# Pepper differences?



## Clutch (Feb 14, 2007)

I need to know the difference between green, red, orange and yellow peppers. I just got a good dinner idea, but I need to know what if any taste difference the different colored peppers have.


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## GB (Feb 14, 2007)

red orange and yellow peppers are just sweeter versions of green peppers (bell peppers that is).


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## kadesma (Feb 14, 2007)

Clutch said:
			
		

> I need to know the difference between green, red, orange and yellow peppers. I just got a good dinner idea, but I need to know what if any taste difference the different colored peppers have.


Clutch, I'm assuming you're speaking about bell peppers? If so I find the red,yellow,orange ones juicy and sweetish. Not sugar sweet just a nice feel in the mouth. My family love them cooked and raw.The green ones I find have a more raw taste and are harder to digest, so for us, they are seldom used.

kadesma


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## Katie H (Feb 14, 2007)

Ditto what GB said, Clutch.  I keep all on hand to add color variety to my dishes.  Sometimes if a recipe calls for green bell peppers, I'll substitute a combination of all colors if the rest of the dish seems to lack color.


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## Clutch (Feb 14, 2007)

Sounds good! Thank you all for your help! I'll make sure to post pics of the meal!


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## D_Blackwell (Feb 14, 2007)

Same as above.  Red (especially) and Yellow have a good 'sweet' taste.  I find that Green bell peppers have virtually no taste at all; commercial ones anyway.  They are lots cheaper though, so I use Green in say, chili, where other ingredients dominate taste and the pepper is more 'filler'; and Red/Yellow in, for example, salads, where I really get the taste benefit.


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## GB (Feb 14, 2007)

The green bell pepper is just the unripe version of the red. If you let a green pepper stay on the vine longer then it becomes a red pepper.


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## Clutch (Feb 14, 2007)

^ I see said the blind man.

Sounds like I'm gonna use the red one for my dish! 

Maybe that's why I never liked it when my mom made stuffed peppers when I was a kid! LOL!!!


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## skilletlicker (Feb 14, 2007)

I agree with everything that has been said here, but another alternative is to substitute poblano peppers for green peppers.  It's still green but adds a lot more flavor.  Raw or in a quick sauté you can just chop as you would a bell pepper but if its going to simmer I prefer to roast and peel first because it intensifies the flavor and the skin is tougher and tends to separate when cooked.


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## BreezyCooking (Feb 14, 2007)

I can't tell you how pleased I am that red, yellow, & orange bell peppers are so readily available these days at both the supermarket & for growing in the garden.

Green bell peppers repeat on me something awful.  While I love the taste, the hours of burping afterwards I could easily live without - something that doesn't happen with the ripe colored versions.


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## auntdot (Feb 14, 2007)

GB was right on, green bell peppers are just the unripe version of the others.

The color of the others just reflects the variety, or cultivar, of the plant it was grown on.

They are less expensive, I suppose, because letting the green pepper ripen prevents another one from being started.


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## Caine (Feb 14, 2007)

I'm a pepper, he's a pepper, she's a pepper, we're a pepper. Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?


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## Constance (Feb 14, 2007)

auntdot said:
			
		

> GB was right on, green bell peppers are just the unripe version of the others.
> 
> The color of the others just reflects the variety, or cultivar, of the plant it was grown on.
> 
> They are less expensive, I suppose, because letting the green pepper ripen prevents another one from being started.



While all green bell peppers will ripen to red, the new cultivars that we are seeing in the stores now-a-days are especially bred to turn more quickly. 

The reason the peppers are so expensive is that the price of the seed for these new hybrids is sky-high. Also, the hybrids don't germinate as easily, another factor in the price. When I had the greenhouses, I sold green bell peppers in 4 paks and the red bells in individual pots for the same price. 

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here...the red and deep orange peppers have like twice the vitamin C of an orange.


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## BreezyCooking (Feb 14, 2007)

Well - apart from the fact that the colored peppers make many dishes - obviously - more colorful, they don't make me BURP.  LOL!!!

As far as price - if you have a garden, or even a place for potted plants, you can EASILY grow your own colored peppers.  I grow a variety every year & end up with enough to use fresh, as well as freeze for use during the winter.


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## Clutch (Feb 14, 2007)

BreezyCooking said:
			
		

> Well - apart from the fact that the colored peppers make many dishes - obviously - more colorful, they don't make me BURP. LOL!!!
> 
> As far as price - if you have a garden, or even a place for potted plants, you can EASILY grow your own colored peppers. I grow a variety every year & end up with enough to use fresh, as well as freeze for use during the winter.


 
That's what I have been thinking, but it's gonna have to wait till I have a place of my own. I don't trust the animals in my house, nor the animals in her house. My cats and dog would end up knocking it over and killing it and her brothers would throw something after losing a football game on the PS3 and break our plants.

I saw this thing somewhere, I don't remember if it was L'NT or where it was, but it was a thing about 18-20" by 10-12" that you can use to grow herbs. Supposedly you could grow them 3 times faster than in a normal garden _and_ do it from inside your house. Anyone know what I'm talking about or was it just a really wacked out dream I had???


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## Constance (Feb 14, 2007)

No, you're right. I've seen those too. I think some people use them to grow "other" herbs.


