Hot pepper is a piquant spice with which you need to be extremely careful. For this reason, many housewives bypass it, forgetting that it contains useful substances in which our body lacks in the autumn-winter period. Therefore, it will be very good if you prepare burning seasoning for the winter season. The best way to do this is described below.

Did you know? The homeland of red pepper is tropical America. The first Europeans to discover the vegetable were Spanish and Portuguese sailors. They called him «Indian».

How to save hot peppers for the winter

You can harvest in various ways. It all depends on how much you want to provide yourself with supplies and in what form you prefer to consume a vegetable.

Freezing

This is a fairly simple way to store spices, allowing you to maintain its taste and maximum nutrients. Unfortunately, after defrosting, it loses its appearance, becoming soft and wet, which may seem like a drawback.

There are several options for freezing, but regardless of which option you choose, the shelf life will be the same, six months to a year. The product can be stored longer, but then the loss of taste and aroma begins.

Important! If you want to preserve the appearance of pepper as much as possible, you can keep it in a refrigerator with a temperature of 0–2 ° C for 40 days.

Conservation

Preservatives can be salt, sugar, marinade. The name of the method will depend on which of the preservatives you choose.

Pickling

One of the most popular preservation methods is pickling. For this, a marinade is prepared, based on vinegar; horseradish, currant or cherry leaves, spices are added to it. The main advantage of this method is that in the preparation of the marinade, a wide variety of options are possible, which allows to obtain preservation of different taste qualities. It will perfectly shade and complement any main course.

The disadvantage of pickling is that most of the beneficial substances of pepper are lost. In addition, in order to enjoy preservation, you must wait a few weeks. Spin 1-3 years is stored. Before the start of the heating season, it is permissible to keep the twist in the apartment in a dry ventilated place. When the house gets hot, it is advisable to hide the roll-up in a cool place: a cellar, a loggia, a refrigerator.

Oil storage

You can preserve pepper in oil to preserve its taste. Both sunflower and olive oil are suitable: they perfectly retain the bitterness of the product. You just need to wash the vegetable, peel it, put it in a jar, add oil and close the lid. If you wish, add spices.

A vegetable canned in oil will retain a maximum of nutrients, but its shelf life will be significantly reduced compared to pickled (3-12 months). Also disadvantages include the fact that the peppers poured with oil should be infused for at least 14 days before they can be enjoyed. It is also stored in a cool dark place.

Grinding

Chopping pepper involves first drying the vegetable.

You can dry it like this:

• in the oven at 50 ° C;
• hanging on a thread in a dry place;
• laying out on parchment on the windowsill.

For grinding, a meat grinder, coffee grinder, blender is suitable. Twisted vegetable is laid out in bags or glass jars and sent for storage in a dry, dark, cool place. So the spice can be stored for 1-1.5 years. Putting the powder in the freezer will help to slightly increase the shelf life.

This method allows you to stock up on spices for a long time, which is a definite plus, but you can use it only in the form of seasoning. In addition, if the air gets into the container, a pleasant aroma will quickly leave it.

How to select and prepare hot pepper for billets

So that the workpiece can be stored for a rather long time, it is necessary to strictly observe the technology, and it is imperative to select and prepare the vegetable correctly.

Features of the choice:

1. The maximum sharpness of the spice appears when it is fully ripe. It will have a saturated red, yellow or orange color. The green color says that the pepper has not yet ripened, which means it is less sharp.
2. A product suitable for harvesting should be whole, fleshy and with a shiny skin.
3. Red pods are stored as long as possible, green - the least.
4. A product suitable for harvesting can be determined by drying it after harvesting for a week in the shade. Those pods that begin to deteriorate are discarded.

Important! When working with hot pepper you need to be extremely careful. It is advisable to work with gloves, protect your eyes and not touch your hair and face with your hands until you wash them thoroughly.

Pepper preparation:

1. Seeds are a source of bitterness. If you do not remove them, then over time the burning qualities of spice will increase.
2. If you want to remove the seeds, first remove them, and then rinse the pepper. Whole pods are washed immediately.
3. Dry the product on paper or cloth.

The best recipes for the preparation of hot pepper

Now we offer to familiarize yourself with some common recipes for blanks.

Important! Those who don't like vinegar can put lemon in their place.

Did you know? In 2006, Cancer Research published information on a medical study, according to which scientists were able to effectively use cancer peppers to attack cancer cells.

Freezing

Spice Freeze Options:

• instant (finely chopped vegetable is laid out on a plate in a layer and sent to the freezer, then it is collected in a bag from which air is removed and sent for storage);
• in container (whole pods are placed in a container or zip package and hidden in a freezer);
• In oil (the seed-peeled pods are put in a jar, filled with oil and sent for storage at 0 ° C);
• with greens (the spice is finely chopped with parsley or celery, mixed, folded into a bag and sent to the freezer. A mixture of greens makes it easy to separate a serving from a common piece).

Drying

There are several ways to dry the pods of hot spices:

1. In the oven. Sort the harvest, wash, dry with napkins and cut in half. Remove the seeds. Cover the baking sheet with parchment and lay the vegetable on it. Preheat the oven to 50 ° C. Put the baking sheet in the oven, leave the door ajar. After 120 minutes, turn off the oven, do not close the door. After a day, again set 50 ° C and hold the pepper for another 120 minutes in the oven. Leave it to cool there. Then lay in bags or in glass jars.
2. On the rope. Wash and slightly dry the pods on the parchment. Pass a thread or a thin rope into the eye of the needle. Each pod is pierced with a needle in the area of ​​the stalk and string on a rope so that they do not touch each other. The thread is stretched in a warm, ventilated room with low humidity. This process is natural, but rather lengthy - it can take about two weeks.
3. On paper. Spread the washed pepper on clean paper or parchment on the windowsill. In this form, it will dry for two or three weeks. In order for the drying process to proceed evenly, the vegetable needs to be turned over from time to time.
4. In the dryer. Wash the burning spices and remove the seeds. Put the product in the dryer and install the desired program. The drying process may take about 12 hours.

Useful Tips

Lastly, a few useful tips for storing spice:

1. Dry the halves of the pods in the oven and arrange them in jars. They can be added during the preparation of various first and second courses.
2. Before sending the bag of spices to the freezer, blow all the air out of it.
3. In a room with a high concentration of moisture in the air, the shelf life of the vegetable will be greatly reduced.
4. Small pods can be preserved whole, it is better to cut large pods in half or 4 parts.
5. When pickling pepper, you can add any vegetables to it.

As you can see, chili peppers can be prepared so that it is minimally burning. So do not ignore it and boldly enter it into your menu, especially since it contains many useful substances.