Yes! Peppers are incredibly good for you!

Capsicums are not only good, they are good for you. Nutritionally, capsicums are a dietary plus. They contain more vitamin A than any other food plant; they are also an excellent source of vitamin C and the B vitamins. One jalapeño contains more vitamin A and C than three medium-size oranges. Capsicums also contain significant amounts of magnesium, iron, thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin. Even though chili peppers are not eaten in large quantities, small amounts are important where traditional diets provide only marginal vitamins. In Peppers, I give a detailed account of the nutritional value of capsicums along with the story of their use by the Hungarian scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi in his discovery of vitamin C.

Vitamin C is a very unstable nutrient. It is readily destroyed through exposure to oxygen in the air, by drying, by heating, and it is soluble in water. In other words, cooking is very damaging to it. Keep cut or peeled capsicums well covered to prevent contact with oxygen. Don’t permit them to stand in water for more than one hour. Nevertheless, cooked and canned green capsicums retain considerable vitamin C. Because vitamin C diminishes with maturity, green capsicums are higher in vitamin C than ripe red capsicums. Vitamin A is just the opposite because it increases as the fruit matures and dries. Also, oxygen exposure does not destroy vitamin A, and it is quite stable during the cooking and preservation process. Pepper seed, like all seed, have some protein and fat (oil), although they are primarily carbohydrate. There is also a little manganese and copper, but otherwise they add little nutritionally. In Anglo-America they are traditionally removed, but in other countries removal is seldom customary—especially in the small chili peppers. Removing seed from fresh green or red chili peppers reduces the pungency to some extent because the seed absorb capsaicin (CAPS) from the placental wall where they are attached. Pepper seed that are large when mature (for example ancho and ‘New Mexican Chile’ types) become woody in texture when dry. Some find that texture undesirable; however, others grind them up to give a nutty flavor to sauces (for example chile cascabel). Higher grades of paprika and pepper flakes have had the seeds and veins removed before grinding. Whether you leave the seed in or remove them is strictly a matter of personal preference having little effect on nutritional value.

Weight conscious readers may be pleased to learn that studies have found that eating capsicums and a few other pungent spices cause the metabolic rate to increase. This diet-induced thermic effect requires six grams of chillies or a very pungent chili pepper sauce (for example Tabasco Pepper Sauce®) combined with three grams of prepared mustard to burn off an average of forty-five calories in three hours. Prepare the pungent mixture and put it in a small jar with a screw-lid. Take a teaspoonful about thirty minutes before each meal—you’ll get used to it.

Scientific studies in recent years reported the nutritional and medical attributes of capsicums. During this time the public’s nutritional awareness has increased. Our daily vocabulary now includes terms like low-calorie, low cholesterol, complex carbohydrates, high-fiber, low-sodium, unsaturated oils, and low-fat, and food growers and processors have responded to public demand by providing for these nutritional requirements. An educated change in traditional American food-style is vital to good health. Capsicums are in line with these food restrictions and at the same time their distinctive flavor adds zest to an otherwise bland, creamless, fatless, starchless, salt less, sugarless meal. Capsicums are a real health food!

How to sterilize and clean canning jars

To store my pepper sauces and vinegars, I use glass canning jars and bottles. They can be easily sterilized to prevent bacterial contamination, and so they don’t impart off-flavors to their contents. Plastic containers are convenient and plentiful but tend to add an unpleasant, chemical flavor. I often save glass vessels from store-bought condiments, wash them thoroughly, and sterilize them for storing sauces and vinegars. But I prefer glass jars with lid clamps and rubber gaskets for an airtight seal.

Do Not Boil Metal Lids and Their Rubber Rings

Never boil your jar’s metal lids and their rubber sealing rings. Always check the interior of the metal lids and see if they have a ring inside before sanitizing your jars. Although the rubber or plastic will not completely melt, the lid will no longer fit properly onto the jars.

The extreme boiling water’s heat can destroy the lid’s rubber ring which can result in a broken seal. This can lead to contamination of your jar’s contents. Simply submerge the lids and rings into simmering water for ten minutes to clean them thoroughly. You can also use the water you used for sanitizing the glass jars to clean the lids and rings once the water has slightly cooled.

