RecipePairs with
Gai Ob Hom Yai
Chicken Marylands braised on a bed of deep-gold onions, with the heat dosed from a chilli tincture
Made from the same tincture. The braise takes 12 ml and this sauce takes 30 ml of the 80 ml batch.
Jaew Phrik Reaper
Recipes · Jaew Phrik Reaper
First revision · 12 SEP 2026
PreparationFirst revisionVia mcp
Jaew Phrik Reaper
Isaan table sauce carrying a measured dose of chilli tincture
A table sauce that takes its heat from a fat tincture and its aroma from raw chilli flesh. The placentas of six Carolina reapers infuse into 80 ml of oil at 65 degrees C. 30 ml of that tincture goes into this sauce. The other 50 ml is stored. The flesh of one pod, with the placenta removed, is minced raw into the sauce. The tincture on its own has almost no smell. The capsaicin is made in the placenta and the aroma is made in the flesh, so an extraction of one gives none of the other. The raw flesh restores the fruit note. Lime juice and fish sauce give the heat something to hold onto. A neat oil drizzle coats the mouth in one continuous film. A suspension in an acid base arrives in pulses instead. Serve it in a bowl with a teaspoon. One quarter of a teaspoon is one serving.
For
4 servingsWhy the first revision
First version. Records the sauce as it was made, with sunflower oil, and with the flesh of one pod raw in the sauce to restore the aroma the tincture does not carry.
Tap a step to cross it out0 / 9 done
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Put on nitrile gloves. Open a window. Turn on the extractor fan. Put baking paper on the board.
Tool nitrile gloves -
Cut each pod in half lengthways through the stem. Put a paring knife tip under the pale ridge inside. Lift the ridge away from the wall. Do not scrape down at it. Remove the cross-walls also.
The placenta and the flesh wall are two different tissues. They separate cleanly along the join if you lift from below. Scraping down shears through both and spreads the gland contents over the flesh.
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Put all the ridges and seeds in a small pan. Set the flesh of one pod to one side. Freeze the rest of the flesh.
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Add the oil to the pan. Heat it to 65 degrees C. Do not let it bubble. Do not fry it. Put the lid on. Hold it for 15 minutes.
Frying a superhot chilli puts capsaicin into the air and will make the room unusable.
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Pour the oil through a fine sieve into a jar. Press the solids firmly with a spoon. Discard the solids. You get about 80 ml. Measure 30 ml into a bowl. Put the lid on the jar and refrigerate the rest.
Tool fine-mesh sieve -
Mince the reserved flesh as finely as you can. Make it almost a paste.
A piece of flesh left whole gives one person the aroma and the residual heat of a whole pod in one bite.
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Stir the palm sugar into the fish sauce until no grains are left.
Palm sugar does not dissolve well once acid is present. Do this before the lime goes in.
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Stir in the lime juice. Then stir in the 30 ml of tincture. Then stir in the minced flesh. Taste the liquid below the oil, not through the oil. It must be sour first, then salty, then slightly sweet.
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Stir in the shallot, the coriander leaf, the spring onion and the toasted rice powder. Leave it for 10 minutes. Stir it again. Serve it with a teaspoon.
The 10 minutes soften the shallot in the acid and let the rice powder swell.
Time 10 min
Notes
11
WARNING The spare tincture is a stored hazard. Label the jar.
50 ml of the batch is left after this sauce is made. It keeps for months in the refrigerator.
It is clear oil with almost no smell. Nothing about it looks dangerous. It is roughly the capsaicin of two and a half Carolina reapers in a small jar.
Label the jar. Say what it is and say how much a dose is.
One quarter of a teaspoon of the finished sauce is a serving. Much less than that of the neat tincture is a serving.
It is very good on fried eggs, on plain noodles and on dumplings. Use it a drop at a time.
Sunflower oil stays pourable cold. Coconut oil sets below 24 degrees C and needs a warm spoon.
Related
4RecipePairs with
Laab Ped
Isaan duck laab
The same Isaan table register: fish sauce, lime, shallot and toasted rice powder.
PreparationReferenced by
Nam Jim Jaew
Isaan dipping sauce of toasted dried chilli, toasted sticky rice, fish sauce and lime
A dipping sauce for grilled meat. It is a wet relish, not a pourable sauce. You drag the meat through it. Two chillies do two jobs.
