What are sweet peppers?

[wsmoak]

I have a recipe for pickle relish (in the Ball Blue book) that calls for "sweet peppers". What should I plant?

-Wendy

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll give a link that should help.

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/NewCrops/introsheets/hotpeppers.pdf

Peppers are divided into two different classes. Those that are not hot at all and those that have heat. The Bell Peppers are an example of sweet peppers. Habeneros are hot peppers.

There are a tremendous different number of varieties of sweet and different varieties of hot. You cannot tell by looking at the shape or color of the pepper.

Any bell pepper will be sweet, which means it does not have any heat. One of my favorite sweet peppers is Super Shepherd but it is not a bell.

I seem to remember Digits having a good link to different pepper varieties and the rating on the Scoville scale, which rates how hot a hot pepper is. A Sweet Pepper rates zero on that scale.

 

[catjac1975]

Basically there are sweet and hot peppers. Any pepper that is not hot is sweet. Bell, bananas any like that.

 

[ninnymary]

Wendy, I bet HotPepperQueen will give you a good answer and some suggestions!

Mary

 

[wsmoak]

I don't think sweet pickle relish has bell peppers in it, at least not the green ones! Ew. Banana peppers sound like a possibility though. -Wendy

 

[The Mama Chicken]

Yes, there are green bell peppers in sweet pickle relish. I imagine that's what the recipe calls for.

 

[vfem]

Ws, we did pickled sweet banana peppers last year... they are my FAVORITE condiment/addition to sandwiches! I like them so much better then the pickle chips I made.

I would suggest you decide on a sweet pepper that has some 'size' to it. If you have to do a lot of cutting and handling of the peppers, don't chose a smell pepper that's like 2" max size. Save yourself some kitchen prep work. IMHO

 

[hoodat]

If the recipe calls for sweet peppers and doesan't say other wise they almost certainly mean bell peppers. They get quite sweet if you let them turn red (or yellow, depending on the variety)

 

[Ridgerunner]

If the recipe calls for sweet peppers and doesan't say other wise they almost certainly mean bell peppers. They get quite sweet if you let them turn red (or yellow, depending on the variety)

Or even orange, purple, or brown. I almost got a brown last year and chickened out at the last minute. There are a lot of different varieties out there. Not all sweet peppers are bells, but I'm real sure all that are called bells are sweet. Some hot peppers have a bell shape, but they are not called bells.

I usually grow red and yellow sweet peppers, occasionally orange, and let them ripen. Then I grill them to make them easier to peel and freeze them, eventually using the grilled pepper on pizza, for example. I use green peppers too, but that bright red or yellow makes them quite attractive on the pizza. Like Hoodat said, if you let them ripen, they do get pretty sweet, but green peppers work too.

 

[Dave2000]

You can make relish about of just about any pepper, it's all a matter of what you want it to taste like and the consistency. I prefer peppers with medium wall thickness, as thick ones like bells make the relish more squish than I'd like while thin walled peppers make it too coarse. Guess I'm saying I'd go with vine ripened banana peppers for a first try, though there's nothing stopping you from using more than one type in the same relish.