• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

storage Freezing pods - should I deseed first?

shadrack

shadrack

So I went a little nuts and had 145 plants this year.   Needless to say I have spent the better part of the summer saving pods by cutting them in half, deseeding, bagging and putting them in the freezer until I have time to use them.   I have spent countless hours doing this and there is no way I can keep up with all the pods I have before they go bad.  
 
Question:  Should I deseed if I want to use the pods for purees or a chunkier ferment/sauce that doesn't contain seeds?   Would running a puree/mash through a foodmill remove the seeds at the expense of making the sauce very thin?  
 
I don't yet own a foodmill so was hoping someone could offer insight on this.  Ideally it would be much quicker for me to cut the pods in half then throw them in a freezer bag.  I might actually be able to keep up with them then.  
 
I've been cutting in half and freezing for a couple years now and don't see much issue with it. It's important to me to inspect as I cut to pull out any discolored or black seeds before freezing. They tend to add to bitterness in the end product whether it's making sauce or drying for powder.
I do use a foodmill when I make sauce to pull all the seeds out before the final blending stage.
 
shadrack said:
 
Sure, same reason as Hawaiianero mentioned above.  To make sure it's a good pod without mold or other nasties hiding inside.  Also I think they take up less space in a freezer bag by cutting them up.  
Click to expand...
can't argue that one !   lol     :onfire:
 
Also curious about the food mill. Will it remove most or all seeds and still keep the flesh? I wouldn't use a mill if I lost the chunkiness.
 
Good mills come with 2-3 disks for varying textures so you can keep most of the pulp. If you run it thru a mill it won't be chunky as a food mill is meant to sauce foods. It ain't gonna be chunky like a jar of salsa.
 
when i make sauce (usually 150-180 bottles a year), i go ghetto
 
 
boil/simmer my ingredients
 
liquid and solids get ladled into a blender.....which then gets dumped into a gravy strainer......i force that through the strainer with a flat bottomed wooden spoon......solids left behind, liquid goes into final simmer......and i didn't have to buy anything
 
You will save A LOT of time and effort if you spend $30-40 on a food mill. It mechanically presses the meat through for you. I wouldn't hesitate to get one if you're doing that many bottles.
 
I got a decent mill for around $20. I like to use the smallest screen so the seeds don't fall through. If you cook it long enough so the flesh is really soft, the mill helps to break it down and push it through the screen. Thickness depends on how much pepper flesh and other fruits/veggies you use.
For the last batch I made, I cooked down a crapload (official term there) of brazillian starfish and bishops hats instead of using carrots and the resulting sauce came out thicker than tabasco but thin enough where I could use a dasher nozzle on my woozies.
 
Now that I got the thickness I want, I just need to find the right flavor profile.
Someday.......yes, someday.....
 
Ok, good info here. I don't like to cook my sauces at all but understand why it could be needed with a food mill. I think I could get the same experience by throwing pods in a food processor first and then in the food mill. Or, if you let frozen pods dethaw they should get mushy enough to pass thru the mill. Any experience with either of those methods?
 
I've only milled the cooked stuff. I do throw pods in a processor with garlic and salt for fermenting.
I guess you could mill the fermented stuff but never tried that myself.
 
I also add a little vinegar to the chopped up pepper/garlic/salt mash and keep in a mason jar in the fridge. After a few days it starts to have a "sriracha-ish" flavor and texture, perfect for spooning onto a bowl of ramen or fried rice or anything else for that matter.
Really handy for spicing up store-bought salsa if you don't have time to make your own.
 
Rich

What sauce did you make with StarFish and Bishops Hat? I have both peppers.

