OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

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JohndeFresno
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OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by JohndeFresno »

Medical science has now proven that hot peppers are rich in vitamin C, boost your metabolism, and provide a sense of well-being to those who aren't overwhelmed by the piquancy. I have them at least every morning with either eggs or on a peanut butter toast sandwich - the combination gets me going.

Habaneros are quite hot, even for me. Last year, I popped several into Seal-A-Meal plastic packets, vacuum packed and froze them. Opening up some Habaneros from October 2013, no flavor is lost, and in fact the aroma instantly came up when the packet was snipped open.

Habaneros have a wonderful smoky flavor that is different from the normal fare of the tamer Jalapenos and Serranos. But unless you are a one percenter, you cannot eat them unless you take the time to carefully dice them to avoid near asphyxiation from the extreme effects of this pepper. But the frozen ones allow you to slice them very thinly so that you don't get too thick a chunk of magma when you spread it over whatever you are eating.

So, one can eat them regularly after sealing, freezing and slicing them. The milder Jalapenos fare just as well - I sealed some of these, too, from last year's bumper crop in my garden. No blanching is necessary as with the canning process.

Okay - back to Levergun topics.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by Pete44ru »

.

Yep - we're still eating off the large crop of hot peppers from my garden, that I bagged/froze about 5 years ago.

I most often use one or two in my chili, and the taste is the same as fresh peppers.


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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by AJMD429 »

They are 'spotty' as far as garden-yield goes, but we freeze them without any issues (I don't send the frozen specimens off for biochemical testing :wink: ). SOMETHING has to be 'ok' about a bright red (usually) thingy that grows on a plant, that some idiot bit into years ago and almost died, but said "wow, that was HOT, but maybe somehow it's good for me (there is a parallel with 'hot' women, here). Seriously, our bodies (along with other mammals and herbivores) have evolved to take maximum advantage of OTHER species doing the hard work of making specific chemicals-of-use, and so it does seem the 'hot pepper' is a good thing.

Grow 'em, eat 'em, and ENJOY... 8)
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by pwl44m »

I used to be able to pop one in My mouth and chew it up and swallow it (NO MAS). Now I just dry them in a dehydrator then grind them into a powder. Then I put some in Jars whole to keep almost forever.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by 1894 »

John , congrats on your digestive system 8)
I enjoy some heat and flavor , but have become less tolerant over the years.
I have some dried / smoked serranos I use once in a while .
Our current pepper crop is mostly Jalapenos , and some red hot cherry peppers.
Love making ABTs with the jalops . Look up " atomic buffalo turd "
The rest get made into jalapeno jelly . Best PBJ in my books :P
Phil
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by JohndeFresno »

1894 wrote:John , congrats on your digestive system 8)
I enjoy some heat and flavor , but have become less tolerant over the years.
I have some dried / smoked serranos I use once in a while .
Our current pepper crop is mostly Jalapenos , and some red hot cherry peppers.
Love making ABTs with the jalops . Look up " atomic buffalo turd "
The rest get made into jalapeno jelly . Best PBJ in my books :P
'94,
Thanx for the info and resultant online recipe!
I don't eat much cheese these days - lost 60 lbs. since last year and getting fit for next year's hunt (hopefully).
But the the other ingredients wouldn't be TOO bad - and tasty.
FYI, I noted yesterday that Costco is now selling cheese stuffed Jalapenos wrapped in bacon.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by JohndeFresno »

pwl44m wrote:I used to be able to pop one in My mouth and chew it up and swallow it (NO MAS). Now I just dry them in a dehydrator then grind them into a powder. Then I put some in Jars whole to keep almost forever.
Perry
44,
Good tip.

By jars, do you mean just air tight jars? Or what? It seems that this would be a great BBQ rub with some salt; I generally like my steaks with just salt and pepper and maybe one other ingredient, Medium Rare, to get the most flavor. Your method might open a new era of BBQ'ing for the deFresno family.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by plowboy 45 »

Hope there not so hot they defrost the deep freezer
:D :D :D
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by JohndeFresno »

:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by plowboy 45 »

On a more serious note, thought I had heart trouble one time, done all the test, ekg, stress, and such.
Never found nothin, some time later it started again, so a heart cath was done, perfect heart and all, I had to fess up and tell smoked pork 4 to 5 times a week with greens with lots of fried meat grease and I mean lots, he said he didn't understand, I said well I always heard Mexicans don't have heart trouble due to eatin lots of jalapenos, and I love them jalapenos that is , he said well maybe, just keep doin what you been doin.
I'm still here.
Found out later its boiled peanuts that causes it.

