OK I'm finally getting lots of colored peppers and need to do something with them.
Can some of you pepper experts break down which varieties are best used for what kind of cooking and preserving?
Also please mention which sweet ones are good as green peppers, which colored ones are good for fresh eating, which ones really need to be roasted and peeled, and which fully mature colored ones I should particularly reserve for fermented hot sauce and dehydrated spice.
Mostly sweet peppers are fully colored now -- I have Peperone di Senise, Donkey Ears, Doux Long d'Antibes, Chocolate Cake, Giant Marconi Red, Tollis Sweet Italian, Lipstick or Pimento, King of the North, Mini Paprika Red and Orange, Trinidad Perfum (not quite right shape), Peppadew. Still waiting for Yellow Cheese,and Sweet Ingrid to blush. Also have Fehérözön Paprika, Alma Édes, and Szentesi Feher (White from Szentes). Possibly Romanian Rainbow.
Hot peppers - Bolivian Rainbow and Fish are both thin fleshed and I think good for the fermenting and dehydrating. Starting to turn color or still green are not quite Scotch Bonnet, Takanotsume, Yatsufusa,Thai Sun, Thai Dragon, Arbol. There is a plant that is either Seasoning Naga or a Bhut Jolokia (red or peach) -- still waiting for signs of blooming and fruiting. And Dunkel violetter which are purple foliage white variegated plants that may be only ornamental.
Also have Jalapeños of course.
Some are still struggling and stunted and probably won't make any peppers for me this season but I intend to pot them up and overwinter them. Among them are Hanoi Market and Sivri Biber.
I had a lot of hot pepper seeds/seedling failures (my fault) so my list is missing some notable varieties -- if you see any blatant must have variety omission, please let me know so I will put them on top of my list for next year.