Pavlov’s chile peppers

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We all have our moments of kitchen idiocy, but usually we learn from our mistakes, no? Well, no. Yesterday I was happily cooking away, making salsa and pickling some pretty New Mexico and jalapeno chile peppers I found at the market and -- yet again -- I forgot to put on gloves. When my hands started burning, I went online to see if I could find another remedy than those I’d unsuccessfully tried in the past (soap, milk, yogurt). Google, my default source for most things (also, apparently, John McCain’s) had a number of threads on the subject. After catty suggestions to wear gloves next time, many people recommended rinsing the offending hands in bleach. Strangely, this worked. Not enough to put out the fires completely, but better than the ice baths and bowls of milk I’d been trying. Anybody have any other suggestions (other than gloves and maybe behavior modification), let me know.

-- Amy Scattergood