Anyway they must be good for the heart.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by JohndeFresno »

Plowboy,
For years there was an "urban legend" that Jalapenos are good for your system, and like you said - our Southern brothers eat lots of beans and tacos without the health problems that those in the U.S. suffer. That was frequently discounted because of the climate difference, a more leisurely lifestyle of the Northern neighbors, and so on.

But now even Dr. Oz (a nationally syndicated TV personality) is saying that peppers increase your body's ability to metabolize food, meaning it helps you to lose weight. And I learned a long time ago, as Dr. Oz now says, if I eat some peppers with practically anything, I leave the table feeling filled. Don't like them with ice cream, but then I don't eat that much anymore, anway.

And, like chocolate does especially with women (for some reason - also medically acknowledged), the capsicum and apparently slight pain that is produced in your mouth releases endorphins. That is the stuff (enzyme?) that makes you happy. That's right - all is well with the world when I have my peppers! Thus my preference, especially, for peppers at the break of day.

Oddly, as I have gotten older, I can handle hotter peppers than in my youth. But then again, I have been lading bread with Tabasco since I was a pre-teenager, so there is some acquired immunity, I suppose. If I go overboard, as I sometimes do, then there needs to be a restroom nearby with short notice, to put it delicately.

On the other hand, regular intake of peppers, I have learned, assures good throughput, again not to put too fine a point on the discussion.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by octagon »

I have 4-5 jalepenos every morning with breakfast.

Slice em about 1/8 in thick with seeds and pith intact, heat a couple table spoon olive oil in a cast iron skillet and grill the peppers till they start to brown. Add a dash off salt. Nothing better.

I used to grow many kinds of peppers, but you can get a big bag of em for a buck. Perfect food:delicious and cheap.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by Modoc ED »

I'll just throw this in for the heck of it.

Take some jalapeno peppers, trim the stems off, slice them in half lengthwise, and scoop out the pulp and seeds. Fill the halves with a tuna fish mix of mayo, etc. and pop them in the freezer for about thirty minutes. Take them out of the freezer, eat them, and enjoy. I've done this with shrimp salad too.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by Marlin32 »

I freeze many bags a year. Red Savina Habaneros. Great in chili. I dehydrate also, grind into powder and flakes. Put them on about everything except my cheerios in the morning.
Serranos also, they are my staple for spaghetti sauce (few habaneros go in too) salsa, and everything else

Have ghost peppers and Scorpion in garden also growing in garden right now.

Piquins are dandy little peppers too. Kind of a nutty flavor.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by pwl44m »

JohndeFresno wrote:
pwl44m wrote:I used to be able to pop one in My mouth and chew it up and swallow it (NO MAS). Now I just dry them in a dehydrator then grind them into a powder. Then I put some in Jars whole to keep almost forever.
Perry
44,
Good tip.

By jars, do you mean just air tight jars? Or what? It seems that this would be a great BBQ rub with some salt; I generally like my steaks with just salt and pepper and maybe one other ingredient, Medium Rare, to get the most flavor. Your method might open a new era of BBQ'ing for the deFresno family.
After reading again it was a little confusing to Me. To clarify I grind the dried peppers with a coffee grinder then put the powder in a mason jar with lid. Then put the remaining Whole peppers in jars with lids. And Yes it does make an xclnt rub. I put several spices together.
I'm going the extra mile this year, I bought one Ghost Pepper plant. :twisted: People used to tell Me "Ur going to rot Ur gut out" well maybe I did, I can't even take One ibuprofen without tearing My stomach up.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by JohndeFresno »

Uhhh... I'll pass on the Ghost and Scorpion peppers, gentlemen, thank you very much. Habaneros are enough for me, unless I make a BIG stew.

A relative gave me a Bhutan (Ghost pepper) plant and it is now starting to produce berries. It will flourish unfettered by anybody in THIS family harvesting its produce! If folks call me Iron Gut, then I suppose anybody who eats these in the whole should be named Titanium Gut.

Some Scoville (Heat Scale) ratings:
Jalapeno - 2,500-8,000
Serrano - 10,000-23,000
Habanero (various) - 100,000-350,000
Habanero Red Savina - 350,000-577,000
Ghost (Bhutan) - 1 million (1,000,000)
Scorpion, now world's hottest - a hybrid - 2.2 million (2,200,000)

To me, the small Serranos (at least the ones in stores around here) are only slightly hotter, 1 for 1, than their larger cousins, the Jalapenos. As for McDonald's or Burger King or whatever claiming that they now have Ghost Pepper burgers or fries or whatever, don't believe it. They take huge license with their product name. If that was the ingredient, they would be sued to extinction in the first day of that offering and the ER's would be filled up.

