Many people absolutely love to have all of their flavours to contain as much heat as possible. Spicy dishes can give you a sense of warmth while still maintaining flavours of other ingredients in the meal.

Spicy cooking is not just an identifier for Mexican and South American foods, many middle-eastern flavoured meals also revolve around significant heat added from the combinations of curry powders and whole peppercorns at the same time.

In cooking spicy foods, be sure to play the chef in your kitchen and taste test your foods as you are preparing them. If the level of spiciness is too high then you can search for ways to balance out the heat levels. Alternatively if the foods need more heat you will be able to add until the meal is suited to your taste.

If you are preparing a spicy dish for company and you might be unaware of the tolerance of spicy foods of guests, keep plenty of milk, water and fruit juice handy. While milk has proven to be the most effective in taming the level of heat to the person eating the dish, if the person cannot drink milk then offer one of the alternatives.