Scrubbing

1. Get your bottle brush. Use one with soft bristles to prevent the brush from scratching your glass jars’ inside. This also ensures that no areas will be left for microorganisms to grow.

2. Wet your brush using hot water.

3. Scrub each jar’s interior. Make sure that you brush all areas by pivoting your bottle brush’s handle.

4. Rinse your jars by filling them with hot water. Swish the water around to make sure that all areas of your jar’s interior will be washed. Pour the water out and do another round of rinsing. Pay attention to any particles forming in the water.

5. If the particles are not going away, add 2 drops of dish soap and 1 teaspoon of salt to the jar. Fill ⅓ of the jar with hot water. Cover it and then shake it for 20 seconds.

6. Let the jars dry on a strainer. Make sure to store them upside-down.

To sterilize jars or bottles

Place jars in a large stockpot and cover with water; push the vessels down so they fill with water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat and let boil for 10 minutes. Have another pot of water boiling on the stove and add to the stockpot if the vessels start to emerge from the boiling water. Remove the vessels from the water with tongs and place them upside down on a clean rack to drain until cool and dry.

Using a Microwave

The first method is by using a microwave. This is ideal for regular glass jars but not for jars with metal lids and Kilner-style ones.

1. All you have to do is clean your jars and then rinse them. Make sure that they are not dry when you put them in your microwave.

2. Microwave them for 30-45 seconds based on your jars’ size.

Using a Dishwasher

This sterilization method is good if you own a steam dishwasher or if your machine has a setting for high temperature. You can use this method for Kilner-style glass jars and jars with screw tops, rubber rings, and clip tops.

1. Fill the dishwasher with the cleaned jars.

2. Run a rinse cycle and make sure that the ending time will match the time when your preserves, pickles, or jams are ready for canning.

3. Once the rinse cycle is done, take one jar at a time and fill them with the hot preserve/jam.

The dishwasher sterilization method is obviously an easy one, but it uses up plenty of water. Plus, it is hard to time the cycle’s ending with the time when your product is ready for canning.

Using an Oven

This is the most reliable method to ensure that your jars are thoroughly clean before putting your preserves in them. It takes longer though compared to the other methods because the process takes about 30 minutes. The oven method also works well with jars that have rubber rings and clip tops.

1. Heat your oven to 130°C or 275°F. Do not heat more than the recommended temperature or your glass jars might break.

2. Lay 2 layers of newspaper on the oven’s shelves but not on its floor. For gas ovens, make sure that the newspapers are not near any flame.

3. Arrange your glass jars inside the oven and see to it that they do not touch each other.

4. Sterilize your jars for 20 minutes or more.

5. Use oven mitts to remove the jars from your oven. Put them on a heating pad or a heatproof mat.

Using a Stove

Using a stove if you do not have a microwave, dishwasher, or oven. Below is a short video showing how to sterilize glass jars using a stove: The actual sterilization process using a stove will approximately take around 25 minutes.

1. Get a large pot or a boiling water canner.

2. Place the glass jars in the pot with their top parts facing upward.

3. Cover your jars completely with hot water (not boiling). Make sure that the water level is one inch higher than the height of your jars in the pot.

4. Wait for the water to boil.

5. Start timing when the water boils. Remember the suggested timing based on your location’s altitude.

6. After the boiling process is completed, turn off your stove. Leave the jars in the pot if you will not start the canning process yet.

7. Use tongs or jar lifters to remove your jars from the pot.

8. Drain the jars well and then let them dry.

Recommended Boiling Time Based on Altitude The standard way of sterilizing glass jars is by submerging them in boiling water. But, your location’s altitude will affect the boiling temperature of the water. If you are in higher altitudes, the boiling point is lower so you need to make adjustments on the time your jars will spend in the boiling water. Ten minutes is the recommended boiling time at sea level up to 1,000-feet elevation but you have to add 1 more minute in every additional 1,000 feet.

Using Vinegar Distilled white vinegar can be more effective in killing bacteria compared to sanitizing solutions available commercially.

