Unfortumately, it's a culinary myth that a potato will absorb excess salt -- or capsaicin. Robert Wolke, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, author of What Einstein Told His Cook, explains (edited for clarity):
Potatoes will soak up salty water but they don't selectively extract salt out of the water. Would you be surprised if a sponge placed in salt water came out tasting salty? Of course not. The concentration of salt in the water -- the amount of salt per quart -- is not affected.
I, personally, always end up making much too spicy chili by accident. I do what one of the previous posters suggested and load on the cheddar and sour cream. Drinking a tall glass of milk helps, too!
My mom always used to add some potato -- she'd just chunk it up and she'd usually fish it out when she served it (and my dad would eat the potatoes since as far as he's concerned if you're not sweating and crying and red-faced the dish wasn't spicy enough). It might be a placebo but I do it too and it seems to work. You could also add more meat or beans but it might throw off the balance. I agree about dairy and maybe more tomatoes too.
In addition to fat, acid can help cut down on the spiciness. Adding some lemon juice or a can of tomato sauce will diminish the spiciness without diluting the flavor. But if it is waaaaay too spicy still, you may also end up having to increase the proportions of other ingredients if you want to salvage the chili (or you can mix it into rice or eat it with cornbread or polenta, which is what I usually do with chili anyway).
Add some kind of dairy to it. Sour cream and or cheddar cheese. Otherwise maybe more sauteed veggies? Like onion is easy to add and wlll only make it more flavorful. GOOD LUCK!
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Unfortumately, it's a culinary myth that a potato will absorb excess salt -- or capsaicin. Robert Wolke, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, author of What Einstein Told His Cook, explains (edited for clarity):
Potatoes will soak up salty water but they don't selectively extract salt out of the water. Would you be surprised if a sponge placed in salt water came out tasting salty? Of course not. The concentration of salt in the water -- the amount of salt per quart -- is not affected.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A25891-2001Apr17
I, personally, always end up making much too spicy chili by accident. I do what one of the previous posters suggested and load on the cheddar and sour cream. Drinking a tall glass of milk helps, too!
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