If you just freeze them, they will go mushy.

Split, seed and blanch them (30-60 seconds in boiling water, followed by an ice-water dunk) then freeze.

Or roast them over an open flame, peel and freeze.

First, I wouldn't dry green ones. They just won't taste good. You can pickle them -- that's a good way to preserve. Freezing is another way, but like lazy mentioned, they'll get mushy. But will do just fine in soups, stews, and such from what I hear.

If i were to freeze, I would do it like lazygardens does -- roast, peel, freeze.

Kevin

I have been freezing my peppers with a vacuum freezer for 3 years now, they come out "mushy" when thawed but if you cut them as soon as you pick they taste wonderful. You can use a pressure canner and "raw" pack them and as stated in what I have read, results with great taste and crunch. The downside of that is you can only use pint jars, and if you grow alot of peppers as I do, that's alot of money and alot of pint jars. Hot peppers do need to be "skinned", but it's not necessary, you just get "thick" skinned peppers if you don't. Hope this helps!

From time to time I freeze them just as Pam described. You need to kill the enzymes and the bacteria. That is what the blanching dose, From boiling temps suddenly to ice cold kills all the bacteria .

Seysonn, I can see your point and that sounds like a good idea, maybe something I should practice in the future. I can see that blanching would kill the enzyimes, but wouldn't cooking with them achieve the same results? It's not like you eat them raw after you pull them out of the freezer as they are only good for cooking with them. After 3 years and different people eating my frozen peppers no one has gotten sick, just mushy peppers.

Right. Neither rot nor bacterial growth will occur once frozen.

Nothing against blanching, but I don't see that it gains you anything in this case.

Dennis

Dennis: That is "somewhat" incorrect, according to my research. Enzymes can survive the freezing temps of home freezers which will cause veggies to "age" even after freezing.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: Blanching

After doing some more research about freezing peppers I have read that this person says to blanch and another person says not to blanch. I am guessing that it is all about who you want to believe, I am just saying the way I have been doing it the past 2 years, this being my 3rd, I have had success by cutting them into the pieces that I desire as soon as I pick them, and vacuum freezing right away works for me.

ok pete. How about a little experiment?

Do most the way you've always done them and then a small portion by blanching and vacuum sealing. Then in 4 months, pull some of each from the freezer and do a taste test. Even a "mush" test. Let the rest of us know the results.

Kevin

sure Kevin, why not? that'll be the only way to find out, I can only learn new things that way, that's why I joined this site, to have the opportunity to learn.

Posted by woohooman San Diego CA 10a (My Page) on
Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 22:00

ok pete. How about a little experiment?
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Exactly

It is easy to find out just do 2 small batch: ONE not blanched, and ANOTHER blanched and test them in a couple of days.

seysonn
I have already agreed to the 4 month test, now all of a sudden you want to do it in a couple of days? Like I said I started posting and reading posts from other people to learn new ideas on how to help myself and if I can help other people. That's what I did to help Treadstone, to give them a suggestion, not to be "challenged" by anybody, this is starting to be unenjoyable, so I will drop out of this now, it's not enjoyable. Thanks to all that listened and thanks to all that helped me.

Huh?

C'mon Pete! I was looking forward to your results. Don't let one poster discourage you from helping all of US.

Seysonn: why in the hell would you end the experiment after just a couple days?? In the REAL world, people aren't going to freeze peppers for 2 days and then use them. 2 days is barely long enough to get a nice freeze going. My suggestion was to find out, for all members) if there were major differences in the 2 processes as far as aging, taste, freezer burn, color, mushiness, etc.

Kevin

Wow! Thank you everyone for all of the advice. Let me get this straight, I can just straight clean-freeze them but they'll be mushy, or I can boil-ice cold-freeze and they'll keep the crunchiness moreso? I mostly use them as toppings for salads, mexican, etc. So the mushiness really wouldn't matter in that regard.

The other reason I need them is for salsa, so am I right in assuming the mushiness probably wouldn't make a difference there either?

Finally woohooman, my reason for drying a few would be an attempt at a powder. Is that what you would suggest not doing since it affects the taste?

Thanks again to everyone. I really do appreciate it.

Treadstone: I've never froze peppers, but i have frozen veggies. The general rule is to blanch and shock to halt the enzymes that cause aging even when frozen. With peppers, they're going to be mushy no matter what when freezing. I would hope that blanching makes the process LESS mushy---- it does with other veggies. Most people recommend them being used in dishes where mushiness isn't an issue... chili, stews, soups, sauces. It's up to preference in regards to using them in a salsa.

In regards to drying, I'm not saying don't dry any. I dry many varieties. But I never dry an UNRIPE pepper(green). There's just not enough flavor developed, imo, to warrant drying GREEN peppers. Even with say Anaheims(which I LOVE fresh and green), if I was to dry some, I would wait until they turned color before drying.

Kevin

Seysonn: why in the hell would you end the experiment after just a couple days??
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First of, I did not make a conclusion. I have never done an experiment myself. But blanching is a widely practiced freezing method.

Secondly: Let us say that I was wrong suggesting 2 days. Do it longer. The point was/is to compare the results.

Thirdly at the worst scenario, I suggested a humble opinion, in agreement with you(Kevin). If this has offended somebody, I apologize. Here is just a forum with friendly discussions not to prove anybody wrong or that sort of things.

.

This post was edited by seysonn on Fri, Sep 12, 14 at 8:01

I wanted to mention that pickling is OK, but if you follow USDA methods, they are mushy too! So I usually don't, but refrigerate the jars. So the peppers are quite crunchy. I also freeze, and dry.
No method is perfect, and all have limitations.

I just ran across another method of freezing (thanks to a link Thomas posted) that sounds like a perfect solution. Doesn't take up much valuable freezer space and pre-prepped is always handy, especially when the paste is frozen thin to make breaking off chunks as needed easy...

Here is a link that might be useful: Frozen Chile Paste

This post was edited by mecdave on Fri, Oct 10, 14 at 9:35

Pretty much every article on blanching that I have read says it's not necessary to blanch peppers...

Dave,
with hot and super hots maybe making paste and freezing make sense. But with mild ones like jalapeno, Anaheim, ... we want to use them as they are not as paste, sauce or flavoring thing. Then of course it depends on the individual taste and preference.

Interesting Thread.....

I freeze almost all of my peppers by vacuum packing them cleaned and fresh. I don't blanch however because I make sauces out of the peppers and after all the sauce contents and peppers are blended up, the sauce is boiled for several minutes before bottling. I have not witnessed any "age" characteristics of my peppers doing this without blanching. The do get mushy though but who cares for sauces. And a plus, there is no freezer burn because of the vacuuming, and we all know that freezer burn doesn't taste good.

Good Luck....

Freezing is one way. But there are many, many ways to save peppers. I have an unexpected abundance of habaneros (thanks to my favorite farmer, who had a better year than me and gave me a bunch). I ended up preserving around half of them by drying them and half by pickling and canning them.

There are also options for preserving them marinated in oil or roasted. You can ferment them. There really are all sorts of options. Freezing them is only one idea.

Angie

I have also made sauces out of dried peppers as well, and it doesn't turn out too bad, but I just like using the fresh peppers because you get more of a "fresh" taste IMO. I think a lot of the flavor characteristics of the pepper gets lost when you dry. The heat is still there though.
Never tried pickling/canning. I might do that on a batch soon.

Layton

I had a half peck of habaneros that the birds left me.

Made strawberry / habanero jam. YUMM !!