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consistency Destemming

HellfireFarm

HellfireFarm

Business Member
I've been searching the forums and can't really find much on this. And it's not sauce-specific either...

This year has been a 'proof of concept' for me - and I've found that destemming a 5-gallon bucket of reapers is exceptionally time-consuming. Taking that up to my hoped-for harvest next year would be a full-time job on its own!

So how do you destem in that quantity - when you're dealing with several thousand peppers? Or are they not harmful and it's not something to worry about?

I'm planning more on powders and spice blends at first though - so same question as applies to that.

Thanks!
 
They are not harmful, so just leaving them on is an option… you’d want to strain the mash before using, but that’s still a time savings. I imagine the stems add some flavor, but I’m not sure it would be bad… many wines and liqueurs (like Luxardo Maraschino) rely on a pleasant, nutty flavor imparted by fermenting with the stems and seeds included.

It’d be worth doing a small batch both ways to see.
 
I dont like stems in the sauces. Personal preference. Take a bite of a stem, if you like it leave them in. Other than that, its just putting in the time. One season, i de-stemmed about 500 pounds of morugas and 7 Pots. Put on a podcast and get to it.

I also cut the pods in half to check for dark spots, bad spots, black seeds, etc. The sauce these pods were used for was a gorgeous red orange sauce. The first time i made the sauce without cleaning the peppers, i spent a ton of time picking dark seeds out of the sauce. For me, it was worth it to spend the time on the prep. Also, as a first step, i wash the peppers. After trimming, the pods were dried or frozen for use later. Clean/Process the chiles at the harvest time, then make sauce or package later as you have time.
 
When weighing the advice given, bear in mind that @salsalady has a lot of experience making sauce, whereas I am extrapolating from general cooking knowledge. 😉

Personally, I intend to destem, halve, and roughly seed all my sauce peppers. But then again, I’ll only be making enough for family.
 
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Good note about deseeding.
Some peppers like fresno have a ton of seeds. When using those, i take the bulk of the seeds out. For most superhots, they dont have a lot of seeds, i dont worry about taking the seeds out.

For a really smooth sauce, i use a BlendTec blender, or put the sauce thru a food mill after cooking and blending, even with a simple stick blender.
 
Thanks for the responses. I wasn't sure how detrimental they might be to the quality. The experiment seems a good idea.

Am I the only one around here who does powders? I notice all the responses are about sauces.

I guess same there: 2 batches to compare. I wonder how/if they'll grind?
 
With a powder, you can’t sift out the stems and seeds… a powder with them will be less flavorful and colorful than one with them removed.

This is actually why I switched to gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes) from the ubiquitous “crushed red pepper”. Theirs are only the flesh, and it makes a huge difference. So much brighter and fruitier.
 
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thoroughburro said:
With a powder, you can’t sift out the stems and seeds… a powder with them will be less flavorful and colorful than one with them removed.
Click to expand...
That's pretty close to what I was expecting, but then it goes back to the work of destemming all those peppers. From a commercial standpoint, the more they're handled, the less profitable they are. It's hard to find out how this is done commercially - other than commercial products that cost tens of thousands. (I'm nowhere near ready for that investment yet)
 
I remove all stems. I also cut and freeze all sauce making peppers to help remove seeds and break down cell wall prior to fermentation. I do not do powders but I do dried pods (flavor lasts longer) All dehydrated peppers are cut into quarters seeds and stems removed prior to dehydrating them. It's time consuming but definitely worth it.
 
You can destem fast with kitchen scissors which only leaves a small portion of stem that would impact flavor/color.
 
You can even up the speed with this, just hold the trigger and feed them in.
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Blue Ridge Tools Rechargeable Rotary Cutter

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Hey, all ideas are welcome!
I can actually see making a machine based on something like that cutter. Something where I could just dump the peppers and let them run through, without getting close to the blade. Biggest issue is making it safe for food handling. Might be something to play with over the off-season.

I found a crusher/destemmer for winemaking. It crushes the grape and pulls the stem at the same time. Not sure what state Ag will think of it, but it IS intended for handling consumables - I would have to guess something similar is being used by local wineries.
That might work for sauces, but I'm not so sure about powders - I might have to give it a try. Drying crushed peppers might work. I'm not worried about stems for the whole dry peppers.
 
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