Why it’s a good idea to remove the seeds from dried peppers

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A lot of people enjoy the taste and flavor of hot peppers.

After all, hot peppers can certainly spice up mealtime. If you’re considering using dried chili peppers in your next soup, stew, or salsa, you’ll want to start by removing the seeds. While many people seem to think peppers take their spice from the seeds, that’s actually a misconception. Hot peppers get their spicy flavor from capsaicin. That’s the compound found in hot peppers that makes them so hot. The higher the capsaicin, the higher the pepper ranks on the heat scale. Most of the capsaicin is concentrated in the pepper’s pith. If you want to take away some of the heat, you’ll want to take out the pepper’s whitish membrane. The seeds don’t contain any heat, but because they’re close to the pith, they may end up coated with some of the extra spiciness.

You won’t be getting rid of the hot flavor by removing the seeds

Plus sometimes seeds tend to taste a little bitter. Leaving them in could mean your spicy hot recipe doesn’t quite have the flavor you desire. Dried chili pepper seeds also don’t always go well with certain foods. Sometimes when you make a sauce, mixing in the pepper seeds throws off the consistency. If you’re convinced your peppers don’t need the seeds, you can try taking them out before cooking.

It's easiest to cut off the top of the pepper, then insert a tiny spoon.

Use it to scrape out the white membrane, then twist it around inside to catch the seeds. Just dump them out when you’re finished. Some of the most common dried chiles on the market are chipotle peppers, mulatos, ancho peppers and dried guajillo peppers. Dried chili peppers are often used to make things like mole sauce and marinades.


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