Old Peppers

This is a question directed towards Larry as he is a Scoville judge but anyone feel free to jump in.

I have had in my cupboard, for a long time now, a jar of dundicuts (60K Scoville) and another much smaller jar of piquins (140K Scoville). When they were fresh, one dundicut gave nice heat to a couple plates of food. The piquins were, frankly, too hot to use mostly.

Well, today, in my new kitchen, I threw a dundicut into my one plate of food and barely noticed it.

Is there any received wisdom about how old peppers can be before they fade away?

This is a question directed towards Larry as he is a Scoville judge but anyone feel free to jump in.

I have had in my cupboard, for a long time now, a jar of dundicuts (60K Scoville) and another much smaller jar of piquins (140K Scoville). When they were fresh, one dundicut gave nice heat to a couple plates of food. The piquins were, frankly, too hot to use mostly.

Well, today, in my new kitchen, I threw a dundicut into my one plate of food and barely noticed it.

Is there any received wisdom about how old peppers can be before they fade away?

Capsaicin, the active principle in chilis, is sensitive to oxidation. In a dried chili, the capsaicin is compartmentalized and kept away from oxygen, but over time slow oxidation will occur even in a dried chili. Storing them in an airtight container helps keep them hot.

I agree with Mark. As age increases, capsaicin hotness lessens. Some people claim that dried chiles get hotter as they age--at first-- but eventually the heat subsides as the capsaicin oxidizes.

Are these dried or pickled chiles? As already observed, capsaicin is sensitive to oxygen and to light and will break down over time, resulting in less heat. Dried chiles go stale over time and lose their aroma and flavor as well. The fresher dried chiles are, the better. This is especially important in dishes where they are key contributors to the flavor and aroma, such as gongbao ji (aka Kung Pao Chicken).

In my experience the dried chiles sold in most supermarkets and even most Asian groceries tend to have been sitting on the shelf for ages and are stale from the get-go. I prefer to buy dried chiles from outfits with brisk product turn-around such as The Mala Market and Penzeys.

-Paul W.

We're lucky here. Just about every place has rapid turnover. One Mexican grocery store has bins of dried chiles that you scoop and buy by weight. And I've been known to grow some occasionally.

There's a local Indian grocery here that has good stock turnover on most products, including chiles. For me the main problem is that they sell them in huge packages. I'm loathe to buy more than I can use in a few months. The local Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean groceries don't seem to do a volume business in chiles. Of late I've been buying dried chiles from both The Mala Market and Penzeys, both of which sell sell very fresh product.

-Paul W.

Both of these are dried, not pickled.

Alas for the dundicuts they are in a rather large jar. I think those were bought from Penzeys originally.

The piquins are similarly old but in a teeny-weeny jar. I hand-harvested those so they were as fresh as could be then.

Seems like the dundicuts are history; maybe the piquins have a little life left in them... they had a lot more to begin with. Only one way to know for sure.

Thanks for the help!