FLAVOR of Red & Yellow Bell Peppers vs Green Bell Peppers

[Gary350]

Wife made chicken & rice vegetable soup we loaded it with every vegetable we could find in the freezer including Red Bell Peppers & Yellow Bell Peppers. I have never really noticed the real flavor of Red & Yellow Bell peppers until now they taste nothing like Green Bell peppers. I have never bought Red or Yellow Bell peppers in the store they are always 2 or 3 times more expensive than green peppers. My mother use to add Pimentos or Fire Roasted Red Peppers to food for color, they both have good flavor. I see Red Bell Peppers on the salad bar at Jason's Deli all the time I need to start eating more of them. I have never liked the flavor of Green Bells peppers much I only grow a few plants in the garden to have some to cook with. I think stuffed Red peppers would be much tastier than stuffed Green peppers. I already ordered Red Marconl seeds for my next garden I hope they have a wonderful flavor.

[SQWIB]

Each one has its strong suits.
I love greens for stuffing, pizza, omelets.
Red are sweet and better for veggie trays with a dip and beef skewers
I like greens, red, yellow, orange for fajitas.

You will love the Red Marconi's

[imafan26]

The peppers do get sweeter as their color matures but their shelf life drops significantly.

[PaulF]

I always try to grow reds and yellows because they do get sweeter as they ripen, but it is hard to wait so we eat lots of greens, too.

[applestar]

Basically like tomatoes, flavors develop as the fruits ripen and the grassy green flavor is replaced by sweetness and depth, aroma and rounded flavors.

Some hot peppers are hotter when green and some get hotter as they ripen. I imagine similar changes/development occurs with sweet and mild peppers. And of course variety matters.

With some of the peppers with heat, some enthusiasts have commented that they taste best at mid-ripe stages.

[okie dodger]

Ditto on the "ripe" peppers. This past year I grew Goliath Sweet and Alliance reds, Yellow Monster, Gourmet orange, and Italian Sweet (similar to Marconi but sweeter). I'm not a fan of raw green peppers, but I do like them cooked for fajitas, sausage and peppers, etc. I wait until my peppers ripen, then try to eat as many as I can, then freeze the rest. The day or two before our first frost I will pick the remaining peppers and freeze them. I do this with my tomatoes also, but that is another subject. This past year was my best crop ever, and I have about 5 more gallon ziplock bags in the freezer to eat before this year's peppers come around.
They do lose some of their sweetness compared to fresh, but I still enjoy not buying those expensive ripe peppers. And I get to eat these by myself because my wife does not like peppers, sweet or hot!

[SQWIB]

I was always under the impression that they were different for the simple fact I can never get a green (California wonder) to taste like a red once it has turned red, but I do grow reds (ruby kings) that start green and are very sweet when red, unlike my California Wonder that are allowed to ripen, anyhow, below is some info I dug up.

https://www.thv11.com/video/news/local/verify/verify-are-red-green-bell-peppers-the-same-plant/91-8266262?jwsource=cl

A green bell pepper is just an unripe yellow pepper, which is just an unripe red pepper (though some varieties ripen to yellow, not red)

The differences in bell pepper taste, appearance, and aroma are not genetic but chemical, as the ripening process releases a series of colorful, delicious natural compounds.

As the latest great infographic from Compound Interest shows, peppers do go through three distinct traffic-light stages, each with its own chemical components. In its green form, a pepper is especially plant-like, packed with chlorophyll and “green-smelling” aldehydes. Yellow and orange peppers take their color from lutein and beta-carotene, the chemicals responsible for the sunny and orange hues of egg yolks and carrots, respectively. As a pepper reddens, it begins producing more (E)-2-hexenal and (E)-2-hexanol, which give it a sweet, fruity smell.

[kayjay]

Same - I MUCH prefer red/yellow/orange peppers over green ones, especially raw, but I'll usually go with the green ones to save money. I like to chop and freeze the red ones when they go on sale, and save them for chili, etc.

