking they were odd-tasting pepper. We’ve loved it since a bloodthirsty conquistador brought chili plants to the American southwest in the late 1590s, and Africans brought seeds with them on the Middle Passage.

Chilies are measured by the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU), a test created more than a century ago. A regular garden-variety green pepper rates a rather boring 0 SHU. Tabasco is 5,000 SHU. Capsaicin gets an incinerating 16,000,000 SHU but milder heats are compelling; we can’t get enough of that pain, says Nicks, in part because its burn releases dopamine and can create a thrilling hot-knife illusion for the tongue. Chilies, he says, can also clear the sinuses and bring on a kind of high. Hot-cha-cha.

Acquired taste or not, Nicks says that our North American passion for heat is growing. The popularity of Mexican, Indian, and Chinese food, although our versions are “a kind of imitation cuisine,” helps increase the trend toward hot, spicy foods in restaurants and snack foods. The number of near-combustible consumables is increasing, and on a spicy road-trip, Nicks found that regional preferences just feed the need.

“Delicious, healthy,” he says about hot sauce, “… how’s that for a miracle food?”

Everywhere you go these days, it seems, you can find food that burns your tongue and makes your hands fan. But why now? In “Hot Sauce Nation,” you’ll see.

Spicy food, as author Denver Nicks shows, is addicting and he’s got the science to prove it. He’s also got the culinary history, taking us on a round-the-world tour to show how we’ve gone from blah to blasting our palates with flames. Readers who love hot-and-spicy will find themselves wishing they’d been along with Nicks on his road trips; he tried the hottest chilies, spiciest sauces, and took the biggest challenges, and his mouth- (and eye-) watering descriptions makes us want that, too.

Alas, there are no recipes inside this book but that won’t matter to foodies or fans of flaming food. If you crave a taste that nearly melts your teeth, “Hot Sauce Nation” will further ignite your interest.

■ ■ ■

And since having your hot sauce with fats increases its health benefits, you’ll want to add “Butter: A Rich History” by Elaine Khosrova (c.2016, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, $23.95, 344 pages) to your cart. In this book, you’ll learn the history of that which goes on toast and in tarts; how butter is made around the world; how it’s eaten; and its importance to many cultures. Bonus: recipes, so you can enjoy a little extra butter in your meal.

The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Email her at bookwormsez@yahoo.com.

More in Life

A clay tea set on display at the Kenai Potters Guild exhibit, “River,” hosted by the Kenai Art Center. (Jonas Oyoumick/Peninsula Clarion)
Making art shaped by the river

Kenai Potters Guild Clay On Display exhibit focuses on a river’s effect on self and community.

A clipping from a Homer Death Cafe poster.
Homer group tackles death and dying through open conversations

The local group mirrors a growing worldwide trend of “Death Cafes.”

Peonies bloom on Friday, July 4, 2024, in the garden beside Cosmic Kitchen on Pioneer Avenue in Homer, Alaska. Photo by Christina Whiting
Homer chamber hosts 6th annual Peony Celebration

The weeks-long festival features art exhibits, events, flower sales, guided farm tours and more.

These fudgy brownies are a classic, decadent treat. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
Dessert for a thoughtful reader

These classic fudgy brownies are dense and decadent.

Volunteers scoop up ducks at the finish line during the annual Anchor River Duck Races on Saturday, July 5, in Anchor Point.
Locals win at 4th annual Anchor River duck races

The event is part of the Anchor Point VFW’s Fourth of July celebrations.

Photo courtesy of the Melchior Family Collection
Between 1879 and 1892, Stephan Melchior (far left, middle row) performed his mandatory Prussian military service. He was a member of the Eighth Rhineland Infantry Regiment No. 70 in Trier, Germany.
Steve Melchior: Treasured peninsula pioneer with a sketchy past — Part 1

Did anyone in Alaska know the real Steve Melchior? That is difficult to say.

File
Minister’s Message: ‘Be still and I will fight for you’

Letting go of control and embracing faith and silence can encourage us in peace and divine trust.

"Octopus" is an acrylic painting by new co-op member Heather Mann on display at Ptarmigan Arts in Homer, Alaska. Photo provided by Ptarmigan Arts
July First Friday in Homer

Homer’s galleries and public art spaces celebrate with new and ongoing exhibits.

Frank Rowley and his youngest child, Raymond, stand in knee-deep snow in front of the protective fence around the main substation for Mountain View Light & Power in Anchorage in 1948 or ’49. This photo was taken a year or two before Rowley moved to Kenai to begin supplying electrical power to the central peninsula. (Photo courtesy of the Rowley Family)
Let there be light: The electrifying Frank Rowley — Part 2

In July 1946, the soft-spoken Rowley was involved in an incident that for several consecutive days made the front page of the Anchorage Daily Times.

Most Read