Whether you went a little crazy at the local farmers market or are fortunate enough to enjoy a bumper crop out of your own garden, having a ton of fresh peppers on hand means preservation is necessary if you don’t want them to go to waste.
Let’s face it, even if you are a pepper fiend like me, there are only so many you can eat in a short period of time before they start to wrinkle and then spoil in the fridge – you need options on what to do with them!
But there’s no need to worry: below are some awesome, proven methods for preserving peppers. Any of them will help you reduce waste and also enjoy fresh peppers all year long.
And most of these methods produce downright tasty toppings and ingredients whether you are working with sweet or hot peppers. Let’s get right into it.
Pickling
One of the most well-known and most used methods for preserving peppers is pickling. Pickling peppers produces crisp, crunchy, salty little rings or sometimes whole peppers that are perfect for sandwiches, salads, pizza, and many other dishes besides.
Pickling’s also a great way to innovate in the kitchen since there are lots of different brine recipes out there. Some are mild, others are zesty. Some tend to be salty and tangy, others are sweet.
It’s lots of fun to experiment with, and one of the best ways to store peppers at room temperature.
Done properly, a sealed jar of peppers will last at least 12 months on the shelf, or 2 to 3 months after opening as long as you keep them in the refrigerator.
As Relish
Peppers, both sweet and hot types, make an awesome relish ingredient, and relish is a condiment that’s always at home on hot dogs, bratwurst, sandwiches, and a lot more.
Procedurally, it’s basically pickling, only the peppers are chopped up into fine cubes or small strips.
Vinegar, salt, sugar, and a variety of other spices round out the flavor and keep the peppers from spoiling after processing. Once again, your shelf life is about a year in ideal conditions, with ideal conditions being a cool, dark spot.
Once opened, though, you should consume your pepper relish within 3 months at the most and remember to keep it in the fridge in the meantime.
As Jelly
Pepper jelly is a love-it-or-hate-it proposition! Among one of the most beloved condiments in the American Deep South and greater Appalachia, this stuff is delicious on biscuits, cornbread, cheese, and so much more.
Homemade hot pepper jelly can be the star attraction on any charcuterie board, and once your family and friends get a taste of it, you’ll be making it year-round for them.
Like other home-canned jellies, pepper jelly can last a very long time at room temperature, up to a year and a half if you keep it cool and dark. Once opened, it’ll last about 2 months in the fridge.
All you’ll need to process it is peppers, sugar, pectin, and sometimes a dash of vinegar. This is a great, easy method of preservation for folks who are already fluent with home canning and jam-making techniques.
Candied
Candied peppers are similar to pickled, but they differ in one critical way: candied peppers are hot-packed in boiled sugar syrup!
Sweet, sticky, savory, and spicy, this is a wickedly good condiment you can use to bring a new dimension to all of your favorite dishes. I love candied peppers on pizza and on spicy salami sandwiches with a little bit of Swiss cheese. It is to die for!
Candied peppers prepared at home will last quite a while when canned properly, up to 12 months, but they need to be kept quite cool and preferably in the fridge to get this longer shelf life. In a normal, warm kitchen pantry, they will last about 6 months reliably.
This is really an academic concern because these things are so good you’ll be eating them right out of the jar before too long, I promise! If you’re tired of the usual pepper condiments and toppings, put this method at the top of your list.
In Oil
Peppers are packed in oil both for preservation and also for flavor…
By immersing roasted, charred peppers in fresh olive oil along with herbs, garlic, and other ingredients, you’ll have a delightfully flavored oil and incredibly rich peppers that make a killer inclusion in salads and as a sandwich topping.
Now, traditionally oil-packed peppers were kept at room temperature, but we know today that this is insufficient to prevent the growth of harmful, and potentially deadly, bacteria.
Be smart: once you roast and pack them in oil, stick them in the refrigerator where they will last at least two months and up to three. That’s plenty of time to enjoy them before you risk them going bad.
Freezing
Far and away, one of the very best methods for preserving peppers is freezing. It’s super easy—you can freeze them whole once the stems are removed, or dice them or cut them into strips.
If properly packed, with careful attention given to getting all the air out of the container, they will easily last a year with great quality.
Frozen peppers usually come out crisp enough, but they will soften a little bit. Hot peppers will retain their heat and all peppers will have a great flavor. If you are in a hurry or just don’t want to mess around with more intricate methods, freezing is definitely the way to go.
Dehydration
People have been drying peppers for countless centuries now. They are crispy and take on a unique flavor that makes them an incredibly important central ingredient in lots of different cultural dishes. You can even rehydrate them prior to use if you want to!
There are a few of ways to do it at home, including traditional air or sun-drying methods., though it’s a lot quicker, safer, and more consistent to use a food dehydrator.
It’ll still take around 12 hours unless you cut them into small pieces, but you can basically set it and forget it until it’s time to check them for doneness.
Regardless of your approach, once properly dried, the peppers will keep for a year or two in storage if kept in an airtight container in a cool, dark, and absolutely dry location.
Freeze-Dried
Sometimes confused with dehydration, freeze-drying is a high-tech method of removing absolutely all moisture from peppers. The process is really quite remarkable and starts with freezing food before subjecting it to vacuum conditions.
When this is done, the frozen water will sublimate, turning from a solid directly into a gas and skipping the liquid phase.
This nifty trick of physics preserves the nutritional profile, color, and flavor of the peppers wonderfully, but it does make them very dry, flaky, and sometimes hard. The benefit? Unbeatable storage life, in excess of 20 years if kept in moisture-proof, airtight packaging.
If shelf life is what you are after, it doesn’t get any better than this. The major drawback with freeze drying is that home appliances that can perform the operation are still super expensive—typically several thousand dollars!
Powdered
Powdering is a sort of subcategory of dehydration, and as the name suggests, is little more than grinding dried peppers into a powder consistency.
This makes them terrific as a natural and tasty thickener or an interesting ingredient for adding flavor to soups, stews, sauces, and more without dramatically changing appearance or texture.
As expected, powdered peppers must be kept absolutely dry, so high-quality, airtight glass packaging is a must here, as is a suitable storage location. No surprise on that front: keep it cool and in the dark. They will reliably keep for a year in an airtight jar, or up to two if totally protected from humidity and condensation.
Canned
The last, but arguably the best method for preserving peppers, is by canning them. It’s possible to can sweet or hot types of peppers for for long-term storage using water-bath or pressure canning methods.
You can even mix different pepper types if you want! If using water bath methods you’ll simply need to acidify the jar contents for safety.
Once again, you’ll get at least a year of shelf life out of them, and they may last up to 18 months if unopened and kept in ideal conditions.
Note that you should only crack the seals on your canned peppers when you are sure you’re going to eat them all in a timely fashion: after opening they should be kept in the fridge where they will only last about a week, two tops.
Nonetheless, this is another one of my favorite preservation methods for peppers since there are dozens of great recipes out there to try.
Tim is a farm boy with vast experience on homesteads, and with survival and prepping. He lives a self-reliant lifestyle along with his aging mother in a quiet and very conservative little town in Ohio. He teaches folks about security, prepping and self-sufficiency not just through his witty writing, but also in person.
Find out more about Tim and the rest of the crew here.