1. Fill ⅓ of your glass jar with distilled white vinegar.

2. Add hot water until the bottle is filled up to the top.

3. Leave the jar for 10 minutes.

4. Empty the jars and then rinse them until the odor of the vinegar dissipates which can take 2-3 full rinses using hot water.

5. Let the jars dry.

Tips on Sterilizing Glass Jars

• Leave pickles, preserves, and jams for about 15 minutes before you seal them.

• Sterilize more glass jars than needed to avoid wasting your time from doing another sterilization process once your product is ready.

• Remove glass jars from your dishwasher or oven only when you need them or they are going to get cold.

• Do not use rusty or damaged jar lids because they will not produce a tight seal. You can use cellophane and wax discs instead.

Pepper Vinegars

I know that I’m in the presence of ancient culinary history when I sit down in an unpretentious Colombian or Venezuelan restaurant or walk into a country kitchen and see a bottle of vinegar sharpened with the bite of a few hundred tiny, scorching hot peppers. It could be a Coke or Pepsi bottle on the table with holes punched in the cap. But what the bottle holds is a link with the cuisine that was already in place when Columbus and his crew first broke casabe (the ubiquitous flatbread made from yuca flour) with their Taíno hosts on Hispaniola during that first expedition in 1492.

Thousands of years ago, these miniature, firey peppers reached the eastern Amazonian-Orinocan region from their place of origin in Bolivia. They entered the cuisine of civilizations in the lands that became northeastern Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia as flavorings for the local vinegar fermented from yuca. Pepper vinegar, as an indispensable condiment for sprinkling over casabe, starchy vegetables, meat, and fish, accompanied people from the South American river basin societies when they moved to the Caribbean islands. Its use today persists throughout a broad region. I, a Cuban exile, feel an instant surge of recognition at first glimpse of the humble recycled bottle dispensing pepper vinegar anywhere in the Latin American tropics.

The truth is that all of us whose cuisines were touched by the ways of the island Taínos like acidic flavors in, or on, our food. We respond with familiar recognition to the ancient combination of acidity and stinging heat—though after the conquest we became the heirs of Spanish as well as indigenous food traditions. Vinegar from yuca has not disappeared as a commercial product. But depending on our different backgrounds, we may enjoy vinegar from apple cider or wine as well as today’s most popular homemade version, pineapple vinegar, made from the peels trimmed off the fruit. But the principle hasn’t changed since pre-Hispanic times: acid plus capsaicin heat.

This way of embracing capsicums sets apart the cuisines of northeastern South America and the Greater Antilles from those of other regions. In Central America and the Andean countries, people like pepper heat deeply infused into main-dish cooking sauces as well as some table sauces. People in the eastern river basins and the islands, on the other hand, do very little cooking with hot peppers. It comes naturally to us to grab a few handfuls of some tiny, stinging wild or loosely domesticated peppers, bruise them lightly to help release the heat, fit them into a jar or bottle, and cover them with vinegar. We reach for the steeped pepper vinegar to season anything from cooked starch tubers to grilled meats. When the vinegar level drops, we simply top up the bottle with some more. It takes many steepings for the peppers to lose their pungency.

Do not think that all containers for our beloved pepper vinegar are recycled soda bottles, even though this is emblematic of Latin American thrift and practicality. Nor does the steeped condiment always consist of just vinegar and peppers. Especially in Venezuela, well-to-do families pride themselves on the beauty of their ajiceros—elegant glass flasks or cruets filled with colorful, carefully arranged displays of peppers and other seasoning ingredients (often briefly cooked), such as sliced onions, carrots, garlic, and whole spices. Every region of the country has its own cherished variations. There is also a family of wonderful Venezuelan pepper-laced condiments where the basic liquid is milk or whey, not vinegar. I fell in love with this surprising combination after encountering it in the Orinoco and in the Andes and have been experimenting with different versions ever since.

I believe that the whole family of hot, vinegary condiments now adored by millions of US diners is a direct descendant of this general tradition. Even the smell of Tabasco sauce has a recognizable connection with the smell of South American frutescens peppers ripened in my garden. The Caribbean slave trade was the likely route of transmission for the family of pepper vinegar sauces, as well as the pepper wine that came to the North American colonies, and evidence of that remains in parts of the American South.