Food Geek

As a break from the New Normal of Doom & Gloom Stacking:
I had some 90,000 heat unit cayenne pepper and although I didn’t touch it with my fingers, after my meal my hands smelled like nicotine.

Solanine is the alkaloid in the nightshade family of plants (tobacco being one), so I, as a Confirmed Geek (I have the certificates on my wall - OK, the plaster gave way so they are sitting on the floor under where they were hung) I went looking (as a pasttime) for what Solanine smells like.

Never found out.
That’s the thing about rabbitholes. You often end up with a musky smell and fur that you need to floss out of your teeth.

Any whey…

I found that boiling does NOT neutralize solanine, but supposedly frying destroys it.

Solanine is not removed by boiling, but it can be destroyed by frying. Solanine poisoning is uncommon as cooks and the public are aware of the problem and tend to avoid green potatoes, in any case, consumption of up to 5 g of green potato per kg body weight per day does not appear to cause acute illness." -- Solanine - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/nursing-and-health-professions/solanine

That caught my attention so I wanted to know what the temperature difference was between boiling and frying. Two pages into the search returns I finally got an answer.

https://www.ghostcookingcenter.com/blog/read/stir-frying-vs-pan-frying-choosing-a-frying-technique

Pan-frying:

Pan-frying temperature ranges between 325°F and 400°F, which means cooking oil with a smoke-point less than 325°F is not suitable for this frying method.

Stir-frying:

With stir-frying, the minimum temperature is 450°F, this is much higher that the temperature range for pan-frying. It is advisable to use cooking oil with a smoke point higher than 450°F in this case.

So, that satisfied my pocket-protector, buck-toothed, glasses-taped-in-the-middle geekiness, except that I would like to know either the thermal or heat-induced chemical interactions of what breaks down the gylcoalkaloid, but that’s for another day.