The Pantry Staple Bobby Flay Uses To Temper Spicy Food

When making a spicy dish, it's easy to overdo it on the heat. Maybe you aren't aware of just how much spice an ingredient can add, or perhaps the spice shaker has an opening that makes it too easy to be overly liberal with it; the point is, it happens. However, when it does, Bobby Flay says there is a fix for this problem. Flay told CNN when you find a dish to be too spicy, a touch of honey goes a long way to temper that fire.

This sweet ingredient can counterbalance the fiery flavor of chile peppers that makes your tongue do the cha-cha, and if you do it right, you won't be blindly grasping for a glass of milk to cool things off. This rule of thumb works well when the flavor is intense like in a marinade or that buffalo sauce for your favorite wings. But why is this golden syrup so good at this job?

If you are familiar with the Scoville scale, then you know it measures a chili's heat in Scoville units. These units offer a measurement of how much sugar water you would need to mix with the spice to neutralize that heat until your tongue no longer feels the burn. Sugar in its many forms, including honey, overpowers the spiciness of the chile pepper and makes it easier for you to consume.

Honey also adds a new layer of flavor to your fiery foods as it balances the heat, leaving you with a sweet and tangy flavor. And depending on the type of honey you use, you may impart the subtlety of lavender from a lavender honey or even citrus from an orange blossom honey. But remember to be light-handed with this sweetener or you may find it to be too sugar.

Flay definitely walks his talk with honey. The "Throwdown" host uses it for his Honey Mustard-Horseradish Sauce as well as his barbecue sauce, which boasts Worcestershire sauce, garlic, soy sauce, honey, and creamy peanut butter.