Kid-friendly spice: how we cook one pot for two heat levels

The question we get most about cooking the world with a kid is heat. The answer is not to cook blander food. It is to cook the real dish and control where and when the heat goes in. Every recipe on this site is written that way; here is the system behind it.

The heat scale

Each country page shows a heat rating from 0 to 3. It describes the dish as written for the adults, before anyone adds hot sauce at the table.

• 0 — No heat. Nothing hot in it. Adjaruli khachapuri, pollo al ajillo, the saffron-lemon chicken.
• 1 — Gentle. Warmth from pepper, paprika or ginger; a mild child will not notice. Chicken Kyiv, plov.
• 2 — Warming. Real chile, in moderation; most adults call it pleasant. Most of the map lives here. Kuku paka, gong bao chicken, chicken karahi.
• 3 — Fiery. Hot as written. The jerk chicken, the Trini green-seasoning tray bake and the Bajan lime-and-allspice chicken sit at this end. Every one of them tells you how to hold the heat back.

You can filter by heat on the explore page.

Where the chile goes in

Most recipes add heat in one of three places, and each one gives you a different lever.

1. In the marinade. Hardest to undo. Where the heat is in the marinade, our recipes season the kid's portion from a mild bowl — the jerk chicken does exactly this — and the Scotch bonnet goes only into the adult bowl. Two bowls, thirty seconds.
2. In the pot. The simplest trick on the site: cook the shared pot mild (the doro wat says to start with the smaller amount of berbere, the paprikash keeps the sauce sweet), serve the kid, then stir extra chile, cayenne or hot sauce into what is left and simmer two minutes.
3. At the table. Whole dried chiles, chile oil, sliced fresh chile, hot sauce — in a small bowl, for the adults. This is how gong bao and larb are eaten in any case.

The cooling side is not optional

Nearly every dinner night here comes with cucumber yogurt, a cucumber salad or plain rice, and that is deliberate. A cool, creamy or starchy side on the plate is what lets a child try a bite of the real thing and recover. It also makes the adult plate better. Dairy carries capsaicin away far better than water does; the lime-and-honey zero-proof drinks do a little of the same.

Spice is not heat

The thing we most want kids to learn is that "spicy" and "hot" are different words. Cumin, coriander, cinnamon, turmeric, sumac, allspice, cardamom — none of them burn. Several of our favorite dinner nights are heavily spiced and nearly heat-free: the chicken plov with its cumin and carrots, the Algerian chermoula chicken, the Tunisian harissa chicken once you hold back the harissa. Let a child smell each spice as it goes in. That is the whole lesson, and it is free.

Growing the tolerance

It happens on its own if the mild plate is never a punishment. A few things that helped at our table:

• Let the kid add their own heat from the table bowl, even a single flake. Control is most of the fear.
• Praise the dish, not the bravery. "This is the real version" beats "you're so tough."
• Repeat countries. The second time a kid meets chicken tikka, it is already a friend.