The #1 Surprising Way to Choose the Sweetest Bell Pepper, According to a Produce Expert

Shopping for peppers? Keep this rhyme in mind: The more lobes you see, the sweeter the pepper will be. Here’s why.

Reviewed by Dietitian Emily Lachtrupp, M.S., RD

There are so many crazy behaviors you’ll see only in the produce section of a supermarket— people sniffing, thumping or even rapping hard on the fruits and vegetables they’re planning to buy. But once you read about this secret trick for finding the sweetest possible bell peppers, you might start counting parts of your produce, too. That’s because knowing the number of lobes on a bell pepper (the bumps found on the bottom of the pepper) is actually a secret way to discover which ones provide more sweet than heat.

Related: Here's Why You Won't Find a Green Pepper in a Bell Pepper Multi-Pack

What Bell Pepper Bumps Can Tell You

It’s all about basic botany, according to Robert Schueller, director of public relations at Melissa's Produce. Peppers, it turns out, are actually fruits: “The botanical definition of a fruit is something that grows with seeds inside, so that includes things we traditionally think of as vegetables, such as cucumbers, squash, peppers and tomatoes,” he says.

A common myth circulating around the internet is that you can tell if a pepper is male or female based on the number of lobes (or bumps) on the bottom, but there’s one big snag in that theory: “Fruits themselves don’t have a gender, so saying something like ‘female peppers are sweeter’ is not accurate in a horticultural sense,” says Schueller. He explains that plants produce flowers that are male or female, and it’s these flowers that produce the fruit. But the fruit (the pepper) is neither male nor female.

It’s in the flowers, Schueller says, that the secret to sweetness lies. “Each plant has male and female flowers, but because the female flowers are more dominant, they tend to get pollinated more often, since bees usually choose the larger flower,” Schueller says. “More pollination leads to more lobes in the fruit.”

The peppers that develop from female flowers also have more seeds, on average, than the ones from male flowers. For smart produce shoppers, the important thing to remember is that the flesh of peppers from a female flower generally tends to be sweeter than that of the peppers produced by the less dominant male flowers.

Not all folks in the horticulture world are 100% behind this theory, and some point to additional factors like growing conditions and ripeness, which of course could play a role. But Scheuller stands firm that the flower makes the biggest difference in the eventual sweetness of a raw pepper.

Sweet Shopping Tips for Peppers

What does this mean for your average trip to the grocery store or farmer’s market? If you’re planning to serve raw peppers, it’s worth your time to flip them over and choose ones with four or five lobes. “Just remember, the more lobes they have, the sweeter they are,” Schueller says. “The sweetest pepper variety is red, followed by orange, which is somewhat sweet, and yellow, which is neutral.”

That’s all true for raw peppers, but Schueller says that once heat is applied and peppers are cooked, those detectable variations in sweetness are neutralized, and they all taste pretty much the same. So if you’re planning on cooking peppers, you can forget the counting and just pick up firm, spot-free peppers. Any pepper you pick up for Stuffed Peppers, Sheet-Pan Sausage & Peppers or Roasted Peppers & Onions will be equally delicious no matter the number of bumps.

Read the original article on Eating Well.