Fermented mash and a food mill are part of the process that some of us use. Again, one of the reasons for a food mill after fermentation is to separate seeds from the fermented mash. Process the solids. Get it one step closer to a smooth sauce.
 
i know i probably should get the mill, but i do 4-5 different batches......all color based, blends of multiple peppers......and i kind of like the small-batch vibe the hands on processing affords
 
 
call me silly, but i like the avoidance of as much automation as possible ;)
 
tims77 said:
when i make sauce (usually 150-180 bottles a year), i go ghetto
 
 
boil/simmer my ingredients
 
liquid and solids get ladled into a blender.....which then gets dumped into a gravy strainer......i force that through the strainer with a flat bottomed wooden spoon......solids left behind, liquid goes into final simmer......and i didn't have to buy anything
Click to expand...
That is how I do blackberry and raspberry jam.  The seeds are very crunchy, hate them in the jam.

On freezing peppers, I wash, de stem, and slit the side to inspect and make sure there is no yuck.  If you are going to remove seeds, it is easier when the pepper is firm (before freezing) but why remove them at all?  I do sometimes remove seeds / placenta on some recipes to get the heat down.  But in general, pepper seeds cook down soft enough that I dont notice them in food at all.  Not like blackberry or respberry.  No crunchy surprise.

Is my seed littered food just gross?
 
chiltepin said:
Rich

What sauce did you make with StarFish and Bishops Hat? I have both peppers.

Fermented mash and a food mill are part of the process that some of us use. Again, one of the reasons for a food mill after fermentation is to separate seeds from the fermented mash. Process the solids. Get it one step closer to a smooth sauce.
Click to expand...
I'm trying to make a red sauce with more flavor than just vinegar. I don't have a go-to recipe yet, still in the trials stages. Since the starfish and bishops hats have low level heat I treated them like bell peppers.
Basic recipe I'm tweaking goes like this:
 
For heat I use a pepper mash like I described above with pepper/garlic/salt marinating in white vinegar in a mason jar in the fridge.
Pepper varieties are either single strain of blend of red ghost/red 7 pot brainstrain/brown moruga/carolina reaper/red, orange, chocolate habanero/yellow fatalii
 
1 cup diced tomato
1 cup dice or shredded carrots ( last batch was about 2 cups bh & sf instead of carrots)
4 or 5 cloves garlic minced
1tbs grated ginger
1 med. red onion diced
1/4 cup sugar (trying different types of sugars/honey/agave)
2 cups vinegar
1 cup water
1 or 2 tbs worchestershire sauce
 
I boil it all down for about 1/2 hour and then immersion blender right in the pot
run it through the food mill then back on the stove and add the mash
slow boil another 15 minutes then food mill again
last 15 min slow boil then right into woozies and/or mason jars
 
I've been experimenting with different fruits for sweetness instead of sugar and while friends seem to like it I'm still not happy.
Still looking for that BAM factor.
 
Some great responses here, thank you.   So far I've made purees where I first deseed and then grind up the pods in a blender.  After which they get cooked down on the stove until reaching the desired thickness and then pressure canned.  I'd imagine the puree is probably close to what a food mill would produce, depending the the blade used, if trying to deseed a fermented mash or cooked puree.   
The seed thing is just personal preference I guess.  Seeds don't bother me in some things (salsa) but a sauce/puree would be chock full of them if some attempt wasn't made to reduce the amount.
 
If you've ever had Cappy's brain strain sauce; that's roughly the consistency I'm going for with a ferment.  I've got my first two ferments going right now where I first manually deseeded the pods and then blendered and fermented.  Naturally, deseeding added a lot of prep time but I like how Cappy's sauce flows out of a woozy bottle with ketchup-like consistency.  So if frozen unprocessed pods can at some point in the process of making a sauce be food milled/deseed to this consistency I will be buying on this weekend!
 
I'll second and third cutting up your peppers to store in freezer.  If I throw whole pods in a gallon freezer bag I can maybe store 1.5lbs in a bag depending upon size.  Cutting them up, sometimes in 1/4ths I can store easily 3lbs in a gallon freezer bag.  Right now I have 3lbs of Butch-T's in freezer along with another 9 pounds of various Superhots,  I still have another 10lbs or so to process, but I am out of freezer space.  lol
 
 
Next time I am buying a bigger freezer! 
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top