How to Core a Pepper

Published on Thursday, February 5, 2009, by CHOW Video Team / Edit Post

How to Core a Pepper

Chef Deborah Schneider, author of ¡Baja! Cooking on the Edge, uses a lot of green bell peppers and jalapeño peppers in her cooking. She’s a pro at separating the edible from the inedible parts. See more of Schneider’s basic Mexican cooking tips: how to make a quick salsa, how to core a tomato, how to pit an avocado, how to toast dried chiles, and a guide to Mexican dried chiles.

CHOW Tips are the shared wisdom of our community. If you’ve figured out some piece of food, drink, or cooking wisdom that you’d like to share on video (and you can be in San Francisco), email Meredith Arthur and tell us what you’ve got in mind.

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POST A COMMENT |8 Comments

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  • @David: Yes, this is the way I do it. Rather like filleting, and it works quite well, as you say, with a little practice.Fastest, most efficient method I have found, and with it you can have a pepper cored and julienned in seconds.

    Of course julienning after coring it takes a few more cuts, but in order to do so you just continue the rolling motion until it is flat on the cutting board,...+READ

    @David: Yes, this is the way I do it. Rather like filleting, and it works quite well, as you say, with a little practice.Fastest, most efficient method I have found, and with it you can have a pepper cored and julienned in seconds.

    Of course julienning after coring it takes a few more cuts, but in order to do so you just continue the rolling motion until it is flat on the cutting board, skin-side up, (or down) and julienne away.-COLLAPSE

  • Another way to core a pepper with one cut, which takes some practice, is to set the pepper on its side, and if you're right handed, hold the pepper with your left hand. With the knife in your right hand, blade pointed left, cut into the pepper the long way and roll the pepper to the left, following it with the knife, which remains parallel to the cutting board, separating the ribs from the flesh...+READ

    Another way to core a pepper with one cut, which takes some practice, is to set the pepper on its side, and if you're right handed, hold the pepper with your left hand. With the knife in your right hand, blade pointed left, cut into the pepper the long way and roll the pepper to the left, following it with the knife, which remains parallel to the cutting board, separating the ribs from the flesh as you go, so you get one long continuous strip of pepper.

    If you hunt around on YouTube, you can see Martin Yan doing this with his hybrid sino-germanic cleaver, but it works with a chef's knife as well.-COLLAPSE

  • A 28-second commercial preceding a 25-minute video? You've got to be kidding.

  • I remember Mario Batalli talking about castigating his prep cooks for not saving the shoulders. The amount of bell pepper a restaurant goes through, that would waste a lot! He made them make their staff meal using the saved shoulders. Guess it was pretty good.

    The vidoe's example of the chile pepper--showed the cut sides WITH the ribs still intact. oops. (unless you cut off the top, how can...+READ

    I remember Mario Batalli talking about castigating his prep cooks for not saving the shoulders. The amount of bell pepper a restaurant goes through, that would waste a lot! He made them make their staff meal using the saved shoulders. Guess it was pretty good.

    The vidoe's example of the chile pepper--showed the cut sides WITH the ribs still intact. oops. (unless you cut off the top, how can you see where the ribs are, to position the knife in the right place?) Some peppers are 3- lobed, some are four-lobed.-COLLAPSE

  • restaurants do it this way to use the flat pieces for finer cuts like julienne, batonnette, brunoise. Can't cut those shapes w/ the uneven top/bottom pieces.

    The tops/bottoms are usually saved for things like soups, stocks, etc.

  • Who the heck is such a dork in the kitchen that they need a video to tell them how to core a pepper? Setting the bar pretty low.

    Nevermind the fact that the technique they use wastes about 40% of the pepper. Just plain dumb.

  • the technique for the tomato, pepper and jalapeño are all the same - did we really need a different video for each?

    alixium - I agree with the waste comment but that's how restaurants do things quickly and make dishes look pretty and EXPENSIVE!

  • there seems to be quite a bit of waste on the top end...