Fresh Vs Dried Peppers: Which Are Better For Hot Honey?

Hot honey is a relatively new invention that combines heat and sweetness into one condiment. Popularized by Mike Kurtz and first sold publicly in 2010, hot honey as most of us know it started out as a pizza topping in Brooklyn when Kurtz started drizzling his concoction on top of slices. Customers started asking for the hot honey by itself and the invention took off.

Since then, companies have released their versions of the sauce, and enthusiastic home cooks have come up with their own recipes. However, one question always seems to arise while making hot honey at home: should it be made with fresh or dried peppers? The short answer is that both can be used, but the results will be different.

Fresh and dried peppers are different in taste and heat level. Hot honey has a variety of uses, so fresh or dried peppers can be used to elevate the sauce for use in specific dishes and drinks. Understanding these differences is the key to properly utilizing them not just in hot honey but in food as a whole.

There are many types of chile peppers in the world, many of which come in both dried and fresh form in grocery stores. Almost any type of chile pepper can be used in a hot honey recipe depending on the preferred level of spiciness. Regardless of the type of pepper used in hot honey, the important thing to understand is that dried peppers are typically hotter for a number of reasons

Dried peppers are typically harvested at peak ripeness, which is when they are spiciest. This is due to a compound known as capsaicin, which is what causes heat in spicy peppers; the riper a pepper becomes, the more capsaicin it contains. When a pepper is dried, it goes through a process that evaporates water out of it. However, capsaicin still remains after dehydration, which is part of why dry peppers feel noticeably spicier than fresh ones.

Since the drying process removes most of the pepper's water weight, a dried pepper will have a stronger flavor too, as well as some smokiness or bitterness. Fresh peppers, meanwhile, tend to be more sweet. Last but not least, there is a notable size difference when measuring dried peppers and fresh peppers. For hot honey, 2 or 3 tablespoons of dried peppers like flakes or crushed bits will be sufficient. When using fresh peppers, most recipes call for 1 to 2 peppers; be sure to slice fresh peppers first before adding them to the honey mixture.