preservation Preserving my Hot Peppers

dsm600rr

dsm600rr

Hello All,
 
New guy here and new Hot Pepper Grower.
 
So I have been into Hot Sauces For Quite some time now, I also like to collect them. I also enjoy making my own Habanero/Carrot Based sauces for a hobby.
 
This year, I decided to give Growing Habanero's from Seeds a go. Right now I have 15 healthy plants.
 
My main question is how should I prepare to save this harvest? Pick, Wash, Dry, Vacuum Seal and Freeze? If so, what Vacuum sealer do you recommend that us cheap and will work ok (this is the only thing I would use the vacuum sealer for).
 
I would also like to make Habanero Pepper Flakes. Aside from a Dehydrator, Recommendations?
 
Also, When I pick fresh pepper from my plant that I wont use for a week or so, is it recommended I put them in the Fridge?
 
Thank you!
 


 
 
 
Hello,
I have some things that work for me and I thought I would share
I freeze all my peppers til I have enough to make sauce.

I have made sauce with dehydrated peppers, I was not happy with textures
Which I turned to a food mill

The peppers that I grow and have enough to make a sauce after I harvest are my favorite sauces.
Happy happy burns

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
 
Greenguru said:
Hello,
I have some things that work for me and I thought I would share
I freeze all my peppers til I have enough to make sauce.

I have made sauce with dehydrated peppers, I was not happy with textures
Which I turned to a food mill

The peppers that I grow and have enough to make a sauce after I harvest are my favorite sauces.
Happy happy burns

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
Thank you for your reply. What is your process to freezing them?
 
I have a food saver i got from walmart for about $80. It works great. The bags can be a little expensive but you can re-use them if you're only using them for veggies.
 
SmokenFire said:
I do not vacuum seal my peppers - just toss them in the bag with the other ones till there's enough to make sauce.  Good luck, and welcome to THP! :)
Click to expand...
 
Should I not waste money on one? Not necessary? How long do they keep like this? I typically use 35-40 pods in a batch.
 
dsm600rr said:
 
Should I not waste money on one? Not necessary? How long do they keep like this? I typically use 35-40 pods in a batch.
Click to expand...
 
If you already have one great, but I wouldn't purchase one just for peppers.  I've had peppers in the chest freezer for a year before making sauce with them and they were fine.  
 
SmokenFire said:
 
If you already have one great, but I wouldn't purchase one just for peppers.  I've had peppers in the chest freezer for a year before making sauce with them and they were fine.  
Click to expand...
 
That's all I need to hear. Mine would never last that long. Side note, do you throw them in whole? Or open them up and inspect. I see all these youtube guys saying cut them open before freezing to check for rot. That makes no since to me. Freeze the damn thing and then when you go to use, if it has rot just toss it and grab another.
 
A little off topic but I notice your specialty is habanero-carrot sauces. My all time favorite sauce is Sontava Habanero from Belize. It's delicious. I could drink a 55 gallon drum of it in a year or two. I don't see a bottle in your collection but I wonder if you're familiar with it? It's habanero, carrot, onion, lime, vinegar, garlio and salt. Do you have a recipe to share that may closely approximate this sauce?
 
Back on topic, I freeze some and dehydrate some. I store the dried pods in glass jars and keep them in a cool, dark place until I need to grind some to feed my addictions.
 
Check out Dave's Scorpion Pepper sauce. It's not quite as hot as a lot of their sauces but it's a clean taste. No nasty extract taste to it like the Insanity.
 
Looks like you have some Blair's too. Did they send an analysis along with that puppy?
 
:welcome:
 
DWB said:
A little off topic but I notice your specialty is habanero-carrot sauces. My all time favorite sauce is Sontava Habanero from Belize. It's delicious. I could drink a 55 gallon drum of it in a year or two. I don't see a bottle in your collection but I wonder if you're familiar with it? It's habanero, carrot, onion, lime, vinegar, garlio and salt. Do you have a recipe to share that may closely approximate this sauce?
 
Back on topic, I freeze some and dehydrate some. I store the dried pods in glass jars and keep them in a cool, dark place until I need to grind some to feed my addictions.
 
Check out Dave's Scorpion Pepper sauce. It's not quite as hot as a lot of their sauces but it's a clean taste. No nasty extract taste to it like the Insanity.
 
