How to Seed Hot Peppers
June 15, 2012
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Seattle
• 0 Comments
How to Seed Hot Peppers
From chili to nachos, our favorite Tex-Mex dishes just wouldn’t be the same without the kick of hot peppers. They give it that heat that takes any dish from mediocre to “muy caliente,” but as any student of a Seattle culinary institute will tell you, removing the seeds from a hot pepper requires a little culinary technique and a lot of patience.
Contrary to popular belief the heat of a pepper does not come from the seeds but from the thin veins that run lengthwise down the pepper’s interior. Depending on how much heat you want in the dish you are preparing, you can either remove the entire vein while removing the seeds or leave some attached. The color of the vein indicates how hot your pepper will be, the darker the vein the hotter the pepper. The seeds are bitter and hard to eat that is why it is best to remove them. Before you get started there are a few things you are going to need. Rubber gloves, a small paring knife, a cutting board, hot peppers and a sense of adventure. Once you’ve assembled your tools just follow these three steps and you are on your way to a perfectly prepped pepper.
Step 1:
Put on your gloves. Dish washing gloves work well, just make sure that they are clean. The oils from the interior of the pepper can be absorbed into the skin and are very hard to wash off. Later that heat can end up irritating your eyes or skin.
Step 2:
Slice each pepper in half lengthwise. For larger peppers you might want to slice the top of the pepper off before halving.
Step 3:
Take your small paring knife and scrape the interior of each pepper removing all the seeds as well as part, or the entire vein.
Step 4:
Rinse peppers under cold running water to remove lingering seeds. If you want to save your seeds they can be dried and added to any commercial bird seed or try planting a group of them to grow your own hot peppers.
A little culinary technique can give you a whole new range of skills to explore within your kitchen. If you enjoy learning and want to put your kitchen skills to the test, then maybe a Seattle culinary school would be a great fit for you.
This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Seattle. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Seattle offers culinary arts and pâtisserie and baking training programs in the Seattle, Washington area. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit Chefs.edu/Seattle for more information.
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