Well, I have 38 plants... each with around 20 peppers on them. My
original idea was to make chipotle out of them but I may have more than
I can handle! I guess I should have looked into this before I planted them.

First batch in the WSM went okay. 150 and ten hours didn't dry them
all. I had around 50 peppers on each grate. The peppers were cut
almost all the way through to keep them from falling through. The lower
grate dried well, but the upper grate was way behind. There is a lot of
moisture to get rid of, and it was very moist air coming up to the top
grate! One grill for subsequent batches, I believe. I'm making a solar
dehydrator to make sure they are dry. Nifty contraption at
http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/soldehyd.htm

I'm going to have a lot of peppers come off soon, before the frost hits
(I'm in Southern Ontario). I don't know if they are all going to get
red before the frost, so I'm looking for alternate uses. I am going to
pickle some, but I would like to do some poppers an freeze them. I'll
use a "standard" filling of cheeses, bacon and fried onions.

So, my question is, how well do peppers freeze? I know that frozen
green peppers have a sad consistency. Should I blanche them before I
freeze them?

Does anyone else here have experience with liquidating excessive peppers?

TIA,

Wally Bedford

"Wally Bedford" > wrote in message
...
> Well, I have 38 plants... each with around 20 peppers on them. My
> original idea was to make chipotle out of them but I may have more than I
> can handle! I guess I should have looked into this before I planted them.
>
> First batch in the WSM went okay. 150 and ten hours didn't dry them all.
> I had around 50 peppers on each grate. The peppers were cut almost all
> the way through to keep them from falling through. The lower grate dried
> well, but the upper grate was way behind. There is a lot of moisture to
> get rid of, and it was very moist air coming up to the top grate! One
> grill for subsequent batches, I believe. I'm making a solar dehydrator to
> make sure they are dry. Nifty contraption at
> http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/soldehyd.htm
>
> I'm going to have a lot of peppers come off soon, before the frost hits
> (I'm in Southern Ontario). I don't know if they are all going to get red
> before the frost, so I'm looking for alternate uses. I am going to pickle
> some, but I would like to do some poppers an freeze them. I'll use a
> "standard" filling of cheeses, bacon and fried onions.
>
> So, my question is, how well do peppers freeze? I know that frozen green
> peppers have a sad consistency. Should I blanche them before I freeze
> them?
>
> Does anyone else here have experience with liquidating excessive peppers?
>
> TIA,
>
> Wally Bedford

I would sun dry the peppers as you would sun dry tomatoes. You cut them in
half, remove the seeds, squash them down, and place them on a cookie sheet,
flesh side up all day in the sun. You end up with something like this.
http://www.nutsonline.com/driedfruit...d-peppers.html
What you end with your own efforts, however, is a far more "barbecue
gourmet" than you would ever find in a storel
They last forever. They lend great taste to chili, barbecue sauce, as
pickled peppers, etc. I'm envious.

Kent

"Wally Bedford" > wrote in message
...
> Well, I have 38 plants... each with around 20 peppers on them. My
> original idea was to make chipotle out of them but I may have more than I
> can handle! I guess I should have looked into this before I planted them.
>
> First batch in the WSM went okay. 150 and ten hours didn't dry them all.
> I had around 50 peppers on each grate. The peppers were cut almost all
> the way through to keep them from falling through. The lower grate dried
> well, but the upper grate was way behind. There is a lot of moisture to
> get rid of, and it was very moist air coming up to the top grate! One
> grill for subsequent batches, I believe. I'm making a solar dehydrator to
> make sure they are dry. Nifty contraption at
> http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/soldehyd.htm
>
> I'm going to have a lot of peppers come off soon, before the frost hits
> (I'm in Southern Ontario). I don't know if they are all going to get red
> before the frost, so I'm looking for alternate uses. I am going to pickle
> some, but I would like to do some poppers an freeze them. I'll use a
> "standard" filling of cheeses, bacon and fried onions.
>
> So, my question is, how well do peppers freeze? I know that frozen green
> peppers have a sad consistency. Should I blanche them before I freeze
> them?
>
> Does anyone else here have experience with liquidating excessive peppers?
>
> TIA,
>
> Wally Bedford


I would sun dry the peppers as you would sun dry tomatoes. You cut them in
half, remove the seeds, squash them down, and place them on a cookie sheet,
flesh side up all day in the sun. You end up with something like this.
http://www.nutsonline.com/driedfruit...d-peppers.html
What you end with your own efforts, however, is a far more "barbecue
gourmet" than you would ever find in a storel
They last forever. They lend great taste to chili, barbecue sauce, as
pickled peppers, etc. I'm envious.