But a Ghost pepper with at least thrice the kick as a standard Habanero, more than 200x the heat of most marketed Jalapenos? No thank you. I'm good.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by JohndeFresno »

Modoc ED wrote:I'll just throw this in for the heck of it.

Take some jalapeno peppers, trim the stems off, slice them in half lengthwise, and scoop out the pulp and seeds. Fill the halves with a tuna fish mix of mayo, etc. and pop them in the freezer for about thirty minutes. Take them out of the freezer, eat them, and enjoy. I've done this with shrimp salad too.
Sounds good, Ed!
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by plowboy 45 »

A buddy of mine dehydrated and ground up very fine, some ghost peppers hottest at the time, when he opened the zip lock he had them in, it flooded his house to the point I had to leave!
:o :o :o
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by pwl44m »

plowboy 45 wrote:A buddy of mine dehydrated and ground up very fine, some ghost peppers hottest at the time, when he opened the zip lock he had them in, it flooded his house to the point I had to leave!
:o :o :o
When I open a Jar of My ground Habeneros I Do hold it away from My face.
If I could find some Scorpions I would plant them for the fun of it.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by piller »

PillHer found out how to make the Jalapenos as hot as they will get. While growing them, stress them a little. If you water often, they are sweet and mild, but if they dry out until the leaves curl, then they crank up the heat. After the leaves curl, water them good, and repeat the process. The outside is not as shiny and smooth, but the flavor is better and more intense. I don't eat anything hotter than serrano peppers. I like the taste, and am not fond of the heat from the habanero. Once, while in Durango, Colorado, I was eating at a Mexican restaurant. The menu had a place that said "Not for Gringos" and had jalapenos in the food. I ordered the burrito with the jalapenos, and the waitress stopped me and asked if I knew what I was doing. I told her I was from Texas, and she said that it was OK if I ordered from that part of the menu. It was good, fairly spicy, and disappeared very fast. I didn't even break a sweat.

A couple of years ago at the hog hunt in the mud soup, I brought some cornbread with jalapenos in it. They jalapenos had been frozen, and were some of the ones that PillHer had grown. I removed the seeds and the pith, and it turned out that they were not as hot as I expected. That cornbread didn't last long. I have put hot jalapenos in cornbread a couple of times since, and it seems to cool them off.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by JohndeFresno »

piller wrote:PillHer found out how to make the Jalapenos as hot as they will get. While growing them, stress them a little... After the leaves curl, water them good, and repeat the process. The outside is not as shiny and smooth, but the flavor is better and more intense...
Yes - I did that with last year's crop of Jalapenos.

Conversely, I overwatered the Habaneros and thy are a bit milder, so I can enjoy more of the flavor and use the whole Habanero or two on my peanut butter sandwiches and eggs!
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by jazman »

I grow Red Savina Habaneros every year to be the main ingredient in my annually made hot sauce, which you can either enjoy by putting it on whatever you like or you can use to strip the paint from your car. Really enjoy the Habanero taste, different than any other pepper. I have some Bhut Jolokia (ghost) plants in this year as I did last year, they are just beautiful peppers, green and red combination, to see. I am going to put some of them into this year's hot sauce batch, ought to be interesting. Word of warning, when cooking with Habanero, add them into the dish when it is almost done cooking. If you start by heating up some olive oil, with some onions and garlic (the way I start just about everything I cook), and add the Habanero to the saute pan, the fumes will make you evacuate the house. I've done it twice, first time I thought it was a fluke when my wife and daughter started gagging, I already was, and had to take the pan outside. Second time proved it to be the rule, not the exception, and I ended up taking the pan outside again. Love me some hot peppers. Good advice, if you ever eat something that gets you on fire, the best thing to use to cool off is yogurt. Something about the chemical reaction, it works. YMMV.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by JohndeFresno »

jazman wrote: Word of warning, when cooking with Habanero, add them into the dish when it is almost done cooking... [or]... the fumes will make you evacuate the house.
EXCELLENT advice, and I can verify that. Plus, you have to wash out your eyes if you were over the pan, just as if you had run afoul of the law and their favorite chemical defense was employed.

That is another huge bonus of freezing the Habaneros for direct consumption - you still get the instant aroma and some of the effect in the air when you open them, but not nearly as much. If you slice them thinly, they defrost quickly on your food and the great taste and punch is there.

When I cut fresh Habaneros, my wife indeed gags - from the next room. I have to go out on the porch or turn on the fan and slice when she is in the bedroom.
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Re: OT - Freezing Hot Peppers

Post by pwl44m »

I dehydrate My peppers in the Garage for aforementioned reasons, when I open the door it is a pleasant aroma.
Perry
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