On 2008-10-21, James > wrote:
> I got some excess peppers both red and green so I'm using my
> dehydrater to dry them. Takes 2 days a batch. My question is what
> dishes uses dried bell pepper? Should I freeze them instead?

Absolutely not! While I have little to no use for dehydrated anything, it's
infinitely better than frozen. Freezing a fresh chile makes the individual
cells rupture and turn to mush. At the restaurant I worked at, for a short
time, red b/p's and hatch chiles that even had frozen patches on them were
tossed out as being unacceptable.

I know that this is acceptable in some cuisines. My Mexican step-mother
does it all the time. I've also had killer Ital sphegetti sauce that was
awesome after freezing. It's a personal thing and I belive it depends on
how the chiles are to be used. A good question for discussion.y

nb