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storage Can Peppers Spoil in the Freezer?

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DocNrock

I hope this is the right forum. A search didn't reveal much.

My question is as in the title. Here is why I ask: I've bought quite a few SFRB's of pods over the last couple of months. These were cut in half, deseeded, then frozen. I just got a dehydrator and loaded it up. Over half of the peppers had an odd odor after thawing. It's definitely not a freezer-burn odor, more of a sour pungency, and very different from the smell of fresh peppers. The taste of a small piece was OK, but definitely didn't taste like fresh. The taste was similar to the smell. The consistency was as expected after freezing: soft/mushy. But the peppers had absolutely no discoloration, whatsoever. They were never thawed after their initial freezing until today and seemed to be in great condition when I put them in the freezer.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance. Unless I hear otherwise, I'll continue dehydrating them and then grind them up for powder. Part of me wants to err on the side of caution, but mostly I think I'm just over-reacting.
 
It sounds like you didn't have them long, so the amount of time in the freezer, in and of itself, shouldn't be a problem. I have frozen pods and used within several months of being frozen and had no problems with them, though I froze mine whole. Like you said, mushy consistency, but that's okay if all you're going to do is chop them up and use them in something.

What variety? Did you notice a similar smell when cutting them open? To me, habs have an ammonia-like after-taste, so I can see where freezing and then thawing may bring out a similar smell, although I don't get an ammonia-like smell when I cut them open. Also, I'm wondering if they possibly got over-hot during shipment (not that you would have an answer to that), as that can affect the pods. So it seems to me they could be fine - the smell is just from the variety, or not.
 
I concur with geeme. There is no realistic way for them to spoil in the freezer if they're used within a few months, especially if being used to make something. The reason for the mushiness is actually due to the ice crystals piercing the cell walls, and while they'll look superficially identical, upon thawing is when they get their mushiness. It does nothing as far as taste, etc., and both it and the heat are completely retained, which is why the recommendation of using them for something other than as whole peppers.
 
before you freeze peppers arent you supposed to blanch them in hot water to kill any bacteria that could for before the peppers reach the 40 degree safe mark?
 
Thanks for the reassuring responses. I was pretty sure the peppers were still OK, as I do have a pretty decent understanding of medical microbiology. I'm a newbie at things like this, though, and the stronger, more pungent smell than fresh made me question if the peppers were still edible. The dehydrator is still going so hopefully some powders later today.

To Pshngo, I had read about blanching prior to freezing. What I personally read specificially excluded peppers. I'm guessing it wouldn't hurt, except for loss of some flavor/heat.
 
How long will pods be fine in the freezer? If frozen whole? I thought a half year was no problem, but I see months is mentioned here now... :-)
 
No need to blanch. Unless you're freezing a 5 gallon block of pods, the chiles will freeze quickly enough. You probably want to rinse the dirt off, though.

How long chiles will stay "good" in the freezer depends a lot on how well/airtight they are packaged. If they are vacuum-packed in Seal-a-meal type bags, they will stay a lot longer than other types of bags. And Freezer bags are definitely better than just regular zipper bags. Chiles won't go "bad" in the freezer, but their quality may deteriorate if they get freezer-burn.
 
I broke some out this spring that were 4 years old. They still had the original heat from what I could tell and tasted perfect. I used them for a chili batch and was very impressed. The best method is to wash and food saver bags. The only down side to food saver bags is you need to use all of what you put in the bag or you end up with redoing a lot or a ton of wasted bags up front.
 
I have some in the freezer that have been there for 2 years in regular ziplock bags.
The they are still good although not as good as fresh. I'm sure if you put them in the foodsaver bags they will be fresh for years.
 
might it be possible that they took on another flavor/smell of something else you had in the freezer with them? I know this is possible in the fridge, I am however not sure about a freezer.
 
Follow-up: Went through the dehydration process and ground the pods. Great smelling and tasting powder. Awesome heat. I frequently sniffed the air coming out of the dehydrator thinking about the change in smell. I think it was just a more pungent pepper smell, perhaps because the cell walls had been pierced by ice crystals while initially freezing. I don't know.

Anyway, there is no comparison to home-made powder and that bought in stores. I wish I could share a .snf file, but sadly, they don't yet exist. Might make you sneeze, though. ;)
 
The only issue I've had with peppers is long term freezer burn. That being said this is the first year I'm freezing then smoking serranos and jalapenos for chipolte type uses. (My harvest is a hand full at a time and I want to do one big smoking or two smokings instead of a handful every now and again. While most of these will end up ground up, can anyone comment on them retaining shape for whole use later? The idea is for me to keep them whole then grind a handful at a time for powder or to use whole.
(Note, these will be smoked for several hours or a couple of days depending, then finished in a dehydrator.)
 
I've frozen 3 different peppers this year. Everything looks good so far, but only my Fajita Bells have changed color from a bright red to a darker almost maroon. Haven't tasted any yet. They're all going to the fermentation jar, though.
 
i have frozen several pounds, in zip locks and vacuum packed, orange habs, fresno's, jalapenos, thai chili's, upon thawing and cutting i immediately notice the sogginess of the pepper, im ok with that, but many of them, mainly the habs react as if they started a form of fermentation

to clarify that, the pepper appear to be slightly pressurized, and the placenta gets very soggy and an opaque lime green tint with consistency of snot, this is within a few hours of pulling them from the freezer
 
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