Looks like you have some Blair's too. Did they send an analysis along with that puppy?
 
:welcome:
Click to expand...
 
Hello. I have not tried that one yet, now i have to!
 
When you freeze the pods, what is your process?
 
Since I have yet to try the Sontava Habanero sauce, I cannot compare the two, however I encourage you to try this recipe I came up with. Fresh and zippy is how I would describe it. Since my Friends and family have tried it, I cannot make enough. I reach for my own sauce 90% of the time. If you make it, let me know your thoughts.
 
 
Habanero & Carrot sauce
  • 3 Cups Carrots, Chopped
  • 2 Sweet Onions, Chopped
  • 3 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 1/2 Cup Lime Juice (Fresh Squeezed Limes a Must!)
  • 6 Garlic Cloves, Minced
  • 4 Teaspoons Salt
  • 30 or so Habanero Peppers with seeds, remove stems
  • 15-20 Red Thai Peppers
 
  • Combine all the ingredients, except for the habaneros/Thai, in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil (covered) for 15 minutes or until the carrots are soft
  • Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.
 
  • Boil mason jars 10min to sterilize. Add vinegar to water if you have hard water
  • Boil Finger-Tip Tight Filled Jars 20min, let rest 5 min in hot water.
 

 
 
dsm600rr said:
 
Hello. I have not tried that one yet, now i have to!
 
When you freeze the pods, what is your process?
 
Since I have yet to try the Sontava Habanero sauce, I cannot compare the two, however I encourage you to try this recipe I came up with. Fresh and zippy is how I would describe it. Since my Friends and family have tried it, I cannot make enough. I reach for my own sauce 90% of the time. If you make it, let me know your thoughts.
 
 
Habanero & Carrot sauce
  • 3 Cups Carrots, Chopped
  • 2 Sweet Onions, Chopped
  • 3 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 1/2 Cup Lime Juice (Fresh Squeezed Limes a Must!)
  • 6 Garlic Cloves, Minced
  • 4 Teaspoons Salt
  • 30 or so Habanero Peppers with seeds, remove stems
  • 15-20 Red Thai Peppers
 
  • Combine all the ingredients, except for the habaneros/Thai, in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil (covered) for 15 minutes or until the carrots are soft
  • Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.
 
  • Boil mason jars 10min to sterilize. Add vinegar to water if you have hard water
  • Boil Finger-Tip Tight Filled Jars 20min, let rest 5 min in hot water.
 
 
Click to expand...
Sounds like you need to do a hot sauce giveaway lol
 
Thanks for the recipe. I will try it and let you know. I don't have habaneros so I'll probably use scorpions. I'll make some small amounts a few times and hope I come up with something as delicious as the Sontava. They sell that at World Market, if you have one of those near you.
 
When I freeze pods just I wash them, put them in a ziplock and into the freezer.
 
dsm600rr said:
 
Hello. I have not tried that one yet, now i have to!
 
When you freeze the pods, what is your process?
 
Since I have yet to try the Sontava Habanero sauce, I cannot compare the two, however I encourage you to try this recipe I came up with. Fresh and zippy is how I would describe it. Since my Friends and family have tried it, I cannot make enough. I reach for my own sauce 90% of the time. If you make it, let me know your thoughts.
 
 
Habanero & Carrot sauce
  • 3 Cups Carrots, Chopped
  • 2 Sweet Onions, Chopped
  • 3 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 1/2 Cup Lime Juice (Fresh Squeezed Limes a Must!)
  • 6 Garlic Cloves, Minced
  • 4 Teaspoons Salt
  • 30 or so Habanero Peppers with seeds, remove stems
  • 15-20 Red Thai Peppers
 
  • Combine all the ingredients, except for the habaneros/Thai, in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil (covered) for 15 minutes or until the carrots are soft
  • Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.
 
  • Boil mason jars 10min to sterilize. Add vinegar to water if you have hard water
  • Boil Finger-Tip Tight Filled Jars 20min, let rest 5 min in hot water.
 
 
Click to expand...
 
I've been using a close variant to this recipe for the last 2 years, and I absolutely LOVE it.  I use Habaneros as the base pepper in the sauce (Naranja Picantes, Red Savinas and Bahamian Goats).  I also mix in various levels of super hots (reapers, scorpions, ghosts) to adjust the final heat level of the sauce, without compromising the flavor.
 