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## Clutch (Feb 14, 2007)

Constance said:
			
		

> No, you're right. I've seen those too. I think some people use them to grow "other" herbs.


 
Maybe start them. They get too big to grow in that thing. Not that I know how big they get.  

I gotta ask my wife, but I think it was at linens and things.


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## Michael in FtW (Feb 14, 2007)

The different colors are nice for the color contrasts they can bring to a dish - but they also do have some subtle flavor differences ... really more a matter of _pungency_ than sweetness IMHO - unless sweetness is ment to be the guage for the absence of pungency.

Fortunately - these are easy to keep straight if you think of the order of the colors in a traffic light ... red, yellow, green. Starting at the top - red is the least pungent, yellow and orange fall in the middle, and green is the most pungent.


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## Clutch (Feb 14, 2007)

Michael in FtW said:
			
		

> Fortunately - these are easy to keep straight if you think of the order of the colors in a traffic light ... red, yellow, green. Starting at the top - red is the least pungent, yellow and orange fall in the middle, and green is the most pungent.


 
Good! I was planning on using a red one!


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## GB (Feb 15, 2007)

I actually find yellow and orange to be much less pungent than red personally.


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## lulu (Feb 15, 2007)

The only thing I would add is I know a few people who react badly to red peppers.  Generally I mix red, yellow and orange peppers as the colours are so wonderful and IMO the rainbow looks more appetising than a single colour!


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## boufa06 (Feb 15, 2007)

I once bought some purple capsicums from the green grocer.  During cooking the colour disappeared!


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## Robo410 (Feb 15, 2007)

THe greens are traditional for Pepper Steak and stuffed peppers, and part of the cajun trinity; the red for roasted peppers, pimento, etc.  Whatever state of ripeness, whatever color you go for, bell peppers are full of vit C and other good things for you.


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## petey (Feb 15, 2007)

boufa06 said:
			
		

> I once bought some purple capsicums from the green grocer.  During cooking the colour disappeared!



I once bought the purple ones as well. I was not very pleased. I dont remember what the taste was .....I just remember that i didnt like it. I've never seen them again.


Red and green ones are a staple in my house. Alot of times i'll mix the two into a dish. A multiracial trinity of peppers, onions, and garlic if you will.


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## jennyema (Feb 15, 2007)

GB said:
			
		

> I actually find yellow and orange to be much less pungent than red personally.


 
I do too.  I find the yellow ones to have very little taste at all.


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## Clutch (Feb 15, 2007)

jennyema said:
			
		

> I do too. I find the yellow ones to have very little taste at all.


 
That's the best news I've heard all day.  







It's been a slow day.  

  

I'll try those for my dish. Crystal (my GF/wife), isn't fond of peppers, but I wanna make something with them. Normally I wouldn't eat them as is. I can really only take them if there are in a cheese dip or something else. I want to start eating better things, so I figure I'd start here.


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## Aria (Feb 15, 2007)

The RED pepper is the best on my list


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## Claire (Feb 15, 2007)

I also like the red best, although like Michael said, I use all three for color contrast when having a dish look pretty is primary.  I seldom buy green any more; I like them.  My husband doesn't, and they "repeat" more (hey, I like them in food, but not when I burp a day or two later!).  One thing that I really do dislike, and there are few things I dislike in the food world, is the dehydrated green peppers they put in a lot of dried spice/soup mixes.


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## Clutch (Feb 15, 2007)

I'm all for peppers, as long as they are in some sort of spicey something or other. Gotta have it kicked up a notch!

My plan is to us it to serve the food in, as well as being part of the meal. Double duty for the bell pepper. 

Crystal really doesn't like peppers, but I am trying to get her to like certian things. She likes all her food bland cause that was all she could eat after coming out of the hospital from the second time she had cancer. Anything with any extra flavor would come back up, so she got used to bland food. I'm trying to work her into foods with flavor, but slowly so she doesn't see it coming. I've knocked out my use of salt almost completely. Now I use sea salt instead of iodized cause I would hear daily about how bad it is for you and heart probs run in my family. 

The one thing I will never be able to do and have her eat it as well, is anything that's got that sort of, down south, hot-spicey taste to it. I like things with hot sauce mixed in and foods that bite back. She can't stand the smell of food like that. :-(


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## Claire (Feb 16, 2007)

Boufa, I've found that almost all purple foods lose color in cooking.  Some red cabbages will actually turn an odd blue color.  One year I decided to try natural Easter egg coloring.  You get some very subtle colors and the red cabbage actually turned the eggs blue, not purple.  So if you're going for color, in my experience, those type veggies are best used raw for the most impact.


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## boufa06 (Feb 17, 2007)

Claire said:
			
		

> Boufa, I've found that almost all purple foods lose color in cooking.  Some red cabbages will actually turn an odd blue color.  One year I decided to try natural Easter egg coloring.  You get some very subtle colors and the red cabbage actually turned the eggs blue, not purple.  So if you're going for color, in my experience, those type veggies are best used raw for the most impact.


Claire, I have to agree with you on this. Actually I bought the purple capsicums out of curiosity, just to try them.  I was disappointed as they were not as sweet as the red ones and have since disappeared from the marketplace.  I seldom use red cabbage and when I do, I add a little more for its colour, to my cabbage, carrot, and dill salad.


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