PreparationReferenced by
Nam Jim Jaew, Carolina reaper
The plain jaew with raw deveined Carolina reaper, dosed one pod at a time
The same toasted rice, toasted dried chilli, fish sauce and lime base as the plain jaew.
The pattern
jaew dipping sauceThe plain idea under this dish. Cook it with what you have. The full recipe is on the Method tab.
toasted rice powder + chilli oil tincture and raw chilli flesh + fish sauce, lime and sugar dressing + shallot and spring onion + coriander
Other dishes with this pattern: jaew dipping sauce.
The parts
5binder
Sticky (glutinous) rice, toasted and ground coarse
Holds part of the oil in the acid base. The sauce still separates in the bowl. This is correct for a jaew.
heat
A chilli oil tincture made from the placentas of Carolina reapers, plus the raw flesh of one pod, minced almost to a paste
The tincture gives a measured heat. The raw flesh gives the fruit smell that the tincture does not carry.
- Swap: Coconut oil in place of sunflower oil for the tincture. Coconut oil sets below 24 °C, so the stored tincture needs a warm spoon. Sunflower oil stays pourable cold. The record gives the dose only for sunflower oil: 30 ml of tincture in the sauce.
dressing
Fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice
Gives sour, salt and a little sweet. The acid base breaks the oil into droplets, so the heat arrives in pulses, not as one flat burn.
aromatics
Shallot, sliced paper-thin, and spring onion, sliced fine
Give a raw onion bite. The shallot softens in the acid.
herbs
Coriander leaf with the stems, chopped fine
Gives a fresh green top note.
The basic method
8- Put on nitrile gloves. Open a window. Turn on the extractor fan.
- Cut each pod in half. Lift out the pale ridges and the seeds. Keep the flesh of 1 pod. Freeze the rest of the flesh.
- Put the ridges and seeds in a small pan with 80 ml of oil. Heat the oil to 65 °C. Do not let it bubble. Put the lid on and hold it for 15 minutes.
- Strain the oil. Measure 30 ml into a bowl. Label the jar with the rest and put it in the refrigerator.
- Mince the flesh you kept almost to a paste.
- Stir the sugar into the fish sauce until it dissolves. Stir in the lime juice, then the 30 ml of tincture, then the minced flesh.
- Stir in the shallot, the coriander, the spring onion and the rice powder. Leave it for 10 minutes. Stir it again.
- Serve it with a teaspoon. Stir it before each use. One quarter of a teaspoon is one serving.
What the full recipe adds
The full recipe gives exact amounts for 4 servings. It shows how to lift the placenta away from the wall without scraping, so the heat does not spread over the flesh. It explains why the infusion stays at 65 °C: frying a superhot chilli puts capsaicin into the air. It explains why the heat lives in the placenta and the smell lives in the flesh, so the sauce needs both. It explains why an acid base gives heat in pulses and makes you salivate, which clears capsaicin. It warns that the spare tincture is clear, has almost no smell and looks harmless, so the jar must carry a label with the dose.
The science
2What is actually happening in the dish, and why the techniques work.
M1
An acid suspension delivers heat in pulses, a neat oil delivers it as a wall 30 ml tincture in 100 ml aqueous base · 10 g toasted rice powder · stir before each use
Capsaicin in pure fat spreads over the mouth as one continuous film that does not break up. The burn is flat and constant and has no shape.
Put the same quantity of capsaicin into an acid water base and the fat breaks into droplets. The capsaicin then arrives in pulses. Between the pulses you taste the sour and the salt. The heat has a shape.
The acid also helps you directly. Sour taste makes you salivate. Saliva is the main way capsaicin is removed from the tissue of the mouth.
The toasted rice powder holds a partial suspension. It does not make a stable emulsion. The sauce separates in the bowl. This is correct for a jaew. Stir it before each use, or the last spoon out of the bowl is neat tincture.
M2
Raw flesh and fried flesh are two different ingredients flesh raw in the sauce · flesh fried in a paste
The esters that give Capsicum chinense its apricot and floral smell are small and volatile. They have low boiling points.
Fry that flesh in a paste at 130 degrees C or above and those esters leave or change. Maillard chemistry replaces them with heavier and rounder compounds. In a braise this is a gain. It is where depth comes from.
At the table it is a loss. There you want lift.
So use the same pod in two states. Fry one lot into the paste for depth. Leave one lot raw in the table sauce for the top note. This is not repetition. It is two different chemical states of one fruit.