Tasting the peppers is absolutely the only way, short of a chromatography machine. This is especially true for jalapeños from grocery. This because, as stated on this site here and in other answers by myself and others, pepper spiciness can vary greatly even on the same plant. Accordingly, chiles mixed possibly from plants, even from different harvests or suppliers, cannot be expected to have any reliable consistency of spiciness.
My approach is to pre-dice and freeze in batches. I use baggies, but another approach mentioned on this site here.
NOTE: The applicable advantage to this approach is that if you cook using the chiles often enough to warrant this approach, the heat level will be more consistent batch-to-batch.
My preservation process goes something like this:
- Purchase many fresh chiles at once depending on what you will use in 3-6 months. (I use 25 to 50)
- Sample the heat of each pepper during the preservation process
- Dice the peppers (de-seed beforehand if desired)
- Segregate into three groups:
- Mild / non-spicy
- Killer-blazing hot
- Normal (everything in-between)
- Freeze into single-use sized baggies (~1¢ each, non-zip)
- Place the smaller baggies into a larger gallon-sized zip-type freezer bag (~15¢ each) labeled with the spice level of pepper type, date processed, and heat level the contents.
Though I always keep seeds because I want the spice, this approach can be used with or without a de-seeding stage in the process. Another perhaps applicable note is that IME, without seeds, jalapeños spiciness falls within a narrowed range.
To reiterate in summary, one advantage here beyond preservation and availability is that as you have the three piles of diced chiles, the spice heat level of each batch segment tends to be nicely consistent.
I'm going to say yes. In 2013 we grew 6 varieties of mild to hot peppers. On the mild side was Poblano, and on the other was an extremely hot habanero variety. As these peppers matured we would pick them, slice them, dry them on a dehydrator then deep freeze them.
At the end of the season we had around 2.5 gallons of dried, frozen peppers. They were not stored by type but all mixed together. That Christmas we ground down the 6 pepper mix into a powder, filled several spice jars and sent them to family along with our raw honey and homemade soap. This mix packed a serious punch. I use it on just about everything and we got nothing but rave reviews from those we sent it to, all folks that love spicy food.
Now in 2015, I finally used the last of the spice so I dove into the coffin freezer, pushed aside the 2014 and 2015 harvests and pulled out the last gallon of 2013 peppers. Since they had been frozen for two years I put them on a dehydrator for 24 hours then ground them up just like I had before. I'm telling you these peppers are so much hotter than the first batch it's not even funny. This coming from a guy that can drink Siracha. If you can so much as see the small red dots on your food then you put too much on. The difference between the same peppers ground up in 2013 vs 2015 is incredible.
Best Answer
I am not sure if you are confusing roasting with charring but both are the same basically, though roasting the pepper by charring the skin would be a more accurate nomenclature.
Roasting brings smokiness to the pepper and softens its bite. It allows you to remove skin more easily. When you char the outside of dried peppers in a dry skillet with spices, then soak, it allows you to remove the pith more constructively than tearing it open and it adds depth to the flavor.
For fresh peppers they become somewhat less spicy, for dried peppers it allows them a more expressive flavor (think of roasted sesame or pumpkin seeds or coffee beans for a comparison). Roasted peppers add a different dynamic than their raw counterpart and you should definitely look into the difference (if you enjoy chipotles end adobo you already have a taste for them without knowing it).