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It's getting colder outside and I have a lot of jalapenos in my garden. I like eating them fresh (not cooked) on homemade tacos and omelets, etc.

If I freeze them and thaw them out later in the winter, will they still be as spicy and crunchy, or does the freezing and thawing take some flavor away from them?

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I have a whole freezer full of jalapenos - so yes, you definitely can.

They definitely retain their heat just fine.

They keep their texture better if you do 2 things:

  • Use a vacuum sealer and take out all the air - to reduce freezer burn. Because of this, I recommend you freeze them in batches.

  • Blanche them for 2-3 minutes in boiling water and then drop them in freezing water. From what I've read, this destroys a particular enzyme that helps not break the pepper down further. I've done this and not done this - and doing it definitely helps on the texture.

They should be good for a little over a year in a vacuum sealed bag - as far as the texture goes. They should never go bad otherwise.

Cos and Sobachatina - bring up another good point: freezing fast and effectively. You can try AB's method that Cos points out, but I do what Sobachatina does. Freeze on a single layer on a tray in the freezer. They freeze quicker and better than dumping them in a bag.

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I have never applied [Alton Brown's flash freezing] technique to peppers but think that it might improve the texture without blanching. What are your thoughts on this? could it help preserve the raw jalapeno? foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/frozen-strawberries-recipe/… – Cos Callis Sep 27 '11 at 0:36
I'm not familiar with blanching. Does blanching them cook them? – LarsTech Sep 27 '11 at 11:57
Anything that I freeze I lay in a single layer on a pan and freeze in the chest freezer before bagging. They sustain far less damage this way and also don't freeze together into a solid mass. @CosCallis- This is essentially what AB is doing. Freezing faster is always better as ice crystals will stay smaller. – Sobachatina Sep 27 '11 at 15:27
@Sobachatina that is what I was getting at, I just wasn't sure it would apply to peppers in the same way it does strawberries. Thanks for the input. – Cos Callis Sep 28 '11 at 19:43

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