(ETA) Try roasting red peppers some time. Yummmmmmmm. Makes amazing soup/sauces/dips.

[Gary350]

This is all very interesting. In the past I have always bought pepper plants at the, garden store, Lowe's. & Home depot. I have always been limited to what is sold locally with no more information about the pepper than was printed on the tag. I knew if peppers were left on the plant they sometimes turn red but I was never sure if all pepper turn red and I have never had peppers turn yellow or orange. Yesterday I notice green bell peppers are 69¢ each, yellow, orange, red are $1.99 each at the grocery store.

Now I have an interesting though, does something in the soil make green peppers change color sooner or the lack of something in the soil prevent green peppers from becoming a different color? I know tree leaves turn different colors because of chemicals in the soil and some flowers do the same. My 2018 garden I had about 8 different varieties of peppers some were suppose to be red but never were frost killed them before they turned red. I had 1 green sweet bell pepper plant with several green pepper but only 1 pepper on that plant turned red and it took a whole month to get about 90% red. It will be nice to know putting something in the soil will produce, more color peppers and sooner in the season before frost kills the plants?

I have already bought Red Marconi seeds for 2019 garden, if I knew a certain pepper plant produces lots of yellow and a different pepper produces lots of orange, I will order them online and be ready to plant them. If my soil lacks what is needed for Red Marconi to turn red then I will have all green peppers. I think I will have a 40 ft row to experiment with pepper this year. If I plants early enough I sometimes get a few peppers before hot weather but once it gets hot there are no peppers all summer. When weather gets cooler in Oct there is a pepper explosions plants are sometimes loaded but time is short frost kills plants about Nov 1st it is hard to get red color peppers in 1 month.

[applestar]

For a related reference, here is an older post about how long it takes for tomato to turn from green to ripe. Note that even after reaching full size green stage, it still takes more than 2 additional weeks —

Subject: Will it ever turn red?!

Patience, patience!

Thinking about how long you have to wait, this tomato development time line may help you:

http://web.archive.org/web/201012180503 ... s_Timeline

This shows the development of a Big Beef tomato that has a listed DTM of 73 days. This timeline starts with Day 0 being when the first flower buds start to show (NOT when the seedling sprouts or when the plant goes in the ground). From the flower bud to ripe tomato is 57 days. From when the first tiny tomato formed to a ripe tomato was 42 days. From when the fruit was full sized to when it was ripe was still 18 days.

I don't know what you mean when you say it's been full sized "for weeks." But it is not looking very close to turning color. They go from dark green, to light green, to very pale green close to white and then they color up. You have gotten partly to the light green, but not to the pale green, close to white.

Different factors can affect how long it takes to ripen - the air temperatures, the soil temperature, how many tomatoes are on the plant, etc. If your plant is covered in tomatoes, removing some of them will help it ripen up the others. Has it been hot where you are?

[kayjay]

Gary, that's the $64,000 question. I wish I knew. I've had a heck of a time trying to get larger bell peppers to ripen. I've grown Early (my butt) Cal Wonder, one called "Cute Stuff," and "Carmen", a corno di toro variety.

One that does ripen nicely is my mini orange bell, which I've grown about 4 years in a row now. Little plum-sized peppers. Makes a nice container plant. I wonder if, like tomatoes, the smaller varieties are faster. Hmm.

(I can send seeds to anyone who wants them, I have tons. )

[greenstubbs]

Green peppers that are left on the vine will mature and get sweeter as time passes. With this they will also change colors, to yellows, reds, a mix of the 3. I don't bother buying the colored peppers, I just let the greens do their thing.
Do you know how to tell the difference between a Male & Female pepper and which ones to use for cooking?
Females have 3 bumps on the bottom of the fruit, Males have 4 bumps. Female fruits are better for cooking as they are sweeter, Males are good for salads and eating raw.