Chilies should be stored unwashed and wrapped in paper towels in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. Dried chilies should be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for a maximum of four months.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Is there a way to can or preserve hot peppers besides vinegar? Example: olive oil?
By gonzales brown from Yeadon, PA
It is very dangerous to preserve things in oil at home. There have been many cases of botulism forming in garlic olive oil and this can be deadly. It seems likely that this would be the case with other vegetables as well. I would research this very carefully if you decide to go this route.
Maybe you could look into a way to can them, like you would tomatoes? Other ideas might be drying them, using a dehydrator or just freezing them for use in chili and salsa throughout the winter.
It looks like there are many good ideas in the archived feedback. Just scroll down and you will see all the previous posts. Hopefully one of these will help you out.
We love jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese, then wrapped with a third slice of bacon, I make them up and freeze them for winter. Then I bake them the same 45 minutes at 375 degrees F.
I use my food processor to chop up my garden peppers. I then use zip lock bags and put them in the freezer, date and label. You can also freeze in ice cube trays, when solid pop into freezer bags for later use.
Rajh from Australia
Saving chili pepper seeds is easy. You don't mention where you're getting the existing fruit.
If you're getting is from existing plants, allow some peppers to stay on the plants until they pass maturity and start to shrivel up. Then simply remove the seeds (they don't usually require any cleaning), and lay them on a cookie sheet to dry in a warm, dark place. Once fully dry, store them in an airtight container until planting them next season.
Peppers saved from store bought peppers can be saved in the same way. If you are buying peppers from the produce department for seeds, you need to keep two things in mind. First of all, most peppers in the grocery store are hybrids so the seeds may not produce peppers that are true to the parent plant. Second, peppers from the produce department may have been treated with certain chemicals during production. These chemicals can sometimes render seeds sterile. If you're looking in the produce department for peppers, head toward the organic department to minimize the probability of chemically treated fruits.
If you want to start some plants with the goal of saving seeds, stick to heirloom seeds and avoid the hybrids, which may not breed true to their parent type.
Ellen
To dry chili peppers from our garden after the peppers are picked from the vine, all we do is put them in a mesh bag (we save the bags from oranges, etc. from the store) and then hang the bag to dry the peppers. We hang ours in the garage where there is more air circulation with the windows open and the gargage door is often open when we are home. The chili peppers become brittle, and I store them whole in a canister. At this stage, because they are so brittle, the seeds are loose, so removing the seeds is simple. Just snip off the end of the pepper and they fall right out. They then should be planted the following growing season. We start our seeds inside because peppers do take longer to grow. Good Friday is the ideal time to start pepper plants inside for us, as we live in a northern climate. Just be sure while handling the seeds to wash your hands well afterward, or wear plastic disposable gloves, because they are HOT and can burn your skin and also your eyes if you forget and rub your eyes!
Is it possible to reuse canned hot pepper juice with new peppers. This would be juice from brand name hot cherry peppers?
By Dave S Sr.
My husband does. He adds peppers from the garden into the jars when the store ones are all gone. He says they are ok, but not as strong. It does take several weeks before the are ready to eat.
I do and I reuse pickle juice too. Its not as strong as it was the first time.
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I grew a lot of hot peppers in my garden this year, and now I need a recipe on how to store them. Maybe in olive oil? Thank you.
