When scientists look beneath the skin of Kampot pepper: how to preserve 100% quality of red pepper?

In the first part of our miniseries on the scientific examination of peppercorns we introduced you to the discovery made by scientists from the Cambodian Technical Institute. While studying the behavior of red peppercorns, they found that some important substances affecting the taste and aroma of this pepper are degraded when dried in too intense sunlight. So what secret process is behind preserving 100% quality of the rare red pepper?

By blanching the peppercorns before drying, excellent results were achieved

The scientists' recommendation could actually be that farmers dry the peppercorns at lower temperatures to preserve color and flavor. However, this is a difficult task both technically and time-wise. Therefore, the scientists sought a solution to avoid degradation while still drying the pepper at high temperatures. And they truly found such a solution.

The secret is quickly blanching the red peppercorns before the drying process. Scientists found that when the peppercorns are immersed in boiling water, they retain their properties during subsequent drying. During their experiments, they conducted various lengths of boiling the peppercorns and discovered that changes in the matrices and enzymes within the peppercorn structure occur after just five minutes of boiling.

The boiling time is very important

With longer boiling, the processes inside the grain stabilize and the changes are no longer as pronounced. When peppercorns that have been blanched are then dried at temperatures exceeding 55 degrees Celsius, the degradation processes inside the grains are not as significant as in grains that were not boiled. Boiled peppercorns retain their color better and also their flavor and aroma profile.

The scientists' conclusion is: to preserve the perfect red pepper, the ideal procedure is to first blanch the grains for 5 minutes and then dry them at 55 degrees Celsius. The result should be red peppercorns of the highest quality, retaining the maximum amount of substances they contained at the moment of being picked from the pepper vine. Long live science!