Weird discovery: burned peppers taste better?

[Shule]

This might sound really weird, but I discovered today that stuffed peppers taste really good if you burn them. I mean, the flavor is multiplied. Here's what I did:

* I took 4 red Mighty Mini type grocery store sweet peppers, and stuffed them with Frigo Cheeseheads string cheese
* I put them in the toaster oven on bake at 450 in an 8" cast-iron pan for like 21 minutes, and forgot about them--so they cooled for probably a couple hours.

Anyway, they were about 20 to 30% burned, but they were delicious! So was the black juice under them.

I had cooked the same kind of stuffed peppers on somewhat lower heat (maybe 415 to 425 degrees F.) for a shorter time (maybe 15 minutes or less) before, and it was totally different. A tasty snack, still, but nothing like when they were burned.

Is this flavor change a known phenomenon? Is it just the hotter/longer cooking, or is it the burning that adds the flavor?

I haven't tried burning peppers without cheese, yet.

[JRinPA]

Wouldn't it bring the sugar out, same as caramelizing onions and such?

[Growing Coastal]

A friend taught me to blacken sweet red peppers under the broiler, put them in a pot or bowl with a lid on them to let the heat cook them further then peel while they are still warm. Add oil and whatever. Keep in the fridge.

[Cole_Robbie]

As jr said above, you carmelized the sugars.

[JRinPA]

I've never heard of mighty mini peppers (look like the romani frying peppers I grow but maybe smaller) or frigo cheeseheads but I've have to try it sometime with regular mozzarella. Blackening food in a cast iron pot would keep the flavors pure. Not drawing in bad flavors like some grills. For my charcoal grill I have to cover meat with a clean aluminum baking dish inverted to reflect heat. If I close the lid, it would get all kinds of bad flavor in the food.

[Shule]

[mention]JRinPA[/mention]
My guess is they're either Lunchbox peppers or have them in their ancestry. The company neglected to tell me if they were patented when I asked (but they did mention the trademark on the name Mighty Minis).

[Cole_Robbie]

@JRinPA
My guess is they're either Lunchbox peppers or have them in their ancestry. The company neglected to tell me if they were patented when I asked (but they did mention the trademark on the name Mighty Minis).

You would probably like the pepper variety crunch sweet orange, if you can find seeds somewhere. It is like an orange lunchbox, but much sweeter.

[Shule]

I've tried it again a couple more times, with some modifications. Here's what I did and what happened:

1. I did the same thing as last time, except I cooked it for a few minutes less (so, it only got mildly burned). The flavor was still pretty high, but not quite as high as before.

2. I did the same thing as with item #1, but with orange Mighty Mini peppers (instead of red), and I only had two stuffed peppers in the pan (and a tomato). They didn't get the taste as much as the red ones, but the smaller pepper was tastier than the bigger one, probably due to being cooked more thoroughly. It was a notable difference when not using the red ones. I also put a sweet-ish tomato in, to see if it would get a similar flavor. While it was a good baked tomato, and probably caramlized some (and I may end up baking tomatoes more often because of it), the taste it acquired was not comparable.

I'd like to try this again with peppers that I stored on a counter/table instead of a refrigerator (I think those taste sweeter and have more flavor; they ripen further faster, too; so, they might carmelize more, even the orange ones, I'm guessing). I'm sure a sweet orange pepper like Sweet Orange Crunch would be awesome either way, though (I'm just talking about the orange Mighty Mini peppers--not orange peppers in general).

So, the moral of the story is, bigger peppers need longer to cook, 450 seems to work better than 400, you don't have to burn them as much as I did to get plenty of flavor (but it seems to get more if you do), and refrigerated red Mighty Mini peppers seem to caramelize more than refrigerated orange Mighty Mini peppers. The string cheese itself probably caramelizes somewhat, too, by the taste of it. If you don't oil the pan, the string cheese sticks to the pan more than the peppers do (and tomatoes much more than peppers).

Note that both the tops and the bottoms of the peppers tasted caramelized. I didn't flip them during the process. I'm sure the process could be improved by 1000+%, but I'm saying this to let you know what I did in case it helps.

Note that our current toaster oven is not a convection oven (but it's likely that a convection oven might be more effective, since dry air is supposed to help). The toaster oven is probably big enough to fit (or nearly fit) a thin 12" pizza.

[JRinPA]

Probably the red have developed more sugar since they are grown past the orange stage to get to red. So, sweeter by default, I'd say. Usually is it about 20 more days on the vine to go from orange to red? Usually any orange I pick are near the beginning when I don't want to wait for red, or near the end when they are all being taken off before the cold.

[Shule]

[mention]JRinPA[/mention]
These peppers are two varieties. One ripens red (probably from green, but I've never found an unripe one). The other ripens yellow and then turns orange (but doesn't turn red). They put them in same bag together with yellow, orange, and red peppers. The yellow and orange ones are the same kind.

[worth1]

Been sitting on my hands with this one but here we go.
There is a traditional Italian disch consisting of peppers onions garlic and sausage.
In my opinion properly prepared it needs to be done in stages.
Many Italian grandma's agree.
The vegetables are caramelized.
Root crops first then the peppers go in a little later.
Even cooked separately if so desired.
The sausage goes in but not burned like I have seen so many times done.
Another mistake is overloading the skillet or pan to where it steams the food to oblivion before it's caramelized.
Peppers cook way faster than onions and all to often are turned to mush.
Done in the right way the dish is fantastic done so so the dish is OK but not over the top.
A labor of love for sure.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Perhaps instead of a burn, a little char instead?

Due to a preponderance of sweet peppers this season, my lovely and long suffering wife and I grilled way more than usual; finished off (sigh!) the last batch Sunday night.

Halve, deseed, spray with Olive Oil, season, skin side down on slotted grill pan, medium heat (outside two of three burners on/middle off) and grill long enough (~10-15 minutes) to get a moderate char.

We like them just the firm side of al dente (middlin' crunch), and like @Shule claims, the flavor (and sweetness!) is/are multiplied.

The Gotch

[OhioGardener]

Interesting. I wonder if you had some of the chemical reactions going on that occur in slightly oven-browned pizza? Mozzarella protein + greater sugar in one pepper variety + high heat = browning and Maillard reaction = YUM!!!

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pres ... pizza.html

[Sydney Grower]

Interesting! Chefs often do this straight on the gas burner. They just put the whole pepper in the flame and turn it when it blackens. They then usually peel off the burnt skin and eat the flesh. I suspect they do this for the flavour you have found.

[worth1]

I watched a French chef on YouTube make something.
Someone made a comment about caramelizing the pepper.
The chef replied that peppers didn't contain sugar.
Where did he get this information?
You would think someone that brags about being a chef for 50 years would know better.

[karstopography]

https://www.pepperscale.com/sugar-in-peppers/

Peppers usually contain between 5 and 10 grams of sugar in each cup

[Setec Astronomy]

I watched a French chef on YouTube make something.

YouTube...where anyone can be an expert. I bought Tom Nichols' "The Death of Expertise", didn't read it yet.