Kent

Wally Bedford wrote:
> So, my question is, how well do peppers freeze? I know that frozen
> green peppers have a sad consistency. Should I blanche them before I
> freeze them?

Peppers - Safe Methods to Store, Preserve and Enjoy
http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8004.pdf
--
-frohe
Life is too short to be in a hurry

On 10-Sep-2006, "frohe" > wrote:

> Wally Bedford wrote:
> > So, my question is, how well do peppers freeze? I know that frozen
> > green peppers have a sad consistency. Should I blanche them before I
> > freeze them?
>
> Peppers - Safe Methods to Store, Preserve and Enjoy
> http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8004.pdf
> --
> -frohe

I use a lot of frozen peppers Frohe. They're readily available in the
freezer
section of the major grocers. They usually package a combination of red,
green and yellow pepper strips. When bells are in season, I sometimes
buy a few and freeze them my self. I simply wash them good, then
seed, devein and cut into ~1/2" strips. Then I vacuum pack them for
freezing. I've began to repackage most of the stuff that I buy at the market
as well. I otherwise lose too much stuff to freezer burn.

--
Brick

frohe wrote:
> Wally Bedford wrote:
>> So, my question is, how well do peppers freeze? I know that frozen
>> green peppers have a sad consistency. Should I blanche them before I
>> freeze them?
>
> Peppers - Safe Methods to Store, Preserve and Enjoy
> http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8004.pdf

Excellent article. Not too many people are aware of the extreme food
poisoning of spoiled peppers.

Wally Bedford wrote:
> Well, I have 38 plants... each with around 20 peppers on them. My
> original idea was to make chipotle out of them but I may have more than
> I can handle! I guess I should have looked into this before I planted
> them.
>
> First batch in the WSM went okay. 150 and ten hours didn't dry them
> all. I had around 50 peppers on each grate. The peppers were cut
> almost all the way through to keep them from falling through. The lower
> grate dried well, but the upper grate was way behind. There is a lot of
> moisture to get rid of, and it was very moist air coming up to the top
> grate! One grill for subsequent batches, I believe. I'm making a solar
> dehydrator to make sure they are dry. Nifty contraption at
> http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/soldehyd.htm
>
> I'm going to have a lot of peppers come off soon, before the frost hits
> (I'm in Southern Ontario). I don't know if they are all going to get
> red before the frost, so I'm looking for alternate uses. I am going to
> pickle some, but I would like to do some poppers an freeze them. I'll
> use a "standard" filling of cheeses, bacon and fried onions.
>
> So, my question is, how well do peppers freeze? I know that frozen
> green peppers have a sad consistency. Should I blanche them before I
> freeze them?
>
> Does anyone else here have experience with liquidating excessive peppers?
>
> TIA,
>
> Wally Bedford


Update on batch 2...

When I finished drying batch 1, I couldn't help but notice the smoky
smell from my nifty solar dehydrator. That told me that the chipotles
were going to be "diluted". This time around, I put (60) peppers in the
oven @150 for two hours _before_ I put them in the smoker. Worked out
quite well. 12 hours @150 did most of the drying. I put them all on
the upper grate of my WSM. There was a lot of overlap to begin with but
that was resolved by moving them around after they shrunk.

Getting a WSM to work at 150 isn't that tough. I modified the minion
method to have three briquettes on top of the lump. I lit the
briquettes with a soldering torch. I did have to re-arrange the lump
every couple of hours to make sure it was all getting a chance to burn
but much less fuss than I was prepared for. The briquettes are a very
stable way to get a fire that slow started.

I'm now considering another mod for batch 3 (peppers are turning red
quickly now!) to help with the drying. As they dry out, they curl up
and look like a couple of cone shells. In the latter stages of the
cook, there is a lot of hot, dry smoke that goes "unused" as it slips by
the curled up peppers. Getting the inside of these peppers to dry takes
some time. So, when they all start to curl up (but before they get
stiff) I am going to unroll them and hold them open by using a toothpick
as a wedge. The pepper will want to roll back up and that should hold
it in place. I'm not going to poke the toothpicks through the flesh, so
removing them should be easy enough. With the peppers wide open, the
seeds & membrane will dry faster and catch a lot of smoke.

A buddy suggested that I take a bunch of seeds and membranes out and
make an infused oil with them. I'm liking that idea! Bit of that to
panfry shrimp seems appealing enough.