cayenne peppers

[tjg911]

i have a cayenne pepper plant and it is the 1st time i ever grew a hot pepper. i have several peppers on it and they are all green. are the green peppers hot or do they have to turn red to be hot. i'd think they are hot when green and hotter when red. i know in sweet peppers the green peppers are bitter but when you let them ripen to their final color they are sweet.

tom

[TZ-OH6]

The heat doesn't develop with the ripening process, it increases along with the growth/ development of the seeds/placental tissue and is at its maxumum when the fruit is ripe.

[tjg911]

so i'd assume that the green peppers would taste bitter or bland. obviously they are not worth eating at this stage, i want them HOT!

thanks,

tom

[Blueaussi]

Of course you want to wait until they're ripe, what are we around here, barbarians!

[jeffinsgf]

Tom,

This is my first year with cayenne too. I haven't tried a green one, but the red are sneaky hot. The first one that I ate, I was disappointed for about 5 seconds, thinking that there was little heat at all. Then it started building. It was pleasantly spicy without bringing tears.

They ripen quickly, it won't be long now.

I've been stringing most of my cayenne peppers onto a heavy thread and hanging them to dry. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll make enough cayenne pepper powder to last us until next pepper season.

[TZ-OH6]

I'm an impatient barbarian. I've been sampling green peppers here and there for a while now. Most of them taste bad (too "green"), but would be good enough to warm up salsa (If I had ripe tomatoes). Last night I had a green fish pepper lit me up pretty good.

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by TZ-OH6

I'm an impatient barbarian. I've been sampling green peppers here and there for a while now. Most of them taste bad (too "green"), but would be good enough to warm up salsa (If I had ripe tomatoes). Last night I had a green fish pepper lit me up pretty good.

*gasp!*


* backs slowly away*

[Barbee]

My squash peppers are beautiful red and according to my daughter "numb the side of yer head HOT"
The plant looks like it's yellowing up to me. We've had a ton of rain so maybe that's it. I went ahead this morning and squirted with with some foliar feed and hoping that helps. I'm going to attempt to bring it in for winter.

[velikipop]

Some chili peppers taste very nice when they are green. Purira is one of them. I usually let cayanne's ripen fully and then dry them for powder. This year I am growing two from Turkey, Aci Sivri and Turkish. The pick below is of the Turkish. They are both incredible producers and ripen very early.

[Blueaussi]

No! No! No! Only an uncivilized heathen savage who kicks puppies and makes kittens cry would say such an awful thing! Unripe peppers are never better, they're just what we're forced to deal with from time to time in this cold, cruel world.

Ahem. Ok. Anyway.

It would be a rare cayenne that wasn't extremely prolific. That, to me, seems to be their greatest selling point. They're certainly not my favorite flavor, I like the hab and baccatuum fruitiness more.

[tjg911]

i thought i could try some as i expect the plant will produce a lot, tons of flowers. i'll wait as the green peppers sound like they are not all that good.

i did not want to dry mine instead i want to put them in the freezer and take 1 out when i want one. no seed removal, just wash, dry, freeze. is there a problem with this? i'll be using them in stir fry, spaghetti sauce, i know when they defrost they will be soft and a bit mushy. i also know the seeds will have a lot of the heat.

tom

[jeffinsgf]

Tom,

Thick fleshed peppers (like jalapenos) freeze well. I don't suppose there's any reason not to freeze a thin fleshed pepper, but what are you anticipating as the advantage to freezing over drying? My cayenne string is growing daily, and the first harvested are now turning an absolutely lovely deep crimson and starting to dry and flatten out.

[WVTomatoMan]

Okay first of all some hot peppers are okay to eat when green. However, in most cases they taste better and have more heat when they are ripe. You can't always be choosy. When you're making salsa and you need hot peppers sometimes you have to make do with what you have even if they're green or not fully ripened. What would really be uncivilized would be to eat Mexican food in the summertime without my delicious salsa.

The way I process my peppers is to dice them and put them in zip lock bags in the freezer. Then whenever I want some I just break off a chunk and cook. I said dice them and I do that with small amounts. For larger amounts, which is usually the case, I use the food processor.

Randy

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by jeffinsgf

Tom,

Thick fleshed peppers (like jalapenos) freeze well. I don't suppose there's any reason not to freeze a thin fleshed pepper, but what are you anticipating as the advantage to freezing over drying? My cayenne string is growing daily, and the first harvested are now turning an absolutely lovely deep crimson and starting to dry and flatten out.

humid weather is a drying problem. i thought that putting them in the freezer was the minimal amount of effect to have some all year.

if i were to dry them how do i do it? tie a string on the stem and let it hang on a line? i have a/c in the house but don't always use it.

tom

[organichris]

I like peppers fully ripened, even jalapenos and serranos, but I can eat them green. (And serranos are my favorite pepper, by the way.)

As far as cayennes go, my father-in-law pickles them green, and they're actually not that bad. The texture is good for pickling when green. When they turn red you get that tougher skin which isn't so good for eating unless you're going to pulverize them or you're using them to heat up your pickled okra.