Many folk remedies are made with chile peppers, as I detailed with two coauthors in The Healing Powers of Peppers (Three Rivers Pres, 1998). We discovered chile peppers being used in infusions, syrups, teas, tinctures, liniments, ointments, poultices, salves, and oils. Perhaps the most unusual treatments were two hot sauces, one to improve the appetite and the other to combat …
If you’ve read some of the other articles in the Chiles and Health section of the SuperSite, you’re probably aware of just how contentious the debates have been, especially when chile peppers are accused of causing health problems like cancer and ulcers. They don’t of course, but the debate about the healing properties versus the “damaging” aspects of chile pods …
By Dave DeWitt Gladys Graham self-published her cookbook, Tropical Cooking, in the Panama Canal Zone, then a U.S. possession, in 1947. It is a surprisingly comprehensive survey of cooking in the zone with 130 pages of recipes with ingredients ranging from avocado to vulture. She wrote of visiting local markets in her introduction. “Here are counters with avocados, mangos looking …
