What to Do With Ripe Peppers

Pickled Peppers

• You don't have to be Peter Piper or have a peck of peppers to pickle them. You just need to soak a batch of jalapeno or banana peppers in a vinegar brine with spices for at least a week. Pickling recipes typically prepare large quantities, making pickling a good way to save a bumper crop of peppers for future use. If you choose to can the peppers, they will last in pantry storage for up to one year. Without canning, the peppers stay fresh in the refrigerator for several weeks. Use the pickled peppers as a replacement for fresh peppers or a spicier alternative to traditional pickles in salads, on pizzas or in sandwiches.

Pepper Jelly

• Pepper jelly might not come to your mind in association with other fruit preserves like grape jelly or strawberry jam, but you use the same process to produce it, cooking chopped peppers in cider vinegar, sugar and pectin until they reach a thick, spreadable consistency. You can preserve this sweet-hot mixture in canning jars for storage up to one year. Bright green or red pepper jelly makes a Southern appetizer served atop a block of cream cheese with crackers for dipping. The cream cheese mellows the piquancy of the pepper jelly, while still delivering a kick from the flavor of the peppers. Jalapeno peppers are commonly used to make pepper jelly, as Paula Deen does in her recipe, but you can also use hotter serrano peppers.

Homemade Hot Sauce

• Purchasing hot sauce involves finding a brand with the right combination of heat and flavor to your liking. Instead of playing a hit-or-miss game at the store, make your own from your own blend of peppers. If you have a low tolerance for heat, use jalapeno peppers. If you're a chili-head, use habanero peppers or even hotter ghost chilies. To make your own hot sauce, cook peppers with flavoring agents such as lime juice, carrots, salt and sugar until they're tender, then puree the mixture. Let the hot sauce flavors meld for at least two days in the refrigerator before bottling it; use it as a condiment to add spice to your meals.

Chili Powder

• Commercial chili powders quickly lose their potency starting from the day the chili peppers are ground. For the brightest, most flavorful chili powder, grind your own dehydrated, ripe peppers into a powder when you need it. Dry whole, ripe peppers in a food dehydrator at 140 degrees Fahrenheit for eight to 12 hours or hang an entire plant upside-down with the peppers still attached in a dry spot until the peppers become leathery, shrunken and dark. Grind the dried peppers into fine powder in a spice grinder or coffee mill; use it in place of commercially prepared chili powder in any recipe. Opt for red chili peppers such as cayenne, habanero, red hatch chilies or milder bell peppers to make chili powder. Choose the pepper variety based on availability of peppers and your personal heat tolerance.