The Easy Trick To Pick Sweeter Bell Peppers

Myths about cooking and ingredients abound. You may have heard the one about choosing the right bell peppers. The idea is that picking the specimens with four or five bumps on the bottom versus three means you'll get the sweeter female pepper rather than the bitter male pepper. But to coin a phrase, that's not how any of this works.

There's no such thing as a female or male pepper. Plants like tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers have what we call "male" and "female" reproductive parts simultaneously in the same flower. And the resulting fruits have no sex at all.

The bumps are more about the variety of bell peppers and their growing conditions. They might sometimes be sweeter because of that, but it's not a reliable indicator. So, if you can't rely on those lovely bumps, what's a pepper picker to do? To get the sweetest pepper, the real secret is to choose based on the color of the bell pepper. You see, when they first start to grow, bell peppers are green. Then, depending on their variety, they'll turn yellow, orange, or red (though other colors exist). The final color results from the cultivar, but that final color is sweeter than the green. Additionally, the end color subtly affects the overall sweetness. Red kinds are the sweetest, followed closely by orange and yellow (in that order). 

Although color is the most efficient indicator of ripeness, you only need to look at that if you're eating the bell peppers raw because cooking them will bring out their natural sweetness. For raw eating, look for the riper colors. Red is best, though yellow and orange can really perk up an ordinary vegetable tray, and some nibblers may enjoy the subtler sweetness. Use these colors for snacking, salsas, and salads.

You can eat green peppers raw, but some people find them a bit vegetal or grassy. Cooking the peppers makes them sweeter and thus more palatable, especially to picky eaters. Roasting, charring, and searing caramelize the sugar, zeroing in on the sweetness. Try incorporating them in Serbian stuffed bell peppers or among veggies and meat on a kabob. Selecting ripe bell peppers in fresh condition and using the right types for the job goes a lot further to ensuring the sweetest pepper flavor no matter how many bumps it has.