Anyways, I'll share the variation, in case you or anyone else is interested in trying it...
 
- Instead of mincing the garlic, you can saute the cloves WHOLE and UNPEELED in a small frying pan. About 5 minutes each side. Once the outer layers blacken, the cloves will be soft, so let them cool down, peel of the outer layer, and add them to the blending mix at the end of the process.  It adds such an amazing complimentary smoky flavour to the already present "smokiness" of the habaneros
 
- Also, I add a tablespoon or so of honey at the end (blending step) as well.  I (and others who taste the sauce) really notice the sweetness early, before the heat eventually hits.
 
 
LASTLY, I noticed you don't cook the hot peppers, just blend them in.  I've been cooking mine with the carrots/onions/et al.  Can I ask what the reason/intended outcome is of not cooking them?  Thanks!
 
dsm600rr said:
.
 
My main question is how should I prepare to save this harvest? Pick, Wash, Dry, Vacuum Seal and Freeze? If so, what Vacuum sealer do you recommend that us cheap and will work ok (this is the only thing I would use the vacuum sealer for).
 
I would also like to make Habanero Pepper Flakes. Aside from a Dehydrator, Recommendations?
 
Also, When I pick fresh pepper from my plant that I wont use for a week or so, is it recommended I put them in the Fridge?
 
 
 
 
Click to expand...
 
New guy here on the forum too, your question prompted me to post.  I grew a ton of habanero peppers this summer.  Early in the spring I would pick maybe 10-20 per week.  I would wash them, dry on the counter, then cut off the stems and place in a gallon size freezer bag.  I'd continue to add to that bag until it was full, about 120 peppers.  If I was going to store the peppers for a long time in the freezer I think the vacuum sealer would be a good idea, but the longest I had mine in the freezer was a month or two and had no problems. 
 
I do not have a dehydrator, but I had good success drying peppers in the oven.  I cut each of the frozen peppers in half top to bottom and laid them insides up on parchment paper on baking sheets.  I would fill three sheets with the one bag.  I then put them in the oven on the warming setting.  It would run for about 3 or 4 hours and then shut off.  I'd usually forget about it for several hours, then wander by and turn it back on.  It would take several cycles of this (often over a day or two) and then the peppers were dry.  If I thought about it I would rotate the level of the pans before turning the oven back on, but I'm not sure this was necessary.    
 
I then put the dried peppers in another gallon bag and crushed them first by hand and then with a small dough roller.  As the summer wore on, I was picking so many peppers at once I would skip the freezing step and go straight to drying them.  I did find for my oven 3 pans was just right.  I tried doing more, but there was just too much moisture generated to dry well. 
 
After crushing I store the flakes in glass jars.  The habanero flakes taste great and I made way more than I could ever use.  I found some small mason spice jars at target for 2 bucks.  I think I gave away about 40 jars to friends and family this summer, and I still have 2 full big jars of flakes left. 
 
I have not tried my hand at homemade salsa yet but I will soon and I will be using your habanero and carrot recipe.  That sounds great!  Thanks for sharing.        
 
I like the gallon-bag and dough roller idea for crushing dried peppers.  Last season I used a mortar and pestle and the bag/roller way is much easier.
 
Dehydrators are so cheap and easy to use, that I did not consider the oven.  I ran my dehydrator last night for 12 hours and processed 5 racks of various pepper halves this morning, crushing the habaneros and storing the flake/powder in one of the small jars described above.  My seranos and padrones were perfectly dry and I have been snacking on them all morning.  Crushing to flakes would not take any time at all, but I went ahead and put them in small freezer bags and stuck in the freezer.
 
I also dried about 70 ghost peppers and froze the halves in three small freezer bags for future use.  I grew the ghost peppers for fun - they yielded beautiful plants and pods, but not sure what I will use them for, given that scotch bonnets are the top of my heat scale tolerance.
 
Here are the peppers, grouped by plant, that I got in a $35 5-tray dehydrator for one 12-hour session, excluding the pile of lighter-colored ghosts which I froze as-is.  The five habaneros at upper-right came from a tiny plant that I nearly killed over-wintering.  I hope to show its yield every year until I am to old to grow things:

peppers to dry.jpg
 
People seem to take great care in making things like pepper flakes. I just throw dried peppers into a ziplock and crush through that.
 
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