On Food and Cooking

phenolic-sugar storage compounds. The
enzymes that can liberate the aromatic
phenolics from storage are concentrated
closer to the outer walls. The first step in
curing is to kill the pod so that it doesn’t use
up its sugars and amino acids, and to damage
the pod’s cells and allow the phenolic storage
compounds to migrate to the liberating
enzymes. Both of these goals are
accomplished by briefly exposing the pods to
high temperatures, either in the sun or in hot
water or steam. The cell damage that this
causes also allows the browning enzymes
(polyphenoloxidases, p. 269) to cluster some
phenolic compounds together into colored
aggregates, so the pod color changes from
green to brown.
Then follow several days during which the
pods are alternately exposed to the sun until
they’re almost too hot to handle, then wrapped
in cloth to “sweat” with the residual heat.
During this stage, the main flavor components