For my small hot pepper - I just wash them off and freeze them whole. For the larger peppers, I chop them up and then freeze them.

I never remove the seeds. When freezing or when cooking. As you said, the heat is in the seeds and the membranes. IMO, if you remove the seeds and membranes, you might as well use a green bell pepper.

I don't know how the frozen peppers will be in a hot sauce recipe. I usually just use mine to add seasoning to whatever I'm cooking. In lieu of a shake or crushed red pepper or a dash of dried cayenne.

"Wash and stem hot peppers. Package, leaving no headspace. Seal and freeze."

Those are the instructions from NCHFP. Simple. Can't imagine why your other sources say you have to remove the seeds.

Dave

Small point... there is no heat (capsaicin) in the seeds, just on and around them mainly in the placenta. I'm very careful to remove the darn things w/o removing the placenta when prepping most species/varieties for freezing.

I've grown many varieties of C. pubescens & removing seeds from them is an absolute must. With many varieties of C. annuum it is almost impossible or really not necessary, but there are tricks to use if dehydrating them.

Just depends on what kind of pepper as to whether to remove the seeds or not.

When freezing pods I like to cut them into pieces after removing the seeds and freeze single layer on a cookie sheet. Then spray a thin coat of water on them & back into freezer. Then vac seal in bags. Once again, it just depends on what kind of pepper it is as to how you freeze them.

Planning to pick some ripe Peppadew pods this afternoon and will be freezing them after removing the seeds.

I think I will end up freezing more than 150 lbs. of peppers this year, with probably somewhere around 2/3rds being hots. I have found that most everything I cook with hots is improved taste-wise, with grilling first (roasting/broiling, whichever you call it). It is quick and worth the effort because they flatten down and stack better for freezer storage. I quickly roast them all using a gas grill, then spread peppers on cookie sheets to allow to cool down. I leave seeds in but use scissors to snip off the stem of each. The peppers are then stacked a layer (or even two) deep in inexpensive food/bread bags (NON-zip tops). They are then put into zippered type freezer-strength bags one or two bread-bags deep. I partially zip a bag from one end, and carefully roll it from the bottom end up to squeeze out most of the air, then completely zip to seal. This year I am thinking of canning some of them as a test for flavor. I love store purchased roasted green chilies and am perpetually low on freezer space.