Finally, I can’t see an evolutionary basis for this, since bell peppers, repulsive as they are, are not, strictly speaking, toxic. (Though I still maintain that I would die and go mad, in that order, if I ever had to choke down a whole one.)
Evolution doesn’t stop you from eating toxic plants. It also doesn’t stop people from being born with congenital defects or any number of negative survival traits.
You can’t have “survival of the fittest” unless you also have unfit non-survivors.
Evolution only works because natural variation creates both survivors and failures.
Why do you hate bell peppers? Because you are a random variation. Maybe hating bell peppers will save your life. Maybe it will kill you. Maybe it won’t make any difference at all. Evolution doesn’t need it to matter either way.
Evolution doesn’t have an agenda. If you pass on your genes, you’re a player. If you don’t, you aren’t. It may matter to you, but it doesn’t matter to the workings of evolution which team you’re on.
I like to cut open a red one, sort of in half so it makes kind of a mask for the nose and mouth, then strap that sucker onto my face and breathe straight red pepper into my mouth and nostrils for a while. It basically gets me high is what I’m saying.
For me is Chili. Chili beans make me want to toss my cookies. When I was in high school my best friend’s mother was so prideful of her homemade Chili that she made it for our group of friends every weekend. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I hated Chili, so I would eat it, one God awful bean at a time, always being the last to finish. One day she commented to my mom about how much I loved her Chili. Mom told her that Chili repulsed me and she was crushed. She almost cried knowing for a couple of years I choked down that vile stuff. She was a sweet lady.
I can totally relate to the hatred of bell peppers! The smell and taste both make me nauseous. Even if they’re in something and I pick them out, I still can’t eat the food because I can taste and smell a trace of them.
Some people even put the damn things in coleslaw and they’re hidden until I take a bite…and gag! Eww…
The only other things that I find equally disgusting are cloves and beets.
I appreciate that this is a necro-post - however there is precedent as this post from 2007 was resurrected in 2015. The reason I have chosen to respond here is because, for some bizarre reason, this is the most in-depth discussion of this issue I can find on the internet and is the first search result for “why do I hate bell peppers”? So I thought I would add my perspective.
I absolutely cannot stand bell peppers of any colour, cultivar, or variety. I don’t like the taste, but to me the taste is secondary to what I consider one of the most offensive smells that exist and by far the most offensive smell of anything considered “edible”.
They are the bane of my pizza consumption - one bit of pepper on the pizza utterly ruins it for me, in fact if you cook two pizza in the same household oven and one of them has an abundance of peppers, it taints “my” pizza with the smell. It’s disgusting.
For the record I very much enjoy all other kinds of peppers in any form. It is specifically bell peppers - to the point where I believe there must be some unique substance in them that is causing the offence.
Well gosh, maybe it’s the “bell pepper pyrazine” that you loathe.
“In green peppers, a significant contributor to aroma is 2-methoxy-3-isobutylpyrazine, more commonly referred to as ‘bell pepper pyrazine’. This compound, as the name suggests, has an smell that is very characteristic of green peppers. It has an incredibly low odour threshold, meaning that its smell can be detected below the part per trillion level.”
But then you should detest other peppers and Cabernet Sauvignon as well, since they also contain this compound. Maybe it’s strongest in bell peppers.
The green ones aren’t ripe. Some yellow ones are ripe, some aren’t. Red peppers, whether sweet or hot, nearly always are ripe.
Peppers ripen, depending on variety, red, yellow/gold, orange, or in a few cases brownish. Purple is an intermediary color between green and red on a few varieties, and yellow is also an intermediary color on some varieties, but many yellow/gold peppers are full ripe. All the green ones are not ripe.
Ripe peppers have more sugars, and also (depending on variety) usually a fuller, more complex flavor, than green ones.
Yup; although, as (at least in the USA) there’s a large market for green ones, some varieties are bred to hold the green stage in the field for a long time, while others are bred to ripen faster.
Sorry, not true. I grow them (among other things) for a living. There are a few tomatoes that ripen green; but to the best of my knowledge no peppers. Given that there are many thousands of varieties of peppers, I can’t guarantee that absolutely none of them ripen green; but they’re very rare if so, and not what’s generally on the market.
I’ve seen the phrase “mature green” – that doesn’t mean they’re ripe; it means that they’re ready to harvest for the green pepper market; they’ve become firm enough to hold up well after harvest.
That’s part of it.
Also, the skins soften as the peppers ripen, so they’re more liable to damage.
Also, the ripe ones are more nutritious as well as (for many people) better flavored, and so worth more.
– oh yikes, just noticed the dates on the thread. Oh well, having gotten started I might keep going.
Some cucumber varieties tend to be bitter, others don’t. Some are bitter only around the stem end. Growing conditions can also affect this.
I can cheerfully eat peppers of any color, though I much prefer the ripe ones; peaches; cucumbers; broccoli; brussels sprouts; and with a little practice even cilantro. Please do not, however, attempt to feed me spaghetti. Though that’s a texture issue, not a matter of flavor.
Yeah. Green, yellow, orange and red bell peppers are all the same thing at different ripeness. The price reflects it too (green is dirt cheap, red is comparatively expensive).
None of them are hot though. Bell peppers have no spiciness whatsoever.
Frankly I find them uninteresting and barely worth inclusion in recipes. They lend color and texture more than they lend flavor IMO. You’ll get the most out of them served raw in a salad or somesuch.
I’ve had relatively tasteless full ripe bell peppers; but I’ve also had some with quite a lot of flavor. I select varieties that I grow for flavor. They’re very good either cooked or raw, and add a lot to recipes. Your tastebuds of course may vary.
Most orange, and some yellow, are full ripe; just as much so as the reds. The flavor’s a bit different, but can be equally complex.
Shape and heat are only somewhat related. The squared-off bells are generally not hot, but the tapered “Italian” shaped peppers can be either, depending on variety; and some “hot” shaped pepper varieties have no heat.
If you know a variety that’s purple or lavender when full ripe, I’d be very glad to hear of it. I grow purples, to dress up the stand; but every variety I’ve ever been able to find ripens red, the purple is an intermediary color between green and red. I’d love to find a full-ripe purple.
I like bell peppers, whether ripe or not, but I can understand why some other people might not. I, however, cannot stand the taste of ketchup or coffee, and can detect either in submicroscopic amounts. They don’t make me sick or anything; I just don’t like them.
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