I am cleaning out my mothers freezer. She has moved into assisted living so will not need what is there and she has an entire shelf of hot peppers. I suspect they are at least 3-4 years old, but some look still viable. She put them whole in ziplock bags, unidentified, undated.

Any suggestions on how to use these or what to do with these other than throw them out would be appreciated. And if throwing them out is the best thing to do then I am open to that, but don't want to waste them if I can do something with them. I do not have room in my freezer for them and I do not normally cook with alot of hot peppers but am open to new ideas.

One idea I had is to dehydrate them, grind them and make several mixes, eyeballing the peppers and making an educated guess as to what might make a good mix.

I do know she has poblano (sp?) type, jalapeno (flavoring, low heat), garden salsa type, other peppers that were mainly chosen for flavoring rather than heat. Except for a few that were gotten at the farmers market they were all grown in our garden.

Thanks

On 7/7/2015 10:09 PM, bets wrote:
> I am cleaning out my mothers freezer. She has moved into assisted living so will not need what is there and she has an entire shelf of hot peppers. I suspect they are at least 3-4 years old, but some look still viable. She put them whole in ziplock bags, unidentified, undated.
>
> Any suggestions on how to use these or what to do with these other than throw them out would be appreciated. And if throwing them out is the best thing to do then I am open to that, but don't want to waste them if I can do something with them. I do not have room in my freezer for them and I do not normally cook with alot of hot peppers but am open to new ideas.
>
> One idea I had is to dehydrate them, grind them and make several mixes, eyeballing the peppers and making an educated guess as to what might make a good mix.
I've never dehydrated previously frozen chiles but it probably would
work. I would spread them out on paper toweling to thaw at room
temperature and then work from there to dehydrate.
>
> I do know she has poblano (sp?) type, jalapeno (flavoring, low heat), garden salsa type, other peppers that were mainly chosen for flavoring rather than heat. Except for a few that were gotten at the farmers market they were all grown in our garden.
>
> Thanks
>
Taste each variety after they have thawed and sort them by heat grade,
might save some sore mouths down the road, not to mention watery eyes.